Cynical Nation

Well, his MSNBC show has been cancelled. I've never listened to him, and I can't say that I feel I'm missing very much.

The I-Man: unfunny, unclever, unentertaining, no ratings, a royal mumbling bore.

I can't find any documented evidence that he's ever even been the least bit interesting, let alone funny.

I caught him a couple of times on MSNBC and always felt it was liking watching an old guy at a family get-together trying to do a Howard Stern impersonation -- and not quite remembering the bit that seemed so funny in front of the bathroom mirror.

Imus' comment was stupid but he isn't a racist. And it's amazing that the situation has been blown so out of proportion and context that Imus now looks like the victim.

Al Sharpton strikes again.

The rumor making the rounds is that tomorrow is Imus' last show on radio.

I don't think he's a racist, I just think he's unfunny. In fact, I think that his charity work is exemplary. I wish that he'd retired from his radio show years ago. The comments he recently made weren't just readable as racist, they were readable as misogynistic. The man is 66, and was raised in a time where women's lib didn't exist, yet. It is perhaps this factor that prevented my enjoying his show.

I don't think he meant to be racist, and I think that he says things like this all the time with no one ever taking notice. I want him to stop.

And by the way, I appreciate the link.

withoutfeathers said
was liking watching an old guy at a family get-together trying to do a Howard Stern impersonation -- and not quite remembering the bit that seemed so funny in front of the bathroom mirror.

Oh, now that's sad. And I just heard that Imus was just fired by CBS.

I'm no Imus fan, never liked his Left-of-center politics.

He's a died in the wool Liberal despite his supporting both Harold Ford Jr & Rick Santorum in the last election.

I think his Rutger's comments gained so much traction because they were seen as bullying and kicking these women when they were down (they'd just lost to Tennessee), rather than any perceived "sexism" or "racism." If he'd made fun of Sharpton's looks or some other black public figure's looks, that would've been fair game, but these kids weren't public figures and had no public forum for redress.

Moreover, strictly from a business standpoint today's firing (from CBS Radio) seems to make sense on both ends. WFAN is a Sports Talk station and its doubtful whether Imus' audience continues to listen to the rest of WFAN's fare, so he probably wasn't the great lead-in they thought they were getting, especially with ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike Show drawing market share and viewers away from WFAN in that time slot.

For WFAN a morning sports show to combat Mike & Mike seems to make more sense in looking to reach their target audience, while for Imus, he can look to latch on with Sattelite radio and hope he can find a place to do his "original shock jock" routine for a few more years.

Actually Barry, before you were cognizant of the man due to your youthful age, Don Imus WAS actually funny.

I used to listen to him in the early 1970s when he would use comedic routines featuring the Rev. Billy Sol Hargis of Del Rio, Texas (with the hilarious song "Nobody wants to play rythym guitar behind Jesus...").

I tried to listen to his show once in a while during the 1990s but found that all the humor was provide by Bernard McGirk, not Don.

Somehow, the man had become the "I-man" and "I" which I found to be a cheap version of the toadies who used to hang with Elvis and refer to him as "E".

Worse, Don started to consider himself a political power broker what with his regular pols and journalists such as Tim Russert who frequented his show. I mention the latter for this reason: Imus' ego was so large that when Russert missed an assigned time slot to appear, well, read it for yourself:

"MSNBC shock-jock Don Imus isn't holding back: Tim Russert blew him off yesterday morning for the "Today Show," and he's pissed. Yesterday, Imus complained on-air that Russert had backed out of a committment to do his show because Today had beckoned, kicking off a rant against the Today Show and its pride of place on NBC: "They're so enamored of that Today show and it is AWFUL!" he ranted. "Do they ever take a look at who is watching? Dead people!" (At this point, the screen froze weirdly and it cut to commercial, but since he repeated the "dead people" comment today, we can assume that was accidental). He also said, "Russert can kiss my ass."

Imus followed up yesterday's pillioring of Russert (including a sulky, "If he thinks the today show is more important, he should do that" and a more belligerent "Russert can kiss my ass.") with another rant this morning, calling the Today show "the worst show on television" and proclaiming Russert banned from Imus until he damn well felt like having him back ("He's in the time out until I figure out when he's not"). Though Imus' staff tried to advoacate on Russert's behalf (his female co-host said "I like that green tie he's been wearing lately" — ETP doesn't know who she is but does know that it's definitely not Contessa Brewer), Imus remained resolute. Interestingly, Russert is scheduled to come on Imus tomorrow morning so it may well be a very short ban, depending on how forgiving Imus is feeling."

Exactly when Don Imus decided he was political dynamite, I cannot say. I do recall hearing this rant and was stunned by his anger.

What makes this particular matter interesting to me is that:

a) it is not even close to the first time Don Imus has been racist, or anti-Semetic, or ...fill in the blank and yet his toadies have turned a deaf ear to it all.

b) Mike Lupica, sports columnist for the NY Daily News who never misses an opportunity to both suck up to Imus in his columns ("Mr.Imus said...") and who always has barbs for Repubs like Bush, Cheney, et. al. seemed to have missed the dust-up as he made no mention of it in his Sunday column.

Don Imus deserved to be fired both for what he said which was disgusting but also for myriad other comments he has made which were also way over the line.

Take a good look at the man's face and ask yourself what I do:

Why the anger?

What are the demons in your life that makes you look so embittered despite a fantastically successful career?