Take the time to read just one more Imus diary. You'll like this one -- it's not really about Imus. It's about how the internet is altering the media landscape in ways we are probably only beginning to understand. It's about a people-powered revolution, one that exhibits its strength not just through electoral change, but through the distributed power of thought and action that has created a million media watchdogs.
Time for a little good old-fashioned blog triumphalism. I happen to think that what blogs are best at isn't argument, but simple reporting. The ability for millions of people to observe and report news is unprecedented. And the fall of Imus is yet another example of how powerful blogs are becoming. Imus' racist and sexist remarks might have slipped by this time. But somebody was watching.
After the jump: how Media Matters for America brought down a behemoth of the traditional media by simply reporting what he said.
The Wall Street Journal lays out the story:
At 6:14 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4, relatively few people were tuned into the "Imus in the Morning Show" when Don Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's."
Ryan Chiachiere was. A 26-year-old researcher in Washington, D.C., for liberal watchdog organization Media Matters for America, he was assigned to monitor Mr. Imus's program. Mr. Chiachiere clipped the video, alerted his bosses and started working on a blog post for the organization's Web site.
[...]
On the morning of the original broadcast, there was little response to Mr. Imus's slur. Media Matters posted the video and transcript on its Web site and sent an email blast to several hundred reporters, as it does nearly every day. The post received dozens of comments, many heated, some more than 300 words long. The next day, top news outlets didn't mention the incident.
On Thursday, at about 3 p.m., NBC News President Steve Capus was conducting a routine planning meeting in his third-floor offices at Rockefeller Center when an assistant interrupted him to take an urgent phone call, according to a person at the meeting. On the other line: MSNBC General Manager Dan Abrams. Mr. Abrams said MSNBC executives were fielding complaints from viewers and employees who had seen a video clip of Mr. Imus's remark on the Media Matters site, this person says.
Yep, it was a Media Matters researcher who first reported on Imus' noxious comments and started the avalanche that ended up crushing the crusty radio hack.
Check out the original MMA report.
I appreciate, by the way, that the WSJ reporters let their readers know up front that Media Matters is a "liberal" organization. Sometime readers need to be reminded that exposing and denouncing racism is a liberal value.
I also appreciate the symbolic resonance of a small notation at the end of Ryan Chiachiere's Media Matters report:
A tip from reader M.M. contributed to this item. Thanks and keep them coming.
Funny, it turns out the the story of Imus' demise is really the story of a bunch of people all watching closely, keeping an eye on the fetid traditional media. Thank you, M.M. Thank you, Ryan Chiachiere. And thank you, Media Matters for America!
ADDENDUM
What's next? How about demanding accountability from the media organizations that continue to allow various radio and television personalities to spew even worse filth than Imus: Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson. Media Matters reports on the hate speech that still permeates the airwaves...and who to contact to air your complaints.