Unless you work for yourself and your business becomes an overnight sensation (ie: YouTube, MySpace), it takes years and years to build your reputation and success in what you do. Don Imus has spent the majority of his life building his radio personality career and has recently signed a 5 year, $50 million contract with CBS. As most of you have probably already heard, his most recent comments last Wednesday where he referred to the Rutgers women’s basketball team (who just lost in the NCAA national championship game to Tennessee) as a bunch of “nappy headed hoes”. The following day on his show, Imus In The Mornings, he went on to say, “I don’t understand what the problem is, really.” It was an “idiot comment meant to be amusing.” Obviously, these racist comments sent controversy all over the air waves.
Many people, lead mostly by prominent African Americans like Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and Tony Dungee called for Imus’s firing. MSNBC, who picks up a TV version of his radio show, immediately fired Don Imus. CBS began discussion about what to do with his radio show, which accounts for over $15 million in annual revenue for CBS. Proctor and Gamble and General Electric, along with other big companies dropped their sponsorship agreements with CBS costing them even more money. Finally yesterday it was announced that Don Imus would be fired from his radio show.
How Does This Apply To Your Career
There are some valuable lessons to learn from this incident.
What do you guys think of Don Imus’ comments and firing? Do you think he deserved to be fired over one comment? You can let us know in the comments below.
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I have never done anything that stupid, but I have often said things that I wished I had toned down a bit. Being aware of it is one thing, but being able to reign yourself in takes a little practice….
You live by your words, you die by your words . . that’s the life of a shock jock . . . the one’s that make $10+ mil a year are the ones that ride that fine line to success . . . it was just imus’ turn to fall . . . . I don’t feel sorry for him, I’m not thankful he’s off the air . . . i just don’t care about him
I agree with Gary. Don’t really care.
It seems like there’s always someone trying to be more controversial than the next guy so they can get a piece of the pie.
And every once in awhile, someone gets that pie in the face.
haha…yup, I’d say that pie pie was made out of horse dunn because you know he has a nasty after taste!!!
The comments that Imus made were not appropriate to say the least. However, if what he said should lead to the outcome that it has, then there are a lot of music artists that should not have their songs on the air and that many advertisers should not use them to hawk their products.
Imus lost his job because of the image it would present for his backers and thus potential monetary loss as well.
Remember when Whoopie Goldberg made comment about Bush and it cost her commercial endorsments. Same thing , different time.
Personally, I’m glad Imus is off the air: his show was crude at best, hateful often. But this situation is unbelievably stupid. Two reasons: first, what he said was only offensive because he was a white male. That’s an entire generational problem there.
Second, and more important, how tragic is it that we would allow someone to spew filth on the airwaves for so long, but then take them off over three words? Isn’t it terrible that we judge people not based on what they actually stand for, but on one little turn of speech? I am increasingly disgusted by the liberal practice of digging a pit for someone because of a word. This is not how we should discuss our lives.
Imus should be gone because his show was disgusting, not because of one single comment.
i really think this was the straw that broke the camel’s back . . . ok fine . . it was a tree trunk . . . .but from what I heard, a lot of people didn’t like imus already and this gave them the perfect opportunity to really bury him
It bothers me a little how much ’so what’ is out there after someone this visible makes a racist comment. I’m not even going to bother putting obviously inappropriate on the front of that - it’s unnecessary. We really don’t appear to have come very far since the 1950s, and everyone floating out there saying so what and I don’t really care, well, I hope someday you do.
I mean calling a group of college students nappy headed whores? Excuse me? I’ve usually not been exposed to racism, being white, but somehow white racists know I’m not like them and keep it to themselves - maybe there’s a secret handshake or something, but I didn’t see it much, until, that is, I was talking to a black co-worker when a package delivery guy insulted her for writing her name instead of signing her name. I’ll jump out there and judge this guy - I’m betting if it had been our pretty white secretary he wouldn’t have been insulting her for writing instead of signing.
I suspect there are a lot of white americans out there who just don’t know how much racism is out there, because they don’t even know any black people.
There is, as of 2004, still a town in Florida that is completely segregated.
Wake up white america. We shouldn’t be apathetic about this, and we shouldn’t be agitated only because it is politically correct, and we shouldn’t excuse some absolutely racist comment merely because someone is a “personality,” and not somebody who “counts” whatever that may mean. Tolerating racism when you see it is condoning it.
Keep in mind this wasn’t some other celebrity Imus was commenting on, these were female athletes who had not asked for his comments, engaged him on any level, or had any reason to be a valid target for his insipid mouth, racist or not. Think about that the next time you’re walking down the street and want to yell at someone and randomly abuse them (If you do that kind of thing, which I don’t think you do).
I am Native,
I know what Imus said was shocking, well these grils you know, they listen to more shocking things than imus could ever say.They like the rap that degrades them ,they date boy’s with their pants that hang down to their asses,and wear rags on their heads..Will now its just shocking because a white man said something, wow! I thank him! only for free speach.
When I would go to work in the moring I would hear a black radio show talk bad about whites, and it was funny to all the black listener’s.Black comics talk of whites all the time FUNNY.When imus said what he said at the end of his words were “BUT THIER CUTE THOUGH”
That part of his words made me think he knew he had made a shocking remark, and was trying to say “i am not races”..Fox, Cnn, have been trying shut up anyone so they can get out thier propaganda out, blow up our world with Bush.Trying hard to stop free speach. So they can make us think all those people want to kill us, they did this with my people also, so they could displace us and take our land we were so bad we had to be put away on reservations to go hungry…
All of you on these news shows have Bushy heads ,and nappy heads are no were near as bad as” A BUSHY HEAD ”
SHARPTEN NEEDS TO FIND A REAL JOB..
One thing I want to say, there is so many bad action’s by these rapper’s, and so many black, and white children that think this hood rap is good. They act it out in the street ,at home. The News never talks about it, becuse their bosses make big bucks off the backs of these poor kids.
Babies don’t know thier daddies and there are no good love songs by blacks any more to help our kids feel good.The blacks play into these nasty song’s .I want free speach ,but showing girls shaking thier asses, half dressed ,and boys wearing pants down thier asses is not apart free speach ,its drity looking, and when they rap about it get’s dirty dirty.If they want to rap about sex ,I know in my heart they can find a better way.
The NEWS also will trash anyone ,they make shore they say it the way they want you to hear it.They help the war to go on and on ,its news money news,is it free speach or porpaganda just like rap music.
SORRY
Personally, I feel like I missed something.. I have never been under the impression that the words “nappy” and “ho” were racist at all. It seems to me that they’re “racist” because Al Sharpton *says* they’re racist. But maybe that’s just because I’m white, right? That is all…
I’m not sure how I feel about old Imus getting the can, but I wanted to say that I’ve read about it in a ton of blogs and this is the first I’ve seen someone use the incident to make people think about their own professional choices. Great write!
What Imus said was clearly not correct. If being fired is the action to be taken in such circumstances, then there are many singers/rappers and comedians etc. who should also be fired or their material not carried by networks etc.
Some form of corrective action needed to be taken. I think what happened was as much an issue of money and potential loss of future money to the firms and corporations who are connected with him. I am no laying blame with them for we as the public have asked for corporate accountability on many levels.
Whoopi Goldberg felt the sting of such action when she lost endorsements etc., after her Bush comment.
While Imus should have used better judgement, criticism of what was said should not stop with him. Lessons can be learned here and other “artists” should take heed.