Don Imus: Lest We Forget

My Don Imus post from yesterday had a rather high number of readers, and  several thoughtful comments.  But I feel it important to remind everyone who Don Imus really is.

In March 2007 during just four minutes of air time Don Imus and his producer laughed at ‘beating up faggots’, knocking over Jewish tombstones, setting ‘homeless bums’ on fire, coarsely talking about Anderson Cooper’s sex life, calling Obama a ‘colored man’, wishing that some sissy on “American Idol” would be the victim of a hate crime, and making a nasty comment about Rosie O’Donnell’s private parts.  This all falls under the guise of broadcast ‘entertainment’ on our radio in 2007!

Technorati Tags: DonImus, Radio, Society, BarackObama, AndersonCooper

Don “Nappy-Headed Ho’s” Imus Is Back On The Radio

No one will ever confuse NPR and Don Imus.  No one will ever confuse good taste with Don Imus.  Perhaps it is just a sign of the times we live in, along with the general public attitude, where someone like Imus can climb back into a radio studio and have an open microphone after proving he is not worthy of such a job.

I know there are many of his listeners who are ready for his return.  They will laugh at his antics, and urge him to test the limits of good taste again and again.  And I am also certain that he will not let them down.  The man has shown his addictive personality over time.  First with drugs in his personal life, and then offensive language and ill tempered remarks on the airwaves for years.  He will not be able to contain his darker side on the air.  It is just his nature.

But I also know that there are millions of others that find his type of radio humor deplorable and outrageous.  That doesn’t make us more moral or correct.  It just means that we care about the airwaves, and have some standards about what we listen to on the radio.  We hope that radio broadcasting can be enlightening, rather than a cesspool of snide remarks and objectionable material.  Having once worked in radio I tend to care more about the role radio plays in our society than others.  Label me old-fashioned, but then consider the alternative such as Don Imus.

Don Imus is back on the air today.  How long will it be before he has set off another verbal bomb of profanity and bad taste?  How many others will be hurt by Imus before we can retire this shock jock?

Technorati Tags: DonImus, Radio, DailyNews, NPR

Thoughts On Imus From State Street in Madison, Wisconsin

I sat in a coffee shop on State Street in Madison Thursday afternoon using Wi-Fi for the first time on my laptop.  I was going to do some blogging with people coming in for coffee, getting their reactions to the news that Imus was fired.   The stodgy pace of Wi-Fi internet reception changed my plans. (I hate to say it, but Charter is better.) Though I was not real pleased with Wi-Fi, I was pleased with the conversations I had, and the voices I heard, concerning the firing of Don Imus.  In the past few days, and again on State Street Thursday, I did not find one person who supported Don Imus, or who disagreed with his being fired.  I did however find many people who wondered what took so long. 

There were some themes that seemed to come through again and again in my chats.  After all the talk about the supposedly politically correct climate in which we live, in reality there is still just too much tolerance for the type of language that Don Imus used.  There are still those in all white male positions (such as the Imus show) that feel they make all the rules, and to heck with anyone else.  Some felt that only after the large corporate sponsors ended their relationship with the Imus show did the end come for the shock-jock.  A lot of moral blustering but in the end it was all about money.

So what can stop future such lapses of common decency?  That one was harder for folks to answer but one college age guy had the possible answer if it happens again.   He told me that an energized internet (including bloggers) makes the reaction time for the type of comment Imus made less manageable.  The PR spin of Imus after a foot in mouth moment has less traction when the internet is tuned in, and focusing lots of attention on the matter.  No doubt that is exactly, in part, what happened.

There was a groundswell of outrage from all corners of America this week, and though our voices are not always heard with such clarity (remember being against Bush’s bloody war), our voices found a unity that did right a wrong.  The young women who were at the center of the storm this week not only played great basketball, but also taught us that our voices when raised for justice, can make a difference.  That lesson is one we should never forget.  For that we owe them a huge thanks.

Technorati Tags: DonImus, Madison, StateStreet, Wisconsin, Radio, Wi-Fi

Why Do Some Invite Don Imus Into Their Home?

Old Time Radio In Our Home

Having been a radio broadcaster for only a few years I do not pretend to be a professional sage that can pontificate from on high about Don Imus and his disgusting and racist remarks. But as a long time radio listener, and lover of the medium, I do feel qualified to offer a few thoughts about what has happened to that magic little box over the years.

Don Imus has reminded me that in this run-up to the election for the White House we seek a person that we want to welcome into our living room each day via the news.   Some polls show that if a person is not likable then they are not electable as president.  How is it then that so many people welcome into their homes and car via the radio the despicable shock-jocks like Don Imus and Howard Stern?  How can they feel that these ‘entertainers’ are the type of people worthy of being our guest?

And that is what they are, or at least how we should treat them.  They should act like guests.  Would we accept rude, degrading, and vulgar language from others that we invite into our inner circles?  Would we allow racial and homophobic remarks from friends seated in our dining room?  If not, then why do so many allow the Imus type of radio characters to enter our homes?

I am in my mid-40’s and yet have no problem admitting being so far removed for what passes as either acceptable or entertaining fare these days that most of the current culture is allowed to pass without my attention.  I do not feel like I have missed much when I tune in again and find the rancid ‘humor’ of Imus making news.

For instance I learned this week that in March 2007 during just four minutes of air time Don Imus and his producer laughed at ‘beating up faggots’, knocking over Jewish tombstones, setting ‘homeless bums’ on fire, coarsely talking about Anderson Cooper’s sex life, calling Obama a ‘colored man’, wishing that some sissy on “American Idol” would be the victim of a hate crime, and making a nasty comment about Rosie O’Donnell’s private parts.  This all falls under the guise of broadcast ‘entertainment’ on our radio in 2007!

I recall as a kid my mother hearing the word “damn” on a radio news actuality and commenting that she did not think it proper.  That may seem real strange today but there was a time not so long ago that there was a sense of propriety about the airwaves.  Somewhere, slowly but surely, the train careened off the tracks and Imus and Company is now accepted.  Corporate boardrooms love the millions that shock-jocks make through advertising but I find it hard to accept the lowering of the common denominator of the broadcast medium that I love so much.

As a boy I played radio using my father’s old stopwatch to time my news reports, which were stories from the Stevens Point Daily Journal.  My newscasts were ‘funded’ with ads found in the paper.  And I fit it all into five-minute segments just like the major broadcasters did.  By the time I was really behind a microphone as an adult at a small market station giving news stories that I had covered and written, I actually was pretty good with knowing how much talking would be required for an allotted time slot.

When I slipped up shortly after starting my radio job and added a hard ‘k’ sound to then City Attorney Staufaucher’s name during the news no one was more hard on me, than I was to myself.  It wasn’t professional and I was determined that this type of error would not be repeated.   Today on some stations with certain personalities that would be seen as a reason for a series of jokes that would only digress further and further into the rot that now infests some of radio.

Thankfully there is a great deal of professional radio that is still the type many of us knew from years ago, and gravitate to today for news and entertainment.  National Public Radio, WGN from Chicago (every radio in all rooms of our home have this station programmed), WSM from Nashville,  KMOX from St. Louis, WBZ from Boston, and others such as these still have that rock solid sense of professional broadcasting, and all in good taste. 

Yeah, I know good taste is frowned on at some stations, degraded as old-fashioned among others, and even considered out of date, but I bet Imus wishes now he might have had an ounce of it last week.  And I am very firm in my belief that good taste is still a commodity that most radio listeners still seek when they make their way around the radio dial.

Technorati Tags: Radio, DonImus, HowardStern, ShockJocks, WGN, NPR, KMOX, WBZ, WSM