Imus called himself an idiot for years. He is NOT the only idiot though.
It finally happened. Don Imus got fired. Yawn! He will reappear somewhere. XM or Sirius? Maybe.
Someone joked that he would replace me. The thought being that Jefferson City is the nice smaller market for him to rebuilt his legacy from.
I doubt his ego would fit here.
Should he have been fired? You tell me. His comments made advertisers quit his show, which cost his employer LOTS of money. The simple economics of it tell me, YES. Over his comments alone? I doubt it. It just doesn't work that way in this business.
In fact, here are a couple of points that I would like to shed light on, and others have as well.
First, his most vocal critic was Al Sharpton. Al "I have yet to apologize for Tawana Brawley from 20 years ago" Sharpton!! Now, those who know me know that I admit to voting for him. Which I did. It was a Democrat primary, he had alread quit, but he would have made for the most interesting General Election race. I would NEVER vote for him in a General Election.
How come none of Al Sharpton's advertisers have pulled their ads pending an apology over what he did YEARS ago? Is it all now forgotten? Hardly, every news source out there brought it up this week.
Second, there is a lot of recycling in broadcasting. You want to know why it is hard to get into this business? Companies trust retreads!! They forget that retreads have a higher failure rate, they only remember how reliable they once were. Imus has been a reliable money maker. So has Howard Stern and many others of their ilk. They trust these retreads. Then they act surprised when they have to grab the wheel to prevent further damage when a retreat blows out.
I'd rather be sincere in my comments instead of ONLY looking for reactions. I have said many things that I could have been fired for. Good thing that wrecker companies in Knoxville didn't advertise on the radio.
Here is my very simple bottom line. Imus should have been fired due to the advertisers leaving. Imus should be vilified for his comments. Sharpton should SHUT UP until which time he apologizes for his actions of 20 years ago AND for his actions with the Duke case a year ago...if not for MANY other things.
We need new messengers. Neither one of these two idiots, Imus' term, are worthy of being one. Maybe he could go back to "spinning records" instead. Well, in this case, it would be playing MP3's or other music files. It is 2007, a successful DJ in the 1970's is not always going to be the best talk host in the 21st Century.
OH, but I MIGHT just be a little biased in stating that.
