We all know that Don Imus got fired because corporate suits finally got too much heat and caved in. Imus should have been fired years ago, not only for similar behavior but additionally because he is a no talent hack who has ripped off Howard Stern for the last fifteeen years. But I digress...
The New York Times is following this thread with an editorial asking why Imus is beheaded and Ann Coulter lives. But check out what Neil Boortz said not about a basketball player but a sitting US Congresswoman on March 31, 2006!
BOORTZ: For instance, or for goodness sakes, jump in and I'm gonna say -- I'm gonna start out with something controversial. I saw Cynthia McKinney's new hair-do. Have you seen it, Belinda?
SKELTON: No.
BOORTZ: She looks like a ghetto slut.
SKELTON: Well, how is it?
BOORTZ: It's just -- it's hideous.
SKELTON: Is it braided? Or --
BOORTZ: No, it's not braided. It just flies away from her head in every conceivable direction. It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. It's just hideous. To me, that hairstyle just shows contempt for -- no, it's not an Afro. I mean, no, it just shows contempt for the position that she holds and the body that she serves in. And, I'm sorry, there's just no other way to -- it's just a hideous and horrible looking --
MARSHALL: Her hairstyle?
BOORTZ: Yeah, the hairstyle. It just, it looks like an explosion. Have you seen it?
MARSHALL: Yeah, I like it.
BOORTZ: Oh, jeez.
MARSHALL: It looks better than the braids she was wearing.
BOORTZ: No, the braids had some dignity. They had some class.
MARSHALL: The braids had dignity?
BOORTZ: They had more class than this thing.
MARSHALL: This says, you know, kinda 2000s, you know, stepping up to the plate. Contemporary look, you know?
BOORTZ: She looks like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence.
MARSHALL: OK, so you don't like her hair.
BOORTZ: Yeah, OK, I don't like her hair. I'm sorry.
MARSHALL: That being said, I think a lot of people would say it looks a lot better than those cornrows she was wearing. You can't tell me that's dignified.
BOORTZ: Well, I'm not a big cornrow fan but I got used to her with that. OK?
MARSHALL: So she's staying the same for you?
BOORTZ: She looks like a shih tzu!
MARSHALL: I like Cynthia's new hairstyle.
BOORTZ: Well, there you go. Differing opinions.
(Full audio at Media Matters)
I got no problem with disagreeing with Cynthia McKinney, in fact I think she is a little kooky but "she looks like a ghetto slut"? What is the difference between this and Imus' vilifying anonymous teenagers? This woman was a sitting US Congresswoman.
And Ann Coulter saying that 9/11 widows were sluts who enjoyed their husbands burning to death in the World Trade Center?
And Bill O'Reilly saying that members of the 82nd Airborne perpetrated the Malmedy Massacre?
And Sean Hannity allegeging that Michael Schiavo had administered thirty-eight broken bones to his wife, Terry?
Or Michael (Weiner) Savage demanding that Madeline Albright be hanged by the neck?
THESE ARE SUPPOSEDLY OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES THAT HAVE BEEN SUBVERTED INTO SOMETHING RESEMBLING THE REICH MINISTRY FOR PROPAGANDA!
This has gone on for two decades. Imus is practically a mumbling street person compared to the aforementioned malefactors. The only difference between Don Imus and the rest of this rabble is willing, continued deliberate corporate sponsorship of this behavior which is inexplicably tolerated by the American consumer. This needs to change.