The mostly white male journalists and politicians around Imus were his enablers for all this years. They just wanted to be cool and to be a part of the in crowd. They are saying a friend never leaves a friend when he is down. Where is the culpability? True friends do not allow other friends to destroy themselves. Maybe Imus should take stock of his friendship drawer and give it a good cleaning.
What I find disturbing about this whole Imus flap is the fact that he was given credibility by his guests. These are the same people who are defending him now and cannot seem to get it. But why should we find it surprising? These are the same people who enabled bush to go to war. They were the ones whooping it up and acting like the bombs dropping in Baghdad were like fireworks.
Where are the new faces in the media? I am so sick and tired of the same sychophants parading their crap over and over everytime there is a need for advice or analysis. They are full of themselves.
Last night on Joe Scarborough Craig Crawford could not answer the simple question put to him about what he would do if it was his daughter. He could not answer! Instead he defends Imus over and over again. How can anyone defend hate speech that was obviously part of a pattern? There is a paper trail that shows this pattern of hate. In a 60 minutes interview Imus was caught off guard because they found out his producer McGirk was hired to tell 'nigger jokes'.
I have been out of the country for 2 years but since i returned I noticed that McGirk was always the instigator. He would make the negative comment and Imus would agree but he never really said it to the weak. He always attacked the powerful but left McGirk to say the most outrageous things.
If you look at it you see that most of the people defending Imus were white men. They do not get it because it is not about them or their wives or daughters. They cannot personalize it in anyway. To me that is just unbelievable.
The remark harken back to black folks' worse nightmares. Being black in this country is a burden. I feel it everyday when I go outside of my home and even in my home when it is beamed into my living room through these tv channels. To me right is right and wrong is wrong.
I do not think what happened to those Duke boys was right. That was horrible and black folk should feel empathy for them too. An injustice is an injustice. Maybe those boys will feel a little more empathy for others now that they see how the law can be subverted.
Most well-off white folk, not all, in this country live in a bubble. They have no idea what it is like to be a poor white, poor black or latino. I see them everyday where I live and they are clueless. These are the people who have sat by as this country is taken down the road to hell.
So I am not at all surprised that these white men who are suppposed to be credible journalists do not get it. To me it begins at home. They attitudes to the underclass, race and women reflects their values and one cannot hide forever.
This thing with Imus put a mirror in front of their faces and they could not even look into it. Politicians are jumping on the band wagon now but where were they when Imus made his terrible statements. In fact where were they all along when he said horrible things about Jews, women, gays just where were they? John McCain is a great example of the horrible standards being condoned in this country and by the way I happen to think that the coarseness of discourse in this country starts with the leaders. Look how the Republicans conduct themselves. They say the worse things about the democrats through their talking heads like Limbaugh and Hannity. Yet, Limbaugh and Hannity holds the top spot for radio hosts in this country.
And look at Tom Delay for heavens sake. He is just a vile and disgusting man who is bitter and cynical. Yet he and Ann Coulter still gets airplay. How can our childern do any better if the examples of adult behavior and adult public discourse is so horrible and deplorable. As far as I am concerned the President is the leader of the pack. I bet that if an analysis was done of the last 6 years we would see that the coarsness of our dialogue got worse since Bush was in.
So let them blame it on Hip Hop, Black men, Rosie, Bill Mahr and the like. If you notice these are all people who have liberal views. They never say anything bad about themselves it is always those across the aisle.
Imus is now getting their defense because he is an old white man and they cannot deal with the fact that he was taken down by those that are less powerful. This is really the problem. He was given the boot by the people and they cannot get over it.
To me a true friend is someone who tells you when you are being an idot. A true friend has the courage to tell you when u are wrong. These enablers around Imus were there for one thing only...themselves. Not one of them have stood up on air and said they will not stand for it. They say he is a friend and they will not leave him when he is down. I just think they are a bunch of no-back-bone creeps who need to get off the air and leave room for people who have guts and backbone. We need a new breed of journalists who will hold this government accountable and not get in bed with government officials. How can we get to the bottom of our problems when most of our media is hucking it around in cocktail dresses and tails, not to work for the people, but to be a part of the in crowd in Washington. I feel like something is really broken in this country and I do not know if there is anyone who can really repair it. Makes me really sad for the future generation.