April 9, 2007

Imus.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jim @ 8:50 pm

I began listening to Imus when he first came to New York (I believe it was ’71 or ’72). I listened every day, and I patiently awaited his return to New York from his banishment to Cleveland for having shown up on the air shitfaced and drugged out. I listened for damned near three decades.

However, a few years ago, I began to tire of what I perceived to be an increasingly long line of liberal weenies guests, each seemingly suffering from terminal Bush Derangement Syndrome. I tolerated Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, David Gregory, Maureen Dowd and even John Kerry. However, once Imus began to regularly refer to Vice President Cheney as a “war criminal” he lost me to a rival station.

Having said that, I have followed his most recent gaffe with some interest. Sure, what he said was absolutely uncalled for, cruel and insensitive, but in all my past years of listening to Imus I never thought him to be a racist. I still don’t.

As Erica notes, in our lives each of us has said something profoundly stupid and hurtful, which we immediately or ultimately regretted. Imus has made several on-air apologies, which was the right thing to do.

In my view, where he screwed up was taking the bait tossed out there by “Reverend” Al Sharpton and “Reverend” Jesse Jackson, two race hustlers whose economic well-being is based upon making sure that racism remains alive and well in America.

So, in the end, Imus made two mistakes. His first mistake was having made a particularly cruel remark about young women athletes. His second mistake was going on Al Sharpton’s radio show, kissing Al’s ass and getting burned for his trouble.

I hope he has learned something from both mistakes.

Now, if he ever gets around to apologizing for repeatedly calling a sitting Vice President a “war criminal,” I may just tune in again.

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