Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Imus in the mud pit

Don Imus doesn’t have a centimeter of the intellectual and philosophical depth displayed by Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer in her response to his calling her players "nappy-headed hos." She and her players demonstrated a quality of character that is beyond the grasp of Imus, his producer and the corporate heads that facilitate his wealth and ego.

Coach Stringer is right when she said it is not about Rutgers basketball players. It is about respect for women and the hurtful nature of pervasive racism and sexism. She is even more on point when she says it is not about brown or white----but about "green"!.

Sadly, the bottom line for the Imuses of the media world and their corporate facilitators is money, power, ratings and ego. As long as those elements are only moderately threatened, there will only be a moderate rebuke in response to the offense.

Imus made the offensive remark on Wednesday. He dismissed the affair as unimportant on Thursday. Only when the den of criticism picked up steam did the corporate heads of CBS Radio and MSNBC respond by suspending the program for two weeks, saying they thought is was an "appropriate" action given the fact that Mr. Imus had apologized.

Really? Do you suppose that they might have thought it "appropriate" because their money loss was a spit in the ocean compared to their revenues from the show? Do you suppose for a New York minute that a two weeks suspension has been a sobering financial blow to Mr. Imus’ income?

Also do you suppose for a minute that those television "news media" types like David Gregory (MSNBC) will now decline to appear on Imus in the Morning? Do you really think all those politicians and presidential candidates will now refuse an opportunity to use the morning show platform for their pomposity?

Don’t hold your breath. The bar for talk show standards is so low it rests on their bottom line. Money and ratings trump common sense and ethics most of the time in that arena!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Imus in the real world

There is something pathetic about a man with long, curly unkempt hair that hunkers down in a Manhattan studio, hiding under an oversized cowboy hat--calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos".

There is something even more pathetic about a man so intellectually shallow that he could not get the time of day in any serious "issues" conversation without the platform of a radio-television show.

There is something hypocritical about MSNBC getting in bed with Imus in the Morning producers (WFAN Radio) for big bucks and feigning shock over Imus calling female university athletes whores!

The most pathetic aspect of it all is the media standard by which people like Imus are allowed to continuously pollute the atmosphere with impunity!

Saturday, April 07, 2007

And the beat goes on!

The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. ----H. L. Mencken

How else can one explain the continued support of the Bush administration by a third of the American public-- save the Quote of H. L. Mencken . The most extravagant lies and deceptions are nestled at the heart of almost every position Bush and his minions put forth.

The Great Decider consistently denied the science of global warming, citing fiction author, Michael Chrichton, as a source of his position. He has opted out of international treaties designed to combat the warming trend.

When backed to the wall by overwhelming information, Bush can only bring himself to use the term “climate change”, while covertly trying to deflect tough emissions standards.

The latest United Nations scientific report warns of a billion people in need of water, extreme food shortages in Africa, a planetary landscape ravaged by floods and millions of species headed for extinction. Yet, in the face of that, we are told that the report is watered down by the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Dick Cheney is still promoting the al-Qaida-Iraq connection even as the Defense Department’s Inspector General gave lie to that claim.

Cheney told radio’s pompous pill popper, Rush Limbaugh that al-Qaida, in the person of Musab a-Zarqawi, was operating in Iraq before the invasion and “led the charge for Iraq until we killed him”---which reminds me of another Menckin quote: The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

We now know that the Pentagon provided “inappropriate” analysis of the so called al-Qaida connection and “undercut” the intelligence community as a rational for invading Iraq.

Knowing this did not deter Cheney and Bush from claiming that intelligence supported the connection of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

And the Television airheads still wonder why the Democrats demand Bush’s lackeys testify under oath?