Trash Talk Radio - Gwen Ifill

April 10, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Trash Talk Radio
By GWEN IFILL
Washington

LET’S say a word about the girls. The young women with the musical names. Kia and Epiphanny and Matee and Essence. Katie and Dee Dee and Rashidat and Myia and Brittany and Heather.

The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University had an improbable season, dropping four of their first seven games, yet ending up in the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball championship game. None of them were seniors. Five were freshmen.

In the end, they were stopped only by Tennessee’s Lady Vols, who clinched their seventh national championship by ending Rutgers’ Cinderella run last week, 59-46. That’s the kind of story we love, right? A bunch of teenagers from Newark, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and, yes, Ogden, Utah, defying expectations. It’s what explodes so many March Madness office pools.

But not, apparently, for the girls. For all their grit, hard work and courage, the Rutgers girls got branded “nappy-headed ho’s” — a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men. The “joke” — as delivered and later recanted — by the radio and television personality Don Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.

The serial apologies of Mr. Imus, who was suspended yesterday by both NBC News and CBS Radio for his remarks, have failed another test. The sincerity seems forced and suspect because he’s done some version of this several times before.

I know, because he apparently did it to me.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/opinion/10ifill.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

nice response by Ms. Ifill

....Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus’s program? That’s for them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don’t know any black journalists who will. To his credit, Mr. Imus told the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday he realizes that, this time, he went way too far.

Yes, he did. Every time a young black girl shyly approaches me for an autograph or writes or calls or stops me on the street to ask how she can become a journalist, I feel an enormous responsibility. It’s more than simply being a role model. I know I have to be a voice for them as well.

So here’s what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal playing field.

Let’s see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than opting for the cheapest, easiest, most despicable shots.

Gwen Ifill is a senior correspondent for “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” and the moderator of “Washington Week.”

I hope some others read this and understand why Imus needs to be fired.

Well done.

Ms. Ifill brings the point home when she writes:

"For all their grit, hard work and courage, the Rutgers girls got branded “nappy-headed ho’s” — a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men."

But Gwen is one of the worst Media Ho's in the business.

http://www.google.com/custom?q=GWEN+IFILL&sa=Google+Search&cof=AH%3Acenter%3BAWFID%3Ac32a032061318778%3B&domains=dailyhowler.com&sitesearch=dailyhowler.com

I don't care if she's friends with Condi Rice. I like watching her show Washington Week.

To date I hadn't seen that side of her. I don't remember her trashing Gore in 1999 and to read that she did it is very disturbing. But in 1999 I wasn't watching the media with the same jaundiced eye that I have now.

Good reminder to myself to not be overly fond of anyone in the public eye. All are subject to their own personal foibles. Appears that Gwen is not the paragon of impartial, non-partisan reporting. <sigh>

and I agree!

as a Friend of Condi's she not only brags about their closeness but lets it influence her coverage of this administration. She has long been a BushCo tool because of it.

have never noticed any influence in her coverage due to that friendship. I see her regularly on the News Hour and on Washington Week and consider her to be one of the best.

A good and fair win has been tarnished and trampled because this idiot Imus had to spew forth his sexist and racist opinions. It was a good game ruined by a bigot.

Excellent OP piece. By all accounts, his (and his cohorts) behavior was and has been reprehensible.

I've never been a fan of Imus. I only started listening a bit recently since we lost AAR here. Starting this AM, I'm listening to tapes while driving to work if I've already heard all the NPR stories.