The Imus thing
Posted by Daniel Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:51:11 GMT
In the spirit of two phrases: “Miramos, esperamos, decidimos, atacamos.” (We watched, we hoped, we decided, we attacked) and “Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet.” (“Kill them all. God will know his own.”) I’m going to add “There’s no need to turn on the lights, simply turn off the darkness.”
That encapsulates my feelings about the firing of Don Imus yesterday. The first two phrases seem to express the sort of mob mentality that surrounded this affair. You can almost see the pitchforks and torches from here. It’s shameful that our society goes from complete indifference toward nastiness and meaness to “off with their heads” metaphorically speaking. Is there no time for discourse? For gaining some understanding? For not throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
Did anyone screaming for the firing of Imus consider the constellation of radio people who work for him who you do not know, and are not on the radio or personalities? Guaranteed there’s a bunch of them, and shortly, if not already, they’ll be looking for work.
Many years ago when my father suggested I give Imus a listen, he warned me that there was a lot of nonsense and drivel surrounding some of the best interviews (if not the best) and political discourse anywhere. That too is now lost. Worth it? Maybe. My father was right back then, and remains correct today.
I’ve caught snippets of shows from MSNBC, CNN, NBC etc. and once again find myself surprised that folks who were happy to be regular guests on the Imus In The Morning show are now Monday morning quarterbacking the entire episode, and tsk, tsk’ing Imus and what he said. Where was the outrage before when he was selling their brands, books, and shows? The media and political hypocrisy is overwhelming and rampant. It’s also disgusting.
Daniel’s first rule of people is: They always do what they want. Remove impediments to this (financial, social, etc.) and it is true 100% of the time. Even within the constraints of the everyday it is more true than not. The best of people break that trend. Listening to the folks who were all chummy with Imus a week ago toss him under the bus this week has served as a benchmark of the rule. While it served them, Imus and his show were fine, and they ignored whatever was mean and possibly hateful about it. Now that pendulum has swung, so have they… with no apology from them that shows a change of heart. Being associated with the show is not what they want anymore, their self interest gone.
Gone too, seemingly, is the respect for all the charitable work he’s done with kids who have cancer, SIDS families, death benefits for families of fallen soldiers, hospital facilities for rehab of veteran amputees, sickle cell, working to get the autism act passed, warning about the dangers of thymerosol in vaccines, etc. etc. To these folks it’s like he did none of this.
One last note. The media, in their rush to report, is almost always inaccurate. Yesterday, CNN was still reporting that certain sponsors had pulled their ads when I had just heard them sitting next to Imus on the air, saying otherwise. I have found this to be true in any case where I was there, or had first hand knowledge of the subject. Keep that in mind as you listen and read what all these folks have to say. There’s no magic granted when you put your words on paper, or sit in a studio. And understanding people is the hardest thing ever.
If the darkness had been turned off, there would be no need to do anything else, including the hand wringing of the media over continuing discourse about misogyny and race. There should be no rush to start flipping light switches when we can simply remove the darkness first and then see what it is we still need to do.
