Is it a coincidence that the source of spoken sludge, Don Imus, is slated to return to radio just as women's basketball season is kicking into high gear?
Newsday's Neil Best reported the other day that Imus and his band of blowhards will return, on WABC, the first week in December. The Rutgers women's basketball team, the target of the racist rant that got him bounced from the airwaves, plays 2006 NCAA champions Maryland Dec. 3 as part of the Jimmy V Classic. It will be on ESPN2.
Perhaps Imus and sidekick in sexism Bernard McGuirk should watch. At the very least, they'll see an entertaining game that benefits cancer research. At most, they might have something enlightening to say on the air about it. Too much to hope for? Probably. But we can dream. That's what the Rutgers team likely has been doing since its dream season ended in April a few points shy of a national crown. The squad woke up to a nightmare after Imus and McGuirk said what they said. The women of Rutgers emerged stronger and perhaps better poised to make another championship run.
Three of Rutgers' starting five are on the watch list for the Wade Trophy, which is presented annually by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association to the national player of the year. Essence Carson, Matee Ajavon and Kia Vaughn are the backbone of the team that fell to Tennessee in the national championship game and that returns all five starters and nine letterwinners. They're also a few of the women who stood up strongly and fiercely and told Imus just whom he'd messed with.
“I’m not a ho. Unless they've given `ho' a whole new definition, that's not what I am," Vaughn said at the time.
“You don’t get too many opportunities to finally stand up for what you know is right,” Carson said. “I know we’re at a young age but we definitely understand what is right and what should get done and what should be made of this. We’re happy — we’re glad to finally have the opportunity to stand up for what we know is right.”
We can only hope that he's taking their words with him when that "ON AIR" sign lights up and he leans into the microphone.
Comments (2)
The Isles don't draw as well because of the personnel moves and ownership blunders over the past 13 seasons. Factor in ticket prices and there's my reason behind the attendance struggles. The Isles fanbase is out there, I know, because most people I work with are all hockey fans, just don't go to the games.
Are you as outraged by rappers and rap moguls such as Russell Simmons, Snoop Dog, etal., BET and music execs who have accumulated billions of dollars by denigrating the women of their own community? The hypocrisy is staggering. "Protests" and "marches" now and again will not suffice, nor will "recommendations" by Russell Simmons to refrain from such language. Why don’t you organize a boycott of the advertisers who sponsor misogynistic videos on BET and rap lyrics on the radio’s public airwaves. Better yet, why not demand the firing of these rappers and executives, and of course, Isiah Washington?
From my perspective and as a feminist and female listener, the feminists of yesteryear propelled us to positions of unimagined strength and power. But, thanks to the new generation of NOW and its PC cohorts, today’s generation has transformed us into whining victims in need of protection, lacking the spine to laugh at ourselves and laugh off tasteless and poorly conceived humor, or at least, to dish it right back. Perhaps that explains Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court when he wrote that women need to be protected from themselves because they don’t always realize the consequences of their actions.
I don't want to live in a sanitized society in which every utterance is scrutinized and is “approved” or “disapproved”. I would rather be offended than have a self-appointed thought police determine what I can and cannot listen to or what should or should not offend me. Who appointed Sharpton and the NABJ as the thought police and arbiters of virtuous radio behavior? This is straight out of the former Soviet Union’s propaganda machine. Or, perhaps you are ignorant of the history of totalitarian governments – so-called “offensive” remarks, and off to the re-education camp you go!
It is clear that the critics had never listened to the entire content of the show and don’t know what they are talking about. If you do not find a radio or television program to your liking – then TURN THE CHANNEL. If you don’t find that Imus has anything of value to offer, that is your prerogative but such an opinion is irrelevant. You have no right to impose your sensibilities on others, just as others do not have a right to compel you to listen to a broadcast that does not interest or appeal to you. If one believes in a free society, no speech should ever be suppressed or censured by whatever pressure group of the month — if you don’t like it, argue against it or turn it off.
And yes, I can’t wait for the return of the I-Man, hopefully with his entire crew intact, unchastened and unleashed, not a kinder, gentler, Imus lite. Yes, the joke, and not the rant, about the Rutgers team was insulting. But the humor was not malicious in its intent, and certainly not “reprehensible”,“despicable”,“ speech”, and other hyperbolic characterizations. The likes of Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boorz, and others spew racist content as serious ideology on a regular basis. I believe it was Neil Boorz and Glen Beck who described the victims of Katrina as thugs, thieves and hoodlums deserving of their fate – and they were not kidding. I don’t recall anyone clamoring for their immediate dismissal. And I would not support their dismissal from the air – I would rather argue against them.