Don Imus and his Corporate Minders

by Rick Rockwell

Don Imus may be gone (for the moment) but the problem that kept him around for decades despite his racist commentaries is still with us: the corporate media.

Today, CBS and MSNBC are trying to look like champions because they pulled the trigger on Imus, and sacrificed millions in advertising revenue. But the truth is, originally, both corporations were happy just to suspend the racist shock jock for a few weeks until the current storm ended. What they didn’t anticipate was an internal revolt by high-priced celebrities incensed by the initial slap on the wrist the corporate bosses gave Imus. They also didn’t anticipate that advertisers would also find Imus’ hateful comments unacceptable.

The bottom line is what fired Imus, not any sense of social responsibility. When his advertisers started to bail, and therefore his profit potential receded, that’s when the corporate bosses got serious. That’s just simple media economics.

For those who haven’t followed this controversy, please check out Jeff Siegel’s excellent commentary from earlier this week (entitled “Honky Honky”). Imus was finally undone because he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” However, Imus has been getting away with such comments for years, or encouraging his sidekicks to utter such trash. Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and Media Matters for America have both documented a long list of racist, sexist, or homophobic statements emanating from Imus or his program.

But Imus got a pass from the corporate media because his syndicated program pulled in more than two million people daily. Because of his place on CBS Radio and show on MSNBC he was able to get famous pundits, journalists and politicians to speak. They should have done what editors for Newsweek did this week, and declare they would encourage their journalists not to appear on Imus' program because of its racist content. However, for years, guests wouldn’t decline an invitation from Imus because of the millions who would be listening. All of them – the guests, the listeners and the corporate bosses – should be ashamed today that they helped support racism for years.

Wrongly, some have tried to couch this issue as one of free speech. Yes, Imus has the right to mouth these offensive sayings if he wants. Let him stand on a street corner and do so, or spend his millions on a newspaper to print them, or start his own blog. He has that right in America, no matter the content. But he has no right to use the public airwaves to further his hateful ideas and inspire the growth of those ideas in others. Some who protested Imus’ latest commentaries had threatened to take him and his bosses to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). His firing certainly takes away that threat.

But more than that, both the commentaries of other media personalities and the desertion of advertisers forced his bosses to take action. Oprah Winfrey lambasted Imus on her program just hours before he was dismissed. By the way, a subsidiary of CBS, King World distributes Winfrey’s talkshow, and the corporate bosses no doubt realize how her audience dwarfs Imus and his fans. Also, Al Roker, the usually genial personality from NBC’s Today, used his blog to urge the corporate bosses to cancel the simulcast of Imus' radio show on MSNBC. A house divided cannot stand, even in the corporate world.

Finally, when General Motors pulled its advertising that was the real end of Imus. In the media world, car advertising is king. Some have speculated that Imus may follow Howard Stern from CBS to satellite radio, but not if GM has anything to say about it. By the way, GM is a major investor in satellite radio.

Given the way corporate media works, Imus will likely resurface somewhere because he has that track record of delivering viewers and listeners. Whoever hires him though has no shame: who wants the kind of audience such a man attracts?

(The cartoon is from radicalgraphics.org, which offers its material for free.)

Don Imus
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