Dave Mazzarella

Readers' Corner

Ombudsman Dave Mazzarella answers reader questions about Stars and Stripes.

Bye Bye Imus

To those of you asleep or just about to awaken in far corners of the globe, here's some news you missed:

Don Imus has been fired by CBS. It happened Thursday afternoon in New York, when Les Moonves, network president, lowered the boom. He had spoken with people all over the country, he said, of all ages and genders -- all presumably wanting the famous talk show host to go for the description he uttered last week about the Rutgers University women's basketball team: "nappy-headed hos."

The news was shocking because it came shortly after CBS said it was NOT going to fire Imus, just suspend him for a couple of weeks. But then the MSNBC cable channel that used to simulcast the Imus radio show said it would no longer do so. And, most damning, seven advertisers of the show pulled out. That's when CBS threw in the towel. Backers of Imus who argued that rappers say worse things about blacks and women than Imus did got nowhere.

In my earlier blog, I asked you whether you thought Imus should be fired. Now that he has been, do you agree or disagree with that decision?

imus

He is being punished because we cant punish society!!! Chalk one up for the losers! Imus move to satillite!

Bye Bye Imus

Live by the insult, die by the insult. Oh Imus will be resurrected on Satellite alright, because there are still plenty of people who think snickering vulgarity and insults are the same thing as thoughtful commentary. Imus is irrelevant. The market has spoken.

Imus?

Oddly, I was only vaguely aware that Don Imus was still working. I stumbled across his broadcast a few times, years ago, while driving across country but there was nothing to cause me to become an intentional listener. When I heard the clip of the comments that did him in, I was struck by how childish they sounded. Unsophisticatedly bigotedly childish, but childish nonetheless. If that was typical of his patter, then it's no loss.