Radio personality Don Imus appears on Rev. Al Sharpton's ...

NEW YORK - MSNBC said Wednesday it will drop its simulcast of the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, responding to growing outrage about the radio host's racial slur against the Rutgers women's basketball team.

"This decision comes as a result of an ongoing review process, which initially included the announcement of a suspension. It also takes into account many conversations with our own employees," NBC news said in a statement.

Talk-show host Don Imus triggered the uproar on his April 4 show, when he referred to the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." His comments have been widely denounced by civil rights and women's groups.

The decision does not affect Imus' nationally syndicated radio show, and the ultimate decision on the fate of that program will rest with executives at CBS Corp. In a statement, CBS reiterated that Imus will be suspended without pay for two weeks beginning on Monday, and that CBS Radio "will continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely."

MSNBC's action came after a growing list of sponsors _ including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp. _ said they were pulling ads from Imus' show for the indefinite future.

NBC News President Steve Capus said he made the decision after reading thousands of e-mails and having countless discussions with NBC workers and the public, but he denied the potential loss of advertising dollars had anything to do with it.

"I take no joy in this. It's not a particularly happy moment, but it needed to happen," he said. "I can't ignore the fact that there is a very long list of inappropriate comments, of inappropriate banter, and it has to stop."

NBC's decision came at a time when Imus' program on MSNBC was doing better competitively than it ever has been. For the first three months of the year, its audience was nearly identical to CNN's, leading CNN to replace its morning news team last week.

Calls for Imus' firing from the radio portion of the program have intensified during the past week, and remained strong even after MSNBC's announcment. The show originates from WFAN-AM in New York City and is syndicated nationally by Westwood One, both of which are managed by CBS Corp. MSNBC, which had been simulcasting the show, is a unit of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal.

Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., said before MSNBC's decision Wednesday he hoped the broadcasting company would "make the smart decision" by firing Imus.

"He's crossed the line, he's violated our community," Gordon said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "He needs to face the consequence of that violation."

Gordon, a longtime telecommunications executive, stepped down in March after 19 months as head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the foremost U.S. civil rights organizations.

He said he had spoken with CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves and hoped the company, after reviewing the situation, would fire Imus rather than let him return to the air at the end of his suspension.

"We should have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to what I see as irresponsible, racist behavior," Gordon said. "The Imus comments go beyond humor. Maybe he thought it was funny, but that's not what occurred."

A CBS spokesman, Dana McClintock, declined comment on the remarks by Gordon, who is one of at least two minorities on the 13-member board.

The 10 members of the Rutgers team spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday about the on-air comments, made the day after the team lost the NCAA championship game to Tennessee. Some of them wiped away tears as their coach, C. Vivian Stringer, criticized Imus for "racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, abominable and unconscionable."

The women, eight of whom are black, agreed to meet with Imus privately and hear his explanation. They held back from saying whether they'd accept Imus' apologies or passing judgment on whether a two-week suspension imposed by CBS Radio and MSNBC was sufficient.

Stringer said late Wednesday that she did not call for Imus' firing, but was pleased with the decision by NBC executives.

She said the meeting with Imus was never designed to call for his removal but to give the women on the team the opportunity to meet with him and for him to see the people he had so publicly hurt.

"The young ladies and I needed to put a face behind the remarks... He needs to know who these young ladies were that he hurt," Stringer said.

Imus has apologized repeatedly for his comments. He said Tuesday he hadn't been thinking when making a joke that went "way too far." He also said that those who called for his firing without knowing him, his philanthropic work or what his show was about would be making an "ill-informed" choice.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said in New York that he would put pressure on CBS but that the issue was larger than Imus.

"I think we also have to have now a broad discussion on how the music industry allows this to be used," Sharpton said. "I don't think that we should stop at NBC, and I don't think we should stop at Imus."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said he planned to meet with CBS and NBC executives on Thursday with a delegation of other civil rights activists and lawmakers to discuss the Imus situation and diversity in broadcasting.

"Imus is on 1,040 hours a week and yet they have virtually no black show hosts. That is true for other networks as well," Jackson said. "We must raise the ethical standard for all of them."

At the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, N.J., about 300 students and faculty rallied earlier in the day to cheer for their team, which lost in the national championship game, and add their voices to the crescendo of calls for Imus' ouster. One of the speakers was Chidimma Acholonu, president of the campus chapter of the NAACP.

"This is not a battle against one man. This is a battle against a way of thought," she said. "Don Imus does not understand the power of his words, so it is our responsibility to remind him."

___

Associated Press writers David Bauder, Samantha Gross and Seth Sutel in New York and Rebecca Santana in New Brunswick, N.J., contributed to this report.

(A previous version of this story had the word 'are' in a quote from Rutgers' basketball coach. It should have been 'were.')

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

* printable version

Hn TV

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sydneyjean,

It only means that they have time to edit his comments...Fu cker! Oh yeah...and hopefully they awarded him with a two week vacation on top of it

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sydneyjean,

For the record...I only edited all the BS that was at the end of the article...It had nada to do with him...Just so ya know...He Is a *****!

While the race industry is calling for the head of Don Imus, we have Crystal Gail Mangum of North Carolina. Who is she? She is the woman who falsely accused three members of the Duke lacrosse team of rape. Her unsubstantiated charges resulted in a media firestorm against Duke University and these lacrosse players.


Jesse Jackson had plenty to say about this case also. In his column on Blacknews.com Jackson said "Predictably, the right-wing media machine has kicked in, prompting mean-spirited attacks upon the accuser's character." Later he offered to pay Mangum's tuition for a college education if her story proved true. Later he amended his promise. In January he said that the Rainbow/Push Coalition would pay her college tuition even if it turns out she completely fabricated her story! Now isn't that special? Hey sisters! How would you like to get a college scholarship from Jesse Jackson? Apparently all you have to do is lodge a false rape accusation against an all-white college sports team!

Get out your checkbook, Jesse. Now we have learned that it was a hoax. No truth. The North Carolina Attorney General's office has declared the accused players to be innocent. A State Bar investigation of Nifong continues. And thus far Jesse Jackson has not come forward to offer any comfort to the lacrosse players falsely accused by Ms. Mangum.

Now ... why even bring all of this up? Well, we have two college teams in the mix. A Rutgers women's basketball team that is largely black, and a Duke men's lacrosse team that is almost (save for one player) exclusively white. A white man insulted the Rutgers team with a mean-spirited quip. No season cancelled. No coach fired. No arrests. Nobody on the basketball team had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on defense attorneys. They were insulted. The were the targets of a stupid racially charged remark ... but that's pretty much it. But how about Duke? The Duke team members were accused of a crime. Attorneys were hired. Coaches fired. Seasons cancelled. Reputations damaged. DNA swabs were taken. Charges were filed. The district attorney was out there saying that a rape most definitely had occurred. Now we find that they were completely innocent. In the meantime the white man who made the stupid remark about the Rutgers basketball team is being attacked and vilified as if he was a mass murderer. The black woman who made the false charges of rape against the lacrosse team is going to walk. In fact, you can fully expect the civil rights establishment --- the same civil rights establishment that is united in their efforts to destroy Don Imus -- circle the wagons around Crystal Gail Mangum and protect her at all costs.

Oprah is going to have the Rutgers woman's basketball team on her show. How many of you would like to make book on when Oprah invites the Duke lacrosse team to be on her show? When pigs fly.


Imus called the Rutgers woman's basketball team a bunch of "nappy headed hos." Not good. Stupid even. But correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Stevie Wonder have some song in which he referred to himself as a "nappy headed little boy"? And is it not true that you can hear black women referred to as "hos" on virtually any urban hip hop station on any given day? Stevie Wonder is black, as are the rappers who denigrate black women with abandon. They're allowed. The real issue here is that the words were spoken by someone-not-black.

Al Sharpton is a liar and quite possibly a bigot himself. He falsely accused Steven Pagones of rape and mutilation in the Tawana Brawley matter. He's never apologized. He incited murder at Freddie's Fashion Mart in Harlem while loudly denouncing white interlopers. No apology. Do you remember the Crown Heights Riot in New York? That's where Al Sharpton whipped a crowd into a four-day riot on rumors that a Jewish ambulance had failed to treat a young black at the scene of a disturbance after a car accident. There was Sharpton referring to "diamond merchants" shedding the "blood of innocent babies." Diamond merchants? Code word for Jews. Apology? None. And this is the man that that fool John Kerry calls the moral compass of the Democrat Party? And now what? Imus goes to Sharpton to apologize? And excuse me, but didn't I hear the words "Hymie Town" from Jesse Jackson?

I have mixed feelings on this issue.

Dave Chappelle (who I love) should be fired. Chris Rock too! Every rapper on earth with them.

quinn, I agree.

K, I am gonna have to agree with ya...But its different to me somehow when they make fun of real people...I dunno...But I see ur point...Howard Stern (the real one) is one of my faves

I have mixed feelings aswell....

I think it was turned into a racial issue which I didn't think it was....there were white girls on there aswell....and only the black girls talked about it...he wasn't singleing out the black..he was talking about ALL the girls.....

And he only said things that alot of black people say....but they get away with it. I don't get it....I just don't take sh it so personal....I don't get it.

The people have spoken, the advertisers have pulled out, and now he's out. See ya!

I say don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out, Imus.

I think that he was singling out the black women on the team when he said."nappy headed..." Those words are not used to describe white women. I believe Imus made racist comments.

Woah! Why should Dave Chappelle get fired? *Just wondering?*

you got your wish my dear!! lol

quote:

Originally posted by gcb:
I think that he was singling out the black women on the team when he said."nappy headed..." Those words are not used to describe white women. I believe Imus made racist comments.

YOU have obviously never been a nappy headed white woman, cuz.. lemme tell ya.. I have black friends .. they will tell you.. I have lost
**** in my hair before.. so...im just saying I think this has been very BLOWN OUTTA PROPORTION.. lol...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: *PJ*,

quote:

Originally posted by gcb:
I think that he was singling out the black women on the team when he said."nappy headed..." Those words are not used to describe white women. I believe Imus made racist comments.

I don`t think he intended it to be a racial remark but that`s the way that Jesse and Al ran with it....BTW, what right do these 2 clowns have to be the authority on what can and cannot be said on radio? There are rappers and comedians who say things worse than this and what`s done to them? Not a **** thing. For them, it`s "freedom of speech," or as Snoop Dog says, "it`s just different." Give me a freakin break...