{"id":392,"date":"2007-04-12T15:58:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-12T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=392"},"modified":"2007-04-12T15:58:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-12T21:58:00","slug":"how-to-talk-your-way-off-air-in-just-36-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/04\/how-to-talk-your-way-off-air-in-just-36-years\/","title":{"rendered":"How to talk your way off air in just 36 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>on Imus<\/a> \u2013 the I-Man \u2013 is one of American radio\u2019s institutions. Imus in the Morning<\/span><\/span> has been on the air one way or another since 1971. For UK readers, think of John Humphrys<\/a> with the forty years of reporting replaced by shock-jocking, cocaine and alcohol addiction. Then stick a Stetson on it. That\u2019s Imus.<\/p>\n

As David Carr from the New York Times<\/span><\/a> put it: <\/p>\n

[Imus] fills a demand for serious discussion on contemporary radio so that the journalists and politicians pushing an agenda or a book don\u2019t have to get in line behind the strippers at Howard Stern\u2019s show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact Imus\u2019 style owes much to Howard Stern<\/span>, but his success is down to one of those byzantine US arrangements by which his show is produced and syndicated by a CBS<\/span>-managed radio group, but is televised simultaneously on NBC<\/span>\u2019s cable news channel, where it provides a cheap and effective kickstart to the day\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

Or at least provided. Because a couple of days ago NBC pulled Imus\u2019 show from TV. And today CBS did the same for radio, after advertisers queued up to shift their spots. Here\u2019s why [HT: Media Matters<\/a>]: <\/p>\n

Wednesday, April 4 Imus in the Morning<\/span>:<\/p>\n

DON IMUS: That\u2019s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and \u2013
BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That\u2019s some nappy-headed hos there. I\u2019m gonna tell you that now, man, that\u2019s some \u2013 woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like \u2013 kinda like \u2013 I don\u2019t know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, Imus is the evil cowboy grandpa of Chris Moyles<\/a>. The I-Man serves up his western drawl over straight shots of racism, misogyny and homophobia that are ‘comedy’ (the movie Brokeback Mountain<\/a> became \u2013 wait for it \u2013 \u2018Bareback\u2019 Mountain<\/span>). Imus articulates the prejudices of his audience with a wink – they’re not real, just comic riffs. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s been going on a long time. According to the Village Voice<\/span>, Imus and his colleagues have called O.J. Simpson\u2019s lawyer \u201cchicken wing Johnny Cochran,\u201d Sammy Davis Jr. \u201ca one-eyed lawn jockey,\u201d former US Defence Secretary William Cohen \u201cthe Mandingo,\u201d and his black wife \u201ca \u2018ho.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the drolery, Imus has a penchant for serious talk to Washington insiders \u2013 politicians and commentators. So not many of the beltway elite filed out to chastise him. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it took a couple of days for Imus to say sorry:<\/p>\n

Friday, April 6 Imus in the Morning<\/span>:<\/p>\n

IMUS: Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning referring to the Rutgers women\u2019s basketball team. It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, so, and we\u2019re sorry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By Tuesday, Imus was shifting the blame:<\/p>\n

Tuesday, April 10 Imus in the Morning<\/span>:<\/p>\n

IMUS: \u2026 this phrase that I used didn\u2019t originate \u2013 it originated in the black community. That didn\u2019t give me a right to use it, but that\u2019s where it originated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The tactics didn’t work. This is how CBS chief Leslie Moonves<\/span> canned the I-Man: <\/p>\n

…Imus has been visited by Presidents, Senators, important authors and journalists from across the political spectrum. He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our Company.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which nicely excludes Moonves himself, and CBS management. And so it ends. It wasn’t exactly Talk Radio<\/a>, but then Imus is not the real loser, he’s made his money. Standing in the green room of shame are all the people who thought they could excuse the ‘comedic’ ribbing for a chance to talk politics. And the listeners who chuckled merrily on. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don Imus \u2013 the I-Man \u2013 is one of American radio\u2019s institutions. Imus in the Morning has been on the air one way or another since 1971. For UK readers, think of John Humphrys with the forty years of reporting replaced by shock-jocking, cocaine and alcohol addiction. Then stick a Stetson on it. That\u2019s Imus. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[402,385],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-cbs","tag-nbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}