Rutgers players owe Imus nothing
The New York Times has an article about the Imus spectacle, and this is kind of an interesting idea to consider:
But it's all pretty sad. These women made it to the highest game in their sport, falling to Tennesee in the national championship. That makes them public figures, but one can safely assume none of them imagined they would find themselves involved against their wishes in this imbroglio.
Years from now, these women will not only recall their stellar season but the offensive remarks made by Imus. That's pretty cold.
The basketball players didn't ask for this; they were singled out because of their race and gender because Imus thought it would be funny to do so. If this supposedly respectable heavywieght radio personality can be that insensitive and stupid, what does that say about the American media?
This goes way beyond Imus. The bean counters in media corporations better start realizing that the continual bad behavior of some of their reporters, editorial writers and personalities is starting to threaten the bottom line. To borrow the oft-repeated phrase from the chillingly prescient movie Network, people are now mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more.
The usual canards are being trotted out already: Imus is sorry, this is "political correctness," it was an "attempt at humor." Blah blah blah. I don't care if Imus is sorry, he should have thought of that about fifteen years ago. If it's politically correct to object to hateful racial insults, sign me up. Humor is subjective, but there's a reason Howard Stern has been consigned to satellite.
And yes, conservatives, please bore us with lame attempts at defending Imus on First Amendment grounds. Of course he has First Amendment rights. We all do, but the media corporations long ago decided that easy money through shock is preferrable to being responsible corporate citizens. Imus himself is emblamatic of the larger problem with the media conglomerates, in that he got away with being both a shock jock and a "serious journalist." Good reporting can be entertaining, but the emphasis on dollars and the entertainment aspect of news has severely damaged our country. We can't have a truly functional democracy with a lousy Fourth Estate.
The Rutgers players and coaches, and their families, have kind of a difficult decision to make. They'd be well within their rights to refuse to meet with Imus, because they don't owe him the time of day.
It is unclear whether members of the Rutgers team will agree to meet with Mr. Imus. The Rutgers athletic director, Robert E. Mulcahy III, said in a statement yesterday, “I have relayed the message of Don Imus and his offer to apologize in person to the students and asked them to let me know how they wished to respond if at all.”The students, obviously, can do as they wish. If some or all of them want to meet with Imus, that's their right.
But it's all pretty sad. These women made it to the highest game in their sport, falling to Tennesee in the national championship. That makes them public figures, but one can safely assume none of them imagined they would find themselves involved against their wishes in this imbroglio.
Years from now, these women will not only recall their stellar season but the offensive remarks made by Imus. That's pretty cold.
The basketball players didn't ask for this; they were singled out because of their race and gender because Imus thought it would be funny to do so. If this supposedly respectable heavywieght radio personality can be that insensitive and stupid, what does that say about the American media?
This goes way beyond Imus. The bean counters in media corporations better start realizing that the continual bad behavior of some of their reporters, editorial writers and personalities is starting to threaten the bottom line. To borrow the oft-repeated phrase from the chillingly prescient movie Network, people are now mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more.
The usual canards are being trotted out already: Imus is sorry, this is "political correctness," it was an "attempt at humor." Blah blah blah. I don't care if Imus is sorry, he should have thought of that about fifteen years ago. If it's politically correct to object to hateful racial insults, sign me up. Humor is subjective, but there's a reason Howard Stern has been consigned to satellite.
And yes, conservatives, please bore us with lame attempts at defending Imus on First Amendment grounds. Of course he has First Amendment rights. We all do, but the media corporations long ago decided that easy money through shock is preferrable to being responsible corporate citizens. Imus himself is emblamatic of the larger problem with the media conglomerates, in that he got away with being both a shock jock and a "serious journalist." Good reporting can be entertaining, but the emphasis on dollars and the entertainment aspect of news has severely damaged our country. We can't have a truly functional democracy with a lousy Fourth Estate.
The Rutgers players and coaches, and their families, have kind of a difficult decision to make. They'd be well within their rights to refuse to meet with Imus, because they don't owe him the time of day.
