Radio talk host Don Imus said a very stupid, racist thing the other day about some young ladies who play basketball for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who made it all the way to the title game in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
It was a really, really stupid and ugly thing to say. I'm not going to write what he said for you--you can find out what he said all over the Internet.
He has been publicly chastised by prominent African-Americans and women's groups (and some black women, who could claim affiliation with both groups.) Even "The Today Show", which is an NBC program whose sister network carries Imus, went with the story like it was the first returns in on a national election.
My bottom line, Imus has been punished: for two weeks starting on April 16, he will be off the air. I think that punishment is appropriate. I do not think he should be fired, however, as the Rev. Al Sharpton and others want him to be. That's going too far. The man's job is to try and be funny and being funny is being provocative and sometimes a person walking the tightrope between provocative and nasty can screw up. Let him serve his "time out" and then go back and let the marketplace decide if there's a place for his radio show on the airwaves.
I listen to the "I-Man" from time to time but I'm not a huge fan. But he's smart in the main and he does things to help kids with cancer and promote literacy. The good in his public persona outweighs the bad in my opinion. The man apologized. If he can clean up his act, let him keep his job.
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