Don't know, but that Sharpton is one sharp political dude. Listened to him one night on Hard Ball. You don't want to debate that guy.

He is subsidized with taxpayer money. The airwaves are owned by the people (the government) and regulated. The original rights to the bandwidth were given away in the 20s to encourage radio development. There is free speech and and then there is obsenity. Obsenity is not protected by the first amendment any more than shouting fire in a crowded theater is.

Imus should be banned from the public airwaves and his station should be fined till it hurts.

I don't listen to Imus, Sharpton, or Jackson. And I think shock-jock radio is stupid.

But I do think it is also stupid that thousands of rap songs spout "ho" and "niga" and so on, these words have become a staple of black young people's speech, yet when a white guy dares use these words he gets strung up.

Yeah, I know, words can mean different things when one group utters them than when another group does. Imus obviously was using these words to attack and demean. But it still seems silly. I wish everyone would just curb their tongues.

Sharpton rose to prominence on the back of Tawana Brawley (Google that name).

I lived in NJ when the whole Tawana Brawley thing happened. In the days before 24 hr. news channels, this story still was everywhere. Sharpton should never ever live that down. He should have gone to jail for it and I don't know why anyone takes him seriously after that. After watching Imus go through the apology ritual and kiss Al's and Jesse's a$ses, I really have no respect left for the man. He should have excluded those two race-baiters from any and all apologies.

What is funny is that the odds of me hearing what Imus said are about 1 in a billion, but thanks to the media I have heard it at least a dozen times. If it was so offensive why do they repeat it non-stop. If I was one of those girls I'd be almost as pissed about that as I was about the original comment.

that's the only way the media can say it without actually saying it and get away with it.

btw, there are dozens of black comedians who say "white people" jokes all the time.. and it's not news. how is that?
I guess racism is a one-way street.

Boy has this thing snowballed since the start of this thread. The whole of Rutgers U is on CNN getting all weepy. Feigning outrage is in.

I've never heard Don Imus, although I've heard his name. So I'm not a fan, I don't listen to any talk radio at all.

But all the press conferences, apology after apology, national attention, Sharpton, Jackson et al. press conferences and grandstanding, isn't it a bit much? And is it *really* productive?

It's probably complicated, but there have been a lot of disadvantaged and discriminated racial groups in the US in the last 150 years.

And there seems to be an inverse correlation to the success of those groups and the level of government "assistance" to those groups and the level and stridency of the "leaders" or "spokespeople" of those groups.

Will there ever be a time to move on from the politics of victimization?

all of this is nothing new, celebrities are always 'running at the mouth' without thinking first about what they're going to say.

it's not about being politically correct (or not), it's just taking the time to think about who it is you are going to hurt by your insensitive speech or actions.

on the same subject......

does anyone in the black community (again, the target of Imus' judgemental comment) ever do or say anything to curb the use of the "N" word in their own community?

answer: No.

yet they continue to raise this issue every time a non-black uses said word to describe anybody, not just to describe a black person. according to blacks, it's OK for a black to call another black the "N" word, but it's not OK for a white guy to call a black the "N" word? truly a double standard, if not down right hypocrisy.

do whites froth at the mouth every time a black person says something uncivilized about a white person? no. does it make the 24 hour news and are demands made for said offender's head? no.

every time a black person addresses another black person as "brother" in the presence of a white person, he is being racist. is the white person not a"brother" as well? are we not all human beings underneath the skin we wear?

let's look further, and I ask, why is the crime rate (black on black) so much higher than any other ethnic background? or why is the violence in Africa (again, black on black) so rampant? why is the prison population (just in the USA) so much more black than any other ethnic background (and were their crimes black on others, or just black on black)?


if the black community is so outraged at one stupid comment by a guy who has clearly had numerous other issues, why can't they clean up their own community's actions towards each other?

racism is alive an well in this world, and it's not just whites looking down on blacks......blacks are doing it to themselves every day and are not held accountable for their actions...


as others have said, so shall I--- Don Imus just made another comment that has received too much attention and should have just been dealt with in a much more civil way.

had any black celebrity said what Imus said, this would not have made the local news, much less the 24 hour cable/satellite news channels.....


regards---rhjameshttp://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/pc2.gif

So he slips and says something he shouldn't have. Same happened to Howard Cosell.

This is a really small issue in the big picture.

One year from now Imus will host SNL and play in a skit lampooning his remarks. Imus' biggest ally is the publics' short term memory. He now has a private meeting with the team to 'cleanse' his image - the team gets used again.........

On CBS this morning Harry interviewed Barbara Ciara, some news reporter? back east. He asked her about the "Ho" being used by blacks all the time. She refused to answer the question, something along the line of that's not important. wtf.

Last year during our neighborhood street fair, car pulls up across my driveway and parks. I walk up, say you can't block my driveway. Immediately get told, "It's cause were black isn't it, if we were white you'd let up park here". No dip*****, I don't let anyone block my driveway. Next, big guy in the backs calling me a fag, going to kick my *ss, etc. I called 911, they left after more name calling.

I look at it this way, there are good people and ********s, color, creed, whatever doesn't matter, your actions do.

I just love all these groups that want "special rights", pretty fed up with them all.

I would have told them all to *iss off, but then I'm the guy who pressed charges against a admiral when I was in the Navy. Funny, never got a promotion after that, lol.

Obscenity my *ss.

I think the umbrage taken is false and Imus should apologize to no one.

If you don't like what he has to say don't listen to him. IMO his remarks are no worse (in fact no where near as bad) than those regularly spewed by Maher, Rosie, Coulter, Franken and all the other cretins who get paid to generate controversy and ratings.

We live in a era with a "Congressional Black Caucus" (imagine if someone tried to start a white one), and the words "Niggaz, nigger and hoe" are not only acceptable but are actually common (as pointed out earlier). In fact there's an entire multibilliion dollar industry that regularly uses, promotes and to some extent is even based on- those particular words and that form of language.

Listen to any rap channel- on those same "regulated" airwaves.

I'm not partiularly an Imus fan but Al and Jessie sitting in judgment of him is beyond the pale. Imus may have exercised poor judgment (he practiced ghetto speak! the horror!!) but he's not a liar, a racebaiter or a practitioner of racial blackmail. If Snoop Dogg can say that ***** on the airwaves so can Imus. Do we want equality or not?

MRM if you want to ban Imus for these remarks and regulate speech so strongly who and what other forms of speech would you ban?? Where would you stop? Does your idea of an obscenity become mine because you say so?

And pray tell just exactly how is Imus (or any radio celebrity) subsidized by the taxpayer?

God what BS.

OK I feel better now.

Now the Rutgers girls are doing a press conf. on CNN and it's been going on for an HOUR!!!!!!!! UNF&CKINGREAL!

those nappy headed hoes are at it again!

:D

I'd be happy to debate him, since he's wrong on every single issue and is a race-baiting poverty pimp. No one ever stands up to these guys on tv. I'd love to do so. I did see Sharpton at a press conf. once. Unfortunately, I couldn't pose a journalist and get some questions in becaue - ta da - no one else showed up for the press conf. It was hilarious! Also, his Nat. Action Network was a well-paying client of mine, so I couldn't go pissing him off. But man, if I didn't work where I did, I'd love to have at him.

I hope they lose. Forever.

Enough already, I am missing up to date coverage of Anna Nicole.

I thought the bad word was "nappy headed."

People say "ho" all the time, I didn't know it had racial meaning.