We have to be consistant about this. Two years ago Bill O'Reilly was in Washington to give an award to a high school group. The group was delayed in a traffic jam. Bill O'Reilly said, "where are they, out stealing hubcaps?" He knew, as did everyone that the youth were minority. We, here in DC were appalled, but the media barely mentioned it. Imus, O'Reilly, and everyone else who makes those types of statements has prejudice buried in the soul, and an apology is not sufficient.

"Left-wing politicians like John Edwards and John Kerry"?

Well. Edwards and Kerry ARE to the left of Adolph Bush and Darth Cheney.

The casualness and complete ease with which Imus and his producer madetheir comments is perhaps the most clear indicator of the deep seated racism that flourishes in this country that I have seen in a long while.

Who are these rich white men who cannot see that their own attitudes and speach combined with their disproportionate power and influence relative to women, blacks, non-"white" ethnicities, perpetuates inequality. How blind or how callous can these people be?

Shi*can Imus and all the other hatemongers who make a sizeable income at the expense of people who don't have the opportunity to sit on their asses and spew out gargabe into a microphone. Let them live in a ghetto, send their kids to inner city schools, get hassled by the police, be demonized by the media, and try to survive on low-wage dead end jobs. And then tell them that is all there will ever be, that is all life has to offer them.

If you look at Don Imus as a whole, you have to say he is usually quite funny and that he doesn't look down on black people as a rule. I don't know where that ho remark came from, but I suspect it was just a moment of stupidity. He was just joking that the lady basketball players were so tough that they had tattoos and then someone else came up with the ho remark and he repeated it with nappy-haired in front of it, making it worse. Still, the guy does good work overall - many a black kid has visited and benefitted from the Imus Ranch For Kids With Cancer and he has promoted many blacks in the entertanment field as well as other fields. We don't need a society where only perfect people can be on TV and radio. Rush Limbaugh is much meaner than Imus, constantly mocking the Reverend Jesse Jack-son, and nobody is boycotting him. And George Bush is a war criminal and there are no war crime trials in sight so let's keep our perspective when a talk show host throws out a gratuitous insult at a tough bunch of ballplayers. There are much worse things in the world. I'm sure the players can take the ribbing and give it back to Imus ten-fold. And don't criticize me for characterizing a rascist remark as a mere ribbing - good grief, it's a talk show and they throw out all kinds of crazy comments. Those who reject his apology just might be the true rascists.

I agree with jp: A vicious remark like this is not just a moment of stupidity. It is evidence that this sort of mentality is still very widespread, even among people who perhaps do some otherwise good things. And the fact that it was on the public airwaves make it more likely to be repeated by the ignorant among us. Imus has lost his credibility, if he ever had any. To refer to Gwen Ifill as a "cleaning lady" is equally repugnant to me.

jp is right. None of us who have not lived as the poorest among us have lived can have any understanding of what it is like, just as we who have never fought in a war can never understand how truly horrible it really is.

I try to keep quiet around the very poor and vets.

Who, in the situation jp describes, would not consider the law a minor impediment to taking what she needs?

Imus, like bush/cheney is just a symptom. Education and information will not "cure" the problem but will help control it.

I started watching MSNBC because of Keith Olbermann. Now that I have had the opportunity to watch most of what MSNBC has to offer, including Imus, I watch Keith Olbermann and nothing else on MSNBC.

Mr. Imus is offensive in the extreme. He needs to leave MSMBC NOW. No one escaped his hateful racist and sexist remarks; in addition to the grievous offense against the players on the Rutgers Team, he labelled the women on the U of Tennessee Team as "cute".

Racism is racism. And I say that as a gay white man with HIV who is disabled wearing oxygen 24/7. Not as a "person of color."

It exists in all directions, in truth, but by far and wide is greatest in the white race.

Humanity has constantly looked of religious excuses to justify it, and when that fails, tries to place it as acceptable, in the name of "humor" or "comedy" - while there is absolutely nothing humorous about it.

Granted, we don't have to listen to him, and I, for one, never have, and never shall, but still...it is anything but humor.

Rush Limbaugh is much meaner than Imus, constantly mocking the Reverend Jesse Jack-son, and nobody is boycotting him. And George Bush is a war criminal and there are no war crime trials in sight so let's keep our perspective .

From Ron to Ron

I infer from your meaner than Imus or Bush as war criminal that Rush SHOULD be boycotted and Bush SHOULD be tried.Be my guest . Be the first. Lead,follow or get out of the way.

If you or your ancestors had been the brunt of these kinds of slurs for four handred years YOU would have a different perspective.

Your convoluted argument with the proper perspective , turned upside down goes something like this : We canèt praise Mike Ergo , the latest occupation-protester because we didnèt praise Ehren Watada , the pioneer occupation-protester sufficiently.

Do me a favour. Read the novel,Black Like Me

Then again , we really donèt care. People who take the time and the intelligence to write comments on the internet have opinions that oppose yours , conservatively 10-to-1.Check it out.

After listening to Ed Shultz ranting on Air America about mob-defined lines that cannot be crossed by journalists and essentially offering up his verbal cover and protection for Imus, I must say I was disgusted by his amnesia.

Who offered any verbal cover and protection for Dan Rather when he was fired simply because some of his underlings failed to nail down enough sources on the Bush AWOL story?

So, it's okay to be fired for raising legitimate doubts about the President's past, but it's not okay to be fired for making racist-sexist comments?

Or is it that it's not okay for journalists' careers to be cut short by public outrage, but it's perfectly fine for journalists to be axed because of boardroom outrage?

Jeez Ed, get your priorities straight. This is a culture war we're in. We didn't start it. We would rather have reasoned discourse. But, given that the other side has chosen an all-out culture war-- you better figure out which side you're on.

All in all, this misguided protection of Imus shows that Air America made the right decision when they picked Thom Hartmann for their top slot after Al Franken left.

Two words.....who cares?
Gee..... wars, starvation, oil prices, water shortages, environmental pollution, overpopulation, species extinxtion etc etc etc.....
I don't know about you all, but what Imus or anyone else for that matter, says on TV is really way down at the bottom of my list of things to care about.

Two words.....who cares?
Gee..... wars, starvation, oil prices, water shortages, environmental pollution, overpopulation, species extinction etc etc etc.....
I don't know about you all, but what Imus or anyone else for that matter, says on TV is really way down at the bottom of my list of things to care about.

It wasn't only Dan Rather who was removed for appropriate, if not perfectly accurate remarks, a number of other entertainers and personalities have lost jobs, contracts and status for merely properly questioning the president as he plunged this country into an illegal, immoral morass in Iraq. What about the Dixie Chicks? What about that popular talk show host Donahue?

That Imus will probably survive on MSNBC and elsewhere is an outrage and is reflective not only of widespread racism in mainstream media, but the utter dysfunctional nature of both our media and society. Imus has no entitlement to that job. Make him find another. It will send a strong message to other would-be faux comedians. Where is our sense of shame? Where is our sense of pride? This country has the potential to become better.

Imus is an alcoholic and a decrepit old fool. If anything he should resign to save some face. What the man said, even in fun, can't be excused. If Al Sharpton made a similar remark about whites, the same people defending Imus would be stewing. People like Imus just keep dumping gasoline onto the bonfire.

I try to ignore guys like Imus and Savage. I don't listen to their programs, but I read about them on sites like Media Matters. They don't relate to the majority of Americans, but the people they do pander to have money, which is why they're on the air. Personally, I think they'll eventually be the death of radio.

It'd be nice if no one listened to them and they just disappeared from the airwaves. I agree with madcowfree to an extent. There are bigger issues at hand than some media personalitie's racially rude remarks. But it's people like Imus that help keep meaningful, responsible dialogue and thusly positive change from occuring. People with progressive viewpoints can't get in the room because it's overcrowded with conservative cranks. It's easy to ignore them and equate them with heel pro wrestlers as I used to do, but they're having the run of the place. They're setting the tone.

No fan of Imus, but the public stoning has gone on long enough. I just wish Jesse Jackson would remember that a lot of folks forgave him (as they should have) for 'hymietown'.

Heh, I'm always amused when anyone mistakes Ed Schultz for a 'progressive.'

Be that as it may,

This morning Imus is busily alternately hanging himself on a cross and talking tough saying he's not 'going to play' for too much longer. I think he believes that no matter what happens to his gig on MSNBC, he has enough powerful friends in politics and the media that he'll land up somewhere else.

Now Jeff Greenfield, of all people, is on his show making excuses for him.

See the point to me is that many Americans desperately want to remain racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. and they also desperately want someone in the public eye to reinforce and validate those beliefs. And of course, they constitute an audience one can deliver to advertisers (and this is from someone who was fired as a radio talk show host for turning against the war in 2003). I'm reading so many message board comments defending him and I'm sure that radio execs read them too. Hey recists and bigots buy a lot of soap and beer. Many of them even serve in Congress. So ultimately, Imus is safe but what is important about all of this is that a guy who many powerful people in business and politics pay fealty to by scrambling to be on his show can make comments like this repeatedly in our culture. That's the story here.

Imus is a dick. Limbaugh is a dick. The media that gets shoved down our throats day in and day out, is all controlled by dicks. Capitalisim at its best.
As far as the racism card, maybe if you stop trying to seperate yourselves from the rest of Americans, it just might make us all a little closer. And stop calling each other "the N word". It maybe something the white man started, but it seems I hear it more out of your mouths than I ever did anywhere else. It doesn't make you as a race look good. If someone wants to be treated with respect, they should act respectable. Ya think?

Give me a break!!! If a black person made those same comments no one would even hear about it. But since Imus is white it is an issue. Come on, grow up people, how can we change the racial views in society when it is ok for a black person to call a black person a name but God forbid a white person calls a black person a name. If it was reversed and the white girls basketball team were called "curly headed ho's" by a black man would it even had made the papers? NO. If it is wrong one way it should be wrong both ways. Am I Black or White? It doesn't matter.

Imus should be fired. These young women just reached the pinnacle game of their sport and should be praised and rewarded not assailed as "nappy headed ho's". It's time for him to go. It's also time for those rappers and others in the black community who constantly spout 'ho' and the 'N' word to understand what they've wrought. Michael Richards and Imus are only sprewing what's been buried in their soul because they think now they've been given permission by those who say they've changed the meaning of the 'N' word to one of endearment. Its use by blacks has always been of either knowing or unknowing self hatred and changing the spelling slightly doesn't alter that. These are ugly words and the casual way they being tossed about needs to stop in not just the the African-American community but the country as a whole.

Every comment I have read that Don Imus has made has had women as its target.

It is beyond outrageous.

Somewhere I saw it all referred to as locker room talk.

I say keep it there, with the door shut.

Imus should be removed from the "entertainment" business, permanently.

Does Imus pick on women because he is afraid a man might try to break his jaw?

Oh, and his enablers, many and well-known, should also be removed from public life.

The Imus EVENT is understandably thought provoking to say the least. I've but one question, Where is the Outrage, Accountability and Responsibility from the Afro American Community when Their Own people denigrate their Women in song and in reality each and every day **** Who is kidding Who here?

"The Imus EVENT is understandably thought provoking to say the least. I've but one question, Where is the Outrage, Accountability and Responsibility from the Afro American Community when Their Own people denigrate their Women in song and in reality each and every day **** Who is kidding Who here?"

The outrage is out there. You just have to look for it. It's not like anyone is turning a blind eye to it all.

"It's time for him to go. It's also time for those rappers and others in the black community who constantly spout 'ho' and the 'N' word to understand what they've wrought."

Black people didn't invent the words "n****er" or "whore".

"Its use by blacks has always been of either knowing or unknowing self hatred and changing the spelling slightly doesn't alter that. These are ugly words and the casual way they being tossed about needs to stop in not just the the African-American community but the country as a whole."

I agree.

"Give me a break!!! If a black person made those same comments no one would even hear about it."

Are you kidding me?

"No fan of Imus, but the public stoning has gone on long enough. I just wish Jesse Jackson would remember that a lot of folks forgave him (as they should have) for 'hymietown'."

They did, and he's also done more for the American people than Imus could ever dream of.

I say show this bum the door