Joe Conason: No More Whining Excuses (for Don Imus)

How I miss Joe Conason on Al Franken's show!

:cry:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/04/13/imus/

It doesn't matter whether the journalists and politicians who appeared on the Imus show think he should be forgiven. Special pleading by anyone who has benefited from airtime with Imus is obviously not worth much. Every celebrated bigot has friends and sycophants who will vouch for his purity of spirit, so why should we believe the Imus posse any more than the cronies of David Duke or Louis Farrakhan? The proof is in the transcripts, where the vicious evidence is overwhelming. His friends' impulse to defend him may be understandable as a matter of loyalty, although former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant surely turned many stomachs when he assured Imus, "Solidarity forever, pal." As for the preening suggestion by his guests that the Imus show provided serious political discussion available nowhere else on the airwaves, that scarcely requires contradiction. All of these fine minds -- and their great thoughts! -- can be found quite easily in other venues. Which may be where they will explain why they went along with his sickening act for so many years.

It doesn't matter how much money Imus donated to charity. The largess bestowed on a few children by him and his wife -- with as much self-aggrandizing fanfare as possible, incidentally -- did not license him to damage millions of others with his pathological ranting. It entitled him to a tax break, which no doubt he enjoyed to the maximum.

It doesn't matter whether Imus apologized, hopes to apologize to the Rutgers women in person, or promises never to utter racist remarks again. Anyone who has been paying attention knows that he has made such promises and apologies before. They were meaningless then and they would be meaningless today. On "Larry King Live," Imus friend Bo Dietl seemed to argue that MSNBC was wrong to let him go before he "had a chance" to speak with the Rutgers team he insulted, and that they should somehow decide his fate. But there is no reason to burden those women with that responsibility -- which rested solely with his employers.

From the beginning, the only relevant question was whether the networks would uphold decent values. Under pressure of conscience or commerce or both, NBC and CBS did the right thing -- and sent a refreshing message that all the excuses in the world cannot change.

And my opinion of him dropped drastically. "Solidarity forever, pal?" And this is the same guy who used to appear on Franken's show? THAT guy seemed like a normal beltway liberal. I don't know this guy.

offensive language being expressed.

Give people a chance, especially those like Oliphant who are the good guys in this fight.

in him. He is one of the good guys when he was on with Al Franken. Not so much with Imus. He always has interesting discussing with Imus but he let silly, inane remarks by Imus fly by him without correcting and chastising Imus. Silence in the face of racism is agreement in the remarks.

Conason's nails it again. The people who are defending Imus are the ones who benefited from appearing on his show. Even Hitler had people who thought he was a nice guy.