We Live In A Better World

Don Imus has been dropped by MSNBC, and Ana Marie Cox, who built her career on jokes about anal sex, promises she won't be a guest on Imus again.  It's all for the best.

I was listening to Imus this morning and near the end of the show he played the entire Billy Joel song "Miami 2017 - Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway".  My take, based on my extraordinary insight into human nature and my decades of listening (intermittently) to Don Imus is that he is preparing to flip us all the bird and go to a 5,000 watt WGFU in New Mexico.

Here is the particular lyric that triggered that suspicion:

They turned our power down
And drove us underground
But we went right on with the show

We will see.  I bet he cuts a Sirius deal first.  But he won't be groveling much longer.

Well.  If he restarts the Reverend Billy Sol Hargis, (from Del Rio, Texas, the gold buckle of the Bible Belt) I'll try to figure out where to tune in.

I AM BEGGING FOR A SELF-AWARENESS MOMENT HERE: Ana Marie Cox has an article about Imus in TIME where she explains she won't be going back on his show:

But do I really want to give my tacit approval to someone whose greatest gift to public discourse could be fairly described as allowing pundits to get potty-mouthed?

Heaven forbid that the woman who rose to prominence on the strength of her anal intercourse jokes would do that.  I stand by this rant from Nov 2004 and this beatdown from the post-mortem of the Dan Rather debacle holds up well.

OK, so Al Sharpton and Ana Marie Cox have been heard from.  Once Howard Stern announces he won't be appearing on Imus, my day will be complete.

Comments

[lurker9876]

Not quite. Rosie still needs to be let go from "The View" and not appear on any other TV shows and movies.

OT: Question:

If Pelosi and Lantos decide to go to Iran, how many Republicans will go with them?

I read a few days ago that those 3 Republicans have backed off on their original comments by saying that they went for their own reasons. Shame on them.

[JJ]

Beyond ironic that Imus' firing is presented side by side tonight with the "outrageous" Duke case.

Especially more so with Rev Sharpton as facilitator of justice in Imus world.

And how dare anyone play the rapper-family values card at a time like this!!!

Meanwhile, on MSNBC we got David Gregory doing Imus' postmortem! OY!

Not going to miss Imus.

[Sara]

This evening while everyone was foaming at the mouth over Imus, trying their darndest to get their individual soundbites to show how enlightened and compassionate they are, someone said the next step is an FCC investigation. What is all that about? This whole Imus thing is so so so so blown out of proportion, it is bordering on sick.

[clarice]

If he jumps to Sirius will he interview Dick Gregory? Where will Russert and Mitchell go to spin their shtick, and who will flak everyone's boring political books?
What a dilemma!

[Sara]

I never even heard of Don Imus until I was channel surfing in the wee hours of the morning a few years ago. My son says the only reason anyone even watches MSNBC is because of Imus. I had never heard him on the radio before that and how many had if they didn't live in the New York market?

[Rick Ballard]

Wolfman Jack did fairly well operating out of Del Rio, TX. If Imus gets on XERF (and they get the transmitter problem fixed) he won't have to worry about that pesky FCC. At 500KW you'll be able to get him in CT at least some of the time.

Why you would want to is another question.

[Sara]

"Is America ready for a President who grew up praying in a mosque?"   [Greg Pollowitz]

So asks Katie Couric.

____________________

Is America ready for one who didn't? What a stupid question.

[Sara]

I'm sorry, I was being sarcastic and thinking how the left doesn't want a President, they have Nancy. And they sure don't want one who prays, either in a church, synagogue or mosque.

[Sara]

OT -- You lose track of dates after awhile, or at least I do. Pamela at Atlas Shrugs reminds:

Another 11th attack. Today is the 5th anniversary of the 2002 synagogue bombing ( "the world's oldest synagogue") on the Tunisian island of Djerba

It seems they want to mark every month with a day of murder and terror. 9/11/2001 USA attack, 3/11/2004 Madrid Spain attack, 7/11/2006 Mumbai train bombing, the 3/11/2007 Casablanca bombing and now the 4/11/2007 Algiers bombing and all done by al-Qaeda

[SlimGuy]

I have already seen several blogs suggesting that the Imus affair will be leveraged to try to bring back the fairness doctrine to kill off conservative radio.

[Syl]

Imus is Imus. He's himself. Which is rare in this politically divided world. He can be obnoxious. He doesn't listen. He doesn't learn. He's a bit selfish. He can find fault with anything, with anybody, and does. He's really an equal opportunity fault finder--which is okay by me.

But, to tell you the truth, I had started watching him. I got really tired of Fox and Friends and think they've just gotten stupid and the subjects they tend to cover make me cringe. But I was kinda enjoying Imus, actually. Not everything. And I could never ever sit through an entire show.

If he talked to Mary Matalin or Chris Matthews or, well, most anybody in the political sphere I found it interesting. Sports, nah.

I know some people hate his guts. That's fine. Though I think it's interesting when people want to make sure others know that they never liked him.

I'm still agnostic on him. Sometimes he drove me nuts, other times he made me chuckle. I just don't think he's all that peggable.

I'd take 1000 Imus's over 1 Howard Stern.

[clarice]

I wonder why the nets don't just scrap their crappy news programs while they're at it. Anyone with half a brain knows it's just entertainment and hardly informative.

[Daniel DiRito]

Frankly, we are fast becoming the epitome of a Jerry Springer society. It seems to have become more important to have an audience and notoriety when confronting conflict than it is to attain resolve and mutual respect. That model seems to serve the needs of the exploited and those who seek to exploit; reinforcing all that relegates objectivity to the outhouse while making the frailty and imperfection of the human condition a spectacle that harkens back to the Coliseum.

This situation isn’t and shouldn’t be about whether liberals or conservatives, this race or that race, hip hop or honky-tonk, one group or another, are more offensive and therefore more responsible for all that is wrong with America. I am not capable of judging the whole of Don Imus nor am I capable of crafting a recipe to fix all of America…and neither are the countless pundits and partisans who have sought to frame it so.

I’m not a religious person…but I often find kinship with the imagery surrounding the portrayal of one called Jesus and his teachings of understanding and forgiveness. For all the banter I hear about the Bible and Christian values, it certainly seems to me that we are fast abandoning what many view as the sacred “tablets” in favor of the sacrosanct tabloids. If I’m right, all I can say is heaven help us.

Read more about the dynamics that lead a situation to become larger than the sum of its parts…here:

www.thoughttheater.com

[ohmyachingback]

Ah yes, the Reverend Billy Sol......sometime leader of the Rubber Ducky Tabernacle Choir ;-)

[sylvia]

Good riddance to Don Imus. I never liked him. I find him offensive and not particularly insightful or funny. He should have never gotten the job that he did on national TV.

And what I found most ironic was during his recent "apology" blitzkrieg, I saw some clip of him yelling at someone in an offended, self-righteous manner saying "I'm not going to let you insult me!" Please. That's all he does. The olde dishing it out and not taking it routine, as are most people of his ilk. Typical and pathetic.

[sylvia]

You know one thing I don't like about this new password system is how you time-out so quickly. I don't know if that has some security bonus, but if that time could be extended somehow, it would make it all much more convenient.

[Psycheout]

Political correctness strikes again.

[sylvia]

"Political correctness strikes again."

It's not about political correctness. It's about balance and common-sense.

[Jane]

Oh I think it's about political correctness - for sure. And it did manage to obscure katie's plagerism, and take the spot light off Pelosi's screw-up in Syria.

[Jim Treacher]

Freedom of speech should only apply to people I like!

[Jeff Dobbs]

Good riddance to Don Imus. I never liked him. I find him offensive and not particularly insightful or funny.

For me....good riddance to someone I find offensive or otherwise unentertaining means changing the channel. Or in Imus' case never tuning in to the channel he was on in the first place. I wish his riddance, good or otherwise, could have gone completely unnoticed by me....

[DEMO]

Rutegers 1 : Imus 0

The wonderful irony is that Imus was brought down by some teenage girls from New Jersey and not by his celebrity shmoozers.

[Section9]

I'll actually miss Imus in the Morning in MSNBC. It's the only thing that makes me tune in away from FOX and Friends. Can't abide CNN.

I bet he does the Wolfman thing, just like ol' Jack did.

The craven dog in the whole affair is our old friend, David Gregory, who, according to our friends over on Freep, went on the Sharpton show and apologized for appearing on Imus. What a bootlicker!

If this is true, Gregory must be horsewhipped at the Navy Arch! What a swine!

[BarCodeKing]

Borrowing from my own blogpost today about this:

I think Imus has made one huge mistake in the past few days: He hasn't gone into rehab. Remember the guy on the TV show (not one I watch, so I don't remember his name) who used a slur about gays to refer to a co-star on his show? Like many others who have gotten into trouble with drugs or alcohol or simply just saying something stupid, he went into rehab. Yes, nowadays just about any sin can be washed away in the Holy Light of Rehab. Hallelujah! Imus hasn't done that, and he probably should have.

Why is this so? Because while in the past, alcoholism and drug abuse were considered to be signs of personality flaws and moral degeneracy, today they are "illnesses," and those who suffer from them are considered to be victims who are not responsible for their behavior. When you look at it like that, then it's easy to hear someone say, "Hey, that was the booze/drugs talking! I'm not really like that! It was the disease! It's not my fault!" and think, "Well, golly, he's right! He's a victim, too, so we have to forgive him."

But Imus hasn't been astute enough to blame Demon Rum or Peruvian Marching Powder for his hurtful words. He hasn't humbled himself by going into one of those $1000-a-day rehab centers. He hasn't made himself a fellow victim, and therefore, he cannot be sympathized with or forgiven by those in our society who believe that only their fellow victims can be righteous.

So that's my advice for Imus: Go into rehab! Quickly, before the radio gig goes up in smoke as well.

[Jane]

I like the loss to the flailing MSNBC. They deserve it. You have to have a taste for Imus. I did for a while and lost it. But frankly I don't elevate this latest insult above any other over the years. This has Hillary written all over it. Let the victimhood begin.