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Imus Dismissed From CBS


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gutless execs

are you referring to the cbs brass or the mods here for not locking this :mrgreen:

my 2 cents- I don't feel this topic is political & we should be allowed to discuss. I'm kinda bored with the " I know yer gay " threads.

we can only post in food, clothes,music, alphabet threads for so long. a spirited debate would do us some good I think

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It's a joke and a farce. The whole system is out of whack. He'll get another job on another station rather quickly.

The guy just raised over 1 million dollars today for charity but lets fire him.

not sure doing charity work gives him the right to say bad stuff.

what is ill is the fact that cbs had to wait til the vast majority spoke out against him & advertisers backed out & msnbc dropped him before they could decide what he said crossed the line of being fired or not.

$$$$$$$ dictated this move by cbs & thats the saddest part

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CBS fires Don Imus from radio show

Decision comes day after MSNBC drops shock jock's TV simulcast

BREAKING NEWS

Updated: less than 1 minute ago

NEW YORK - CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation

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link?

NEW YORK (CNN) -- CBS has canceled Don Imus' radio show, effective immediately, after uproar over his racist and sexist comments about Rutgers women's basketball team.

"From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent," said CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, in announcing the decision.

The decision by CBS came a day after NBC Universal decided to part ways with Imus completely, thus canceling the simulcast of his show on MSNBC.

Amid the outcry over his on-air racial slur last week, shock jock Imus said Thursday that he had "apologized enough" and that he will not go on "some talk show tour."

"I'm not going to go talk to Larry King or Barbara Walters or anyone else," Imus said on his flagship station in New York, WFAN-AM, which is owned by CBS Corp. and distributes "Imus in the Morning" nationally.

"The only other people I want to talk to are these young women at the team, and then that's it," Imus said.

He was referring to the members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team, whom he described as "nappy-headed hos" the day after the team lost the NCAA championship to the University of Tennessee. (Gallery: Other controversial comments aired on Imus show)

He has repeatedly apologized for those remarks. Team members have agreed to meet with him privately, but so far no meeting has taken place.

"It gets said. Kids get hurt," he said. "At some point -- I'm not sure when -- I'm going to go talk to the team and that's all I'm interested in doing."

NBC News President Steve Capus, appearing on CNN, said Imus' comments had "touched a nerve" within the organization and firing him was "the only action we could take." (Your e-mails on Imus)

Earlier in the week, CBS Radio issued a statement announcing a two-week suspension that starts Monday.

Despite being dropped by NBC, Imus hosted his show from the MSNBC studios in New Jersey. He did not appear on TV.

"As you know, MSNBC folded up yesterday, so we're just on the radio," he said.

Imus was broadcasting his 18th annual radio charity fundraiser, which has pulled in $50 million since 1990. It ends Friday.

"This may be our last radiothon, so we need to raise $100 million dollars," Imus said, chuckling.

According to The Associated Press, Imus raised $1 million in the first five hours of Thursday's fundraiser.

The disparaging remark prompted eight companies to pull their ads from Imus' show: Staples, General Motors, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, PetMed Express, American Express and Bigelow Tea.

Bruce Gordon, a member of CBS Corp.'s board of directors, has called for Imus' firing from WFAN.

Speaking Thursday on CNN's "American Morning," Gordon said that, speaking "as an African-American man in this country, Don Imus violated our community. He attacked beautiful, talented, classy women and when those women showed themselves to the country, I think that those words matched with those images made it clear to America that Don Imus was wrong."

Gordon is a former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

At a rally outside CBS's New York offices Thursday, civil rights activist Al Sharpton pressured the network to cancel Imus' morning show.

Rain cut attendance at the rally -- another has been scheduled for Saturday afternoon -- but Sharpton, joined by the father of a player on the team, spoke to the media.

"NBC has done in our judgment what is right," he said, and CBS must not be "the dam holding back the waters of insensitivity."

Sharpton said he had met with several NBC leaders and planned to meet with CBS leaders later in the day.

Linzell Vaughn, the father of sophomore center Kia Vaughn, said Imus' comments were "like a slap in the face."

"Do not disrespect our children," he said. (Players talk of hurt, seeking understanding)

Sharpton said the airways should not be used to "call children hard-core hos, nappy-headed hos. ... None of us have the right to use the public airways to express our bigotry."

Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson also spoke on Thursday afternoon outside CBS' offices and called for Imus' firing.

"This is not the first time this has happened on this show," he said, and spoke of previous Imus comments that Jackson characterized as racist and sexist.

"'Three strikes you're out' ought to apply to this position," he said.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/...gers/index.html

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I watched larry king last night & a top brass cbs guy who doesn't vote on it but carries a lot of weight was none too happy about his actions & felt strongly about him being fired.

It's too bad really. with a little massaging by all involved, they could have turned this whole disgraceful & unfortunate situation around and turned it into a positive instead of further driving a wedge into the issue

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It's all about money, he was no longer going to be sponsored, and CBS didn't want his image on them...

He's a racist, and they didn't want anyone outside of the organization to think they were.

There's much larger issues here than Don Imus saying what he has. If I said it or any random non-public figure it goes by the wayside. If someone lesser known than Imus but still in the public eye says it, again it would be ignored. Yet, since Imus is the one who say it and politicians grace his show, he has to be the one to be made an example of. Not Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle for their brands of comedy, or 50 Cent or Snoop Dogg for their brand of rap. I mean for crying out loud a song called "Hard Out here for a Pimp" won an oscar! It's a double standard and probably will always be one.

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I think it's completely ridiculous. It was blown WAY out of proportion by the likes of ... people... like Al Sharpton, who just took this mess and made it into publicity stunt for himself. First of all, nobody asked him to intervene, and there was no place for. Obviously, CBS Radio and MSNBC weren't going to let Imus get off punishment-free. However, Sharpton had the audacity to say he wasn't going to go on Imus' show anymore, yet the next day, invites Imus onto HIS show. I can maybe see that as plausible, but Sharpton doesn't even have a New York / New Jersey affiliate while Imus is broadcast nationwide. Sharpton was completely irrelevant to this entire thing. I can see him speaking out on it on his radio show and bringing in Imus then, but nobody here can here him. Rutgers is irrelevant to him. And like Jesse brought up, when will Sharpton apologize to the Duke Lacrosse players?

As far as what Imus actually said, it was a completely asinine thing to say, and blatantly racist. Whether or not joking around, race is waaaay too touchy of a subject to cross the line on it. And, it's a bit hypocritical, in a way. He fired Sid Rosenberg from his show after some of Sid's comments that crossed the line (the whole Venus and Serena Williams thing, as well as comments about Palestinians, and then the comments about Kylie Minogue and her breast cancer). Imus rightfully deserved a two week suspension from CBS and MSNBC, and probably a some fines as well, but honestly, getting fired by MSNBC and CBS was way too much. It's the clowns like Al Sharpton who do that by causing so much media attention in order to self-promote. If he didn't stick his nose into other people's business, CNN, FOX, etc. wouldn't have even cared after the first day or two following the comments.

It's a shame to see Imus go, though. I'm sure he will catch on with satellite radio or something, but still, he is an important part of New York radio, and more importantly (to me) WFAN. Without him, WFAN doesn't succeed, who knows if all-sports talk radio ever catches on. I think CBS and MSNBC are making a huge mistake here by getting rid of him over something that's so blown out of proportion, but I guess they have their reasons / don't have any loyalty to someone who has helped them so much. I personally didn't care for his show as it just bored me. I tried listening to it when I was a major WFAN junkie, and I can honestly say I only enjoyed it once (when he brought in Martina McBride to perform some of her songs from the "Timeless" album). Still being a WFAN-addict, it's sad to see him leave.

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