Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Don Imus is an Idiot
From time to time, there is commentary here about what a very strange profession this radio thing can be. In fact, that was the premise of my column in yesterday’s Democrat-Gazette concerning Dana Altman’s brief tenure as Razorback basketball coach.
Anyways, the latest thing in radio is the unfortunate mess a certain famous morning host has cast himself headlong into. How a grown man thinks he can get away with calling a group of young women he has never even met by the kinds of names that just pour out of his mouth is not really beyond me. It is because broadcast management enables this kind of anti-social nonsense until some powerful faction gets offended and then they look all shocked and chagrinned. I don’t know if that was the host’s voice using the racial slur, but that particular word went out of style when I was in grade school. The whole thing was despicable.
He should be ashamed, but that would require a conscience. Now, he is being suspended for two weeks, which is the radio equivolent of a paid vacation, an enormous joke, and a promotional opportunity. He is even more famous than before and we are a bunch of suckers.
(Broadcast Aptil 10, 2007)
Anyways, the latest thing in radio is the unfortunate mess a certain famous morning host has cast himself headlong into. How a grown man thinks he can get away with calling a group of young women he has never even met by the kinds of names that just pour out of his mouth is not really beyond me. It is because broadcast management enables this kind of anti-social nonsense until some powerful faction gets offended and then they look all shocked and chagrinned. I don’t know if that was the host’s voice using the racial slur, but that particular word went out of style when I was in grade school. The whole thing was despicable.
He should be ashamed, but that would require a conscience. Now, he is being suspended for two weeks, which is the radio equivolent of a paid vacation, an enormous joke, and a promotional opportunity. He is even more famous than before and we are a bunch of suckers.
(Broadcast Aptil 10, 2007)
