Arrogant Imus surfaces: "I could go to work tomorrow. Bigger deal. More money. TV simulcast..."

[DeepModem Mom]

Newsweek: The Power That Was
by Weston Kosova
Newsweek



....For the first time in three decades, Imus is without a show. His wife, Deirdre, told NEWSWEEK that her husband will be back. "When he's in front of a microphone again, it will be about how to heal the issue of divisiveness and race. That is what's in his heart. No one else will conduct this conversation. No one else would talk about autism and Walter Reed. "

Throughout his long week, Imus asked that he be judged on his whole life's work. He talked of his support for Harold Ford Jr. in last year's Tennessee Senate race, and reminisced about broadcasting the sermons of Pentecostal Bishop G. E. Patterson. He apologized in person to the Rutgers team last week, not long after he found out he'd lost his job, and they accepted. He is optimistic—perhaps overly so, given the commercial pressures that brought him down—about the future. In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, Imus said, "I could go to work tomorrow. Bigger deal. More money. TV simulcast ... I've got a summer of kids to cowboy with and then we'll see." He knows what he said was wrong, and that there is much to do. Asked whether his recovery from addiction had given him the strength to cope with the current crisis, he sounded like, well, Imus: "I'm a good and decent person who made a mistake in the context of comedy," he wrote in the e-mail. "My strength comes from not being full of sh-- and a coward." Perhaps, but there was nothing brave about the exchange that brought him low and reminded the establishment that it must always look hard at itself rather than look the other way.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18110453/site/newsweek/

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. No one else talking about Walter Reed?

I beg to differ--all the progressive radio folks I listen to were talking about it loud and often.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. Wapo would be surprised to learn that it seems they didn't break this story.

What a deep pile of totally not getting it doodoo Deirdre spewed.

[MH1]

13. WaPo isn't radio.

As for not getting it, there are quite a few piles to go around.

[blm]

8. For broadcast TV, though, he's right. He stayed on it more than anyone else and beat

up the WH every day on it through his 3 hr stretch and did so with a ferocity rarely seen on any television broadcast. He did the same last year while he was raising money for Intrepid rehab hospital because he was so disgusted that vets weren't getting any follow up care after their initial operations. He raised more money for that state of the art rehab hospital than any other individual, and bitched out Bush and Cheney the entire time for months.

He's a mixed bag - but, for sure he was one of the few people in the media to even recognize GE Patterson's death, and spoke about him for a couple weeks straight because he had a 30yr relationship with him and his wife. That wasn't for show - it occurred last month before his enormously stupid remark.

[H2O Man]

16. Imus did a lot of good

for a lot of people. That includes children sick with cancer; their families; people who have illnesses tied to environmental damage; and veterans.

He deserves full credit for what he did. But with that credit comes the full responsibility for his betraying each and every one of those people with his hateful speech.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Newsweek spins it as a victory of the establishment. Surprizing? No.

Just more of the same old same old.

[misanthrope]

3. Maybe he should try raising the level of his discourse...

...Oh, but that's right, then he won't attract as much attention and make as much money and that, after all, is what he's really a whore for....greenbacks.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. That quote from Deirdre just says it all.

"When he's in front of a microphone again, it will be about how to heal the issue of divisiveness and race. That is what's in his heart. No one else will conduct this conversation. No one else would talk about autism and Walter Reed. ... I've got a summer of kids to cowboy with and then we'll see."

I am missing the part where autism and the mess at Walter Reed have anything to do with healing the issue of divisiveness and race. Instead, as usual, the excuse for this crap is 'but look at all the good we do'. Instead the damn cancer kids are stuck in our faces: 'see! it's all about the children'. Pathetic.

Explain why McGoon was hired in part to write 'nigger jokes' if Imus was all about healing the issue of divisivness and race?

I predict that Deirdre will be visiting the lawyers about three months into Ignorimus's retirement.

[IronScorpio5]

5. Imus did got stand up for Hariol Ford...endlessly...

and when he needed ford , ford slapped him in the face.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Gee perhaps Mr. Ford took massive offense? nt.

[IronScorpio5]

9. Or maybe....

Harold Ford jr was an ungrateful friend and didnt have the moral courage to stand up for a friend?

He sure didnt mind cashing checks he got in his campaign from his appearances on the imus show....and one of those was mine.

[Dhalgren]

12. You can have a friend who is a bigot (I guess), but that doesn't

mean that you can defend his bigotry. If you do, maybe your friend isn't the only bigot in the picture...

[IronScorpio5]

15. Yeah....some bigot imus was.....

he only had Harold Ford on every other day on his show and PUBLICALLY ENDORSED HIM repeatedly.

real bigot there , imus was.

[Dhalgren]

20. You don't seem to understand what a bigot is. There can easily be

individuals of the "other" race or gender or class that the bigot will tolerate or "befriend", but that does not alter the FACT of the bigot's racism/classism/sexism. Just because David Dukes respects Alan Keyes does not make Dukes any less of a racist...

[Clark2008]

14. Methinks you simply don't like Ford and would blast him no

matter what he does or says.

That's OK - you're in a lot of company at DU. Nevermind how the people of Tennessee missed out on some intelligent representation instead of that idiot goon we have in there now.

[IronScorpio5]

17. You missed it......

i loved (past tense) harold ford....and i sent money to his campaign.

[butterfly77]

22. Why did harold ford have to speak up for him...

is it because he was black, weren't there plenty other people who showed up on his show who didn't speak up for him also? Why would he speak up for him if he didn't agree with what he did? If he would have spoken up for him would that have kept his job?

[Skidmore]

10. Perhaps Imus needs to address the question of the people he surrounds himself with...

like Bernie McGuirk, that lame comedian (don't know his name), Bo Dietl, Sid Whateverhisnameas, and that smarmy Charles. If he thinks what these guys did was worthy of snickering over, then he needs to stay on the ranch. I think Imus is whistling past the graveyard.

[donco6]

11. No one gets to determine how history will judge them.

And in this case, I'm thinking history will be even harsher than he can imagine. Calling for Palestine to be nuked? All the other racial slurs? There are a lot of rocks out there, Imus. You sure you want them all turned over?

[EFerrari]

18. What kind of decent person believes racial slurs are comedy?

Pull yourself up, Don.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. "Surfaces" like a Baby Ruth in the swimming pool. n/t

[peacetalksforall]

21. The real test - become a genuine good guy and get an invitation

to represent one or more non-right wing organizations as a spokesperson promoting restraint, discipline, and decency in talk and speech.

Normal people don't brag about their goodness. It's there or not for others to know and to find out about because of their discretion.

The proof was in this near final on-air act and this follow-up.

Rant at Ford?
It would be nice if would just rant privately and shut up about all the injustices to him?

Where'e the humility? I guess you just don't turn off celebrity or split personality arrogance overnight?

[Ninja Jordan]

23. Leave him alone, Christ.