For those of you who don’t know, Don Imus is back on the radio.
His return comes eight months after his racially charged on-air remark about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team (he called them “nappy-headed hos”) got him fired from CBS Radio and MSNBC.
Critics lambasted him; he apologized, laid low for a few months and then lo and behold was hired by Citadel Broadcasting and is now right back where he started. Only now he’s got a few new friends—young black cast members.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Imus returned to the airwaves with a newly diversified lineup and a pledge to foster a dialogue on race relations.
Hmm…
You have to know the guy is looking to quiet his critics, especially the most vocal one–the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was the strongest voice that called for Imus’ firing after the shock jock made the derogatory remarks about the female basketball members.
“The fact that he now has a black sidekick and that he’s on delay, clearly may speak of some of the measures that his new employers have put in to make sure that there’s not a repeat offense,” Sharpton said.
Typical Al Sharpton. His comments duly noted, though they border on the obvious.
Which makes the following statement by WABC’s program director and a Citadel Broadcasting vice president (Citadel owns WABC) all the more ridiculous. The radio bigwig told reporters he could not say whether race played a role in hiring black comedians Karith Foster and Tony Powell because Imus himself chose the new additions.
PUH-LEEZE!!
And to make matters worse Bernard McGuirk, the producer who instigated the Rutgers comment and was fired as well, also returned to Imus’ new show.
According to Powell, whose stand-up credits include “Showtime at the Apollo,” his hiring was not a token gesture.
Imus “actually wanted to improve the quality of his show, and so he went out and he got talented individuals to help him improve the quality of the show,” Powell told reporters. “The proof is in the pudding and the proof is in the product.”
The new “product” got underway this morning. In an apologetic 15-minute monologue before a live audience, Imus promised to use his second chance to discuss race relations.
“I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me,” he said.
For all of you who were appalled by Imus’ Rutgers comment, what do you make of his return to the airwaves and of his new diversified line up?
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