Broadcast personality Don Imus began his apology tour in earnest Monday, once again apologizing on his morning show for degrading remarks aimed at the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, then going on the air with the Rev. Al Sharpton later in the early afternoon.
By the day's end, Imus had been suspended.
Two of the nation’s biggest media companies — CBS Corp. and NBC Universal — will ultimately decide the fate of Imus’ daily program after he referred last week to members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.”
“Beginning Monday, April 16, MSNBC will suspend simulcasting the syndicated ‘Imus in the Morning’ radio program for two weeks," said NBC News President Steve Capus in a statement released late Monday. "This comes after careful consideration in the days since his racist, abhorrent comments were made.
"Don Imus has expressed profound regret and embarrassment and has made a commitment to listen to all of those who have raised legitimate expressions of outrage," Capus said. "In addition, his dedication -- in his words -- to change the discourse on his program moving forward, has confirmed for us that this action is appropriate. Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word.”
A short time after NBC announced the suspension, CBS Radio, Imus chief employer, said it too would suspend Imus for two weeks, effective Monday.
POLL: Don Imus - Was he out of line?
If You Missed It: Don Imus talked with Rev. Al Sharpton - Listen now
VIDEO: Imus: 'No Excuse' for Comments
Radio host Don Imus appears on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show to apologize for racially charged remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team; Sharpton is calling for Imus to be fired.
VIDEO: Rutgers: Imus 'stole' Team's Golden Moment
Rutgers President Richard McCormick says the women's basketball team's golden moment was stolen when embattled radio host Don Imus referred to members of the team as 'nappy-headed hos.'
Last Wednesday, Imus and his sidekicks launched a riff about the NCAA women’s basketball championship game in which Rutgers was the runner up. The team, which was heavily outmatched by eventual champion Tennessee, fought to stay in the game and developed a reputation throughout the tournament as scrappy and persistent.
Imus referred to the Rutgers women as “rough” and pointed out some had tattoos. His producer, Bernard McGuirk, then referred to the woman as “some hard-core hos.”
“That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so like -- kinda like -- I don’t know.”
McGuirk then compared the competing teams to “the Jigaboos and the Wannabes,” an out of context reference to the Spike Lee film “School Daze.”
Imus apologized on Friday, but the National Association of Black Journalists, a number of seasoned sportswriters, the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and others said Imus’ apologies were not enough and demanded that MSNBC, which simulcasts the radio show, which is broadcast on WFAN-AM in New York, dismiss Imus.
Before its announcement of Imus' suspension at 6:45 p.m, MSNBC and parent company NBC had issued formal apologies. WFAN, which produces "Imus in the Morning," has had no comment about the incident other than to refer callers to Imus’ apology.
On his show Monday morning, Imus rambled between apologizing and defending himself, saying he was not racist, nor a bigot. He said his show is noted for its comedy and extreme sarcasm, maintaining that “anybody on this show is fair game,” but that “sometimes, you've gotta grow up a little bit.”
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Imus said that while he is being roundly criticized for his behavior, no one was mentioning the work he had done for the black community, including his work to bring attention to such issues as sickle cell anemia and having taken in black children into his home as a surrogate parent.
At one point as he headed into a commercial, Imus played country music star Vince Gill’s song “The Reason Why,” which begins:
Why do I, choose the things I choose,
Why do I, always find some lame excuse,
Why do I, not realize what I could do,
Oh, I wish I knew the reason why.
On Sharpton’s show later in the day, Imus said he couldn’t explain his behavior, except to say that he “wasn’t thinking” when he made the remarks.
Imus had a testy exchange with Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, and took questions from Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Rev. DeForest B. Soaries Jr. of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, who is the pastor of Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer. Soaries, a former New Jersey secretary of state, was among those this weekend calling for Imus’ firing.
Imus repeatedly urged that judgment on his remarks be reserved until he had an opportunity to speak with the women of the Rutgers team and their parents and determine whether he could win their forgiveness and find a way to make amends.
Imus said the remarks were made in an attempt to be humorous and that “I wish I hadn’t said it. I’m sorry I said it.”
“I’m not a journalist. I’m not a politician. We do not have an agenda,” Imus said. “Our agenda is to try to be funny ... sometimes we go too far, and sometimes we go way too far.”
“So you thought it was funny to call people nappy-headed hos?” Sharpton asked.
“No, sir,” Imus said.
“But you thought it was funny Wednesday?” Sharpton replied.
“No, I do not,” Imus said.
“At the time I said it, I didn’t think it was racial. I was thinking like ‘West Side Story’ -- one team is tough, and one team is not so tough,” he said.
“Nappy-headed is racial,” Sharpton answered.
“Yes, sir, I understand that,” Imus said.
After the interview, Sharpton said he heard nothing that would change his mind about calling for Imus’ dismissal, adding that Imus expected some consequences for his actions, but that he didn’t want to pay the price.
Basically, Sharpton said, Imus’ attitude was “I don’t think the punishment ought to fit the crime.”
Sharpton said the real issue is that hateful, demeaning speech should not be allowed on federally protected airwaves to ensure that the public is served. Sharpton said he sent a letter of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission about Imus’ remarks.
A spokesman for the FCC told BlackAmericaWeb.com that he did not have figures on the number of complaints filed, but said it takes only one complaint to initiate an investigation into whether remarks made on the air should be followed by some action.
Sharpton said he would post information on his National Action Committee Web site for those who wish to protest to the FCC, MSNBC and WFAN.
“Mr. Imus’ remarks were a double-edged sword, both racist and sexist. It was undeniably hate speech,” Lorraine Cole, chief executive officer of YWCA USA, told BlackAmericaWeb.com said after Imus appeared on Sharpton's program. "Such open and public degradation of any segment within the black community is outrageous, obscene and perverse under any circumstances. The fact that the statement was made about young, college educated black women, who have obviously excelled academically and athletically, is symptomatic of how narrow the boundaries are between racism and sexism. Essentially, no black woman is immune to being such a target, no matter how accomplished. Nothing that Mr. Imus has said, or possibly could say for that matter, in defense of his words would be redemptive."
Cole ssaid that the issue is bigger than Imus, opining that the networks and advertisers must also be held accountable.
"Racism comes in many forms. It is most commonly described in terms of being interpersonal, institutional or internalized. Mr. Imus’ remarks were the most overt form -- interpersonal, a direct personal affront," Cole said. "However, if the stations that carry his show do not hold him accountable, they are guilty of institutional racism, a systemic problem. Anyone who is serious about eliminating racism must not allow either interpersonal or institutional racism to occur unchecked."
While many people rushed to criticize Imus, Newsweek columnist Mark Starr wrote Friday that, in a way, Americans created the monster that Imus and others like him have become.
“Imus, much like the Rutgers team he defamed, was probably just overreaching, trying a little too hard to score with the irreverent and edgy humor that is his trademark,” Starr wrote. “He may even have known, as he continued his tasteless riff, that he had crossed the line; that what he said was inexcusable, shameless, racist claptrap.
“But just because it’s inexcusable doesn’t mean it’s inexplicable. And while Imus should not be spared any blame, we are undoubtedly complicit,” Starr wrote. “It is our dubious taste that has spawned America's prevailing entertainment culture. We have countenanced the insult industry into which talk radio has devolved. We have allowed humiliation to become a centerpiece of network TV programming. And we encourage cutting-edge humor, without much concern that women and minorities endure most of those cuts.”
Starr told BlackAmericaWeb.com on Monday that he is not advocating for Imus’ dismissal, but “I want his public to demand from its entertainment a higher standard.”
Starr noted that the best way to draw the line on uncivil discourse is to stop listening to the show. When the ratings go down, advertisers go away and networks get the message, he said.
“The question is who drives the agenda?” Starr said. “You don’t do this a long time without an audience to cheer you on.”
And, many say, without an advertising base on which to build that audience.
"Whether it is writing a letter to the stations that carry his show demanding that they drop his program from their schedule or participating in a boycott of the stations and their advertisers until he is terminated, a line has to be drawn," said Cole, "but the problem is much bigger than this one incident and calls for a national effort to end the use of such language, whenever and wherever it occurs."
Much of the debate on numerous list serves over the weekend turned on whether black people have, to some degree, opened the door to derogatory remarks because references to black women as bitches and hos have become common parlance in hip-hop culture and the conversations of young black people.
“Most sensible white people understand that the whole background and experiences behind the remarks are different” for black people, said Richard Prince, a veteran journalist who writes Journal-isms, a media blog about diversity.
Prince pointed out that slavery and its remnants are not as far removed from the black experience as some whites would like to believe. He noted that Spike Lee said in an interview that his grandmother lived to be 100 and that her mother was born into slavery.
“It’s not too far from a time when white men considered black women their property,”
Prince told BlackAmericaWeb.com, “and to consider them ‘nappy-headed hos’ is not quite so distant from that.”
When it comes to words, Prince said, “Everybody needs to check themselves, basically.”
Patrick Oliver, editor of "Turn The Page" and "You Don't Stop" and founder of Say It Loud!, a readers and writers series, said that in 2001, outraged by the lyrics in Ludacris’ song “Area Code,” he wrote an essay that challenged local radio stations to stop playing the song because of its negative reference to black women.
Its chorus: I've got hoes in different area codes.
“It’s a paradox for black folks right now in terms of entertainment and personal integrity,” Oliver told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “It’s a tough situation for us. It’s very uncomfortable.”
That said, Imus is not off the hook, Oliver said.
“Imus knew better,” Oliver said. “I’m just saying we need to attack our own as well” when they’ve crossed the line and not hesitate to say “that’s not good enough.”
CBS Radio released a statement promising to monitor the show's content in the future. "We are disappointed by Imus' actions last week which we find completely inappropriate," the statement read. “We fully agree that a sincere apology was called for and will continue to monitor the program's content going forward."
Imus could be in real danger if the outcry causes advertisers to shy away from him, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.
“Everyone is on tenterhooks waiting to see whether it grows and whether the protest gets picked up more broadly,” Taylor said.
Imus isn’t the most popular radio talk show host — the trade publication Talkers ranks him the 14th most influential — but his audience is heavy on the political and media elite that advertisers pay a premium to reach. Authors, journalists and politicians are frequent guests — and targets for insults.
He has urged critics to recognize that his show is a comedy that spreads insults broadly. Imus or his cast have called Colin Powell a “sniffling weasel,” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson a “fat sissy” and referred to Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, an American Indian, as “the guy from ‘F Troop.”’ He and his colleagues also called the New York Knicks a group of “chest-thumping pimps.”
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Associated Press contributed to this story.
