Imus Scandal Escalates: MSNBC Drops Simulcast
by James Buchanan
Millions of ordinary White Americans are getting tired of the endless threat of being fired from their jobs if they say something that “offends” a minority. Added to this is the constantly changing criteria that determines whether a minority claims to be offended. Don Imus made the mistake of quoting some rap lyrics about “nappy headed hoes” on his show referring to some less-than-attractive Black women basketball players with lots of tattoos. Al Sharpton then crawled out from under his rock and began demanding that Imus be fired.
At first MSNBC announced a two week suspension. A cowardly capitulation that only encouraged Sharpton to keep up his attacks. By suspending Imus, MSNBC was admitting that Imus did something seriously wrong. This led to several major advertisers running away in a cowardly domino effect. Once several major advertisers quit, MSNBC decided to fire Imus.
In the past, Al Sharpton viciously went after a White police detective falsely accusing him of rape in the Tawana Brawley case. It turned out that Miss Brawley had fabricated her entire story claiming abduction and rape by White police officers. Given this history of Sharpton being wrong, it’s a wonder that anyone takes anything Sharpton says seriously. Also there was a political reason for Sharpton to go after Imus. In a recent exchange between Imus, McGuirk, and co-host Charles McCord, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was referred to as “a creep, a wind-watching wimp, and a flip-flopping weasel.” Perhaps Sharpton was more interested in silencing Imus than anything else so that the only Black presidential candidate would have one less critic in the media.
There may be a bright side to this episode despite the decision by MSNBC. Don Imus was one of the biggest and most profitable stars on cable. There’s an excellent chance that another cable channel will pick up the simulcast of “Imus in the Morning.” The cowardly sponsors who deserted Imus in his time of tribulation will come crawling back one-by-one and will have to pay a lot more for their new advertising contracts. In a few months, MSNBC will have miserably low ratings and whoever picks up Imus’ show will have great ratings and great revenue. The cowardly liberals at MSNBC, who folded like a cheap suit, will have failed in their main job to get ratings and they will have only themselves and Al Sharpton to blame.
The audience for the Imus show is still out there and it includes a lot of older White males who tend to have the most buying power which attracts the most lucrative advertising contracts. These fans of Imus are outraged that their favorite talk show host has had his show yanked over a nothing incident blown out of proportion by the loathsome Al Sharpton. They will gladly flip the cable channel to Fox or CNN or whoever has the sense to pick up the simulcast of the Imus show. In the end the biggest losers will be Al Sharpton, who talked MSNBC into firing their biggest star, and the MSNBC executives who made the decision to cave in.