'Racist' talk show host fired
2007-04-12 12:38
Washington - A US television network on Wednesday pulled the plug on one of America's most popular talk show hosts as a furore over his racial slurs against a women's basketball team grew into a media frenzy.
MSNBC cable television dropped veteran "shock jock" Don Imus a week after he triggered a national firestorm by characterising the mostly African-American Rutgers University team as a group of "nappy-headed hos (whores)."
MSNBC's parent company NBC News acted after a clamour mounted for Imus's dismissal and major advertisers started to shun the Imus in the Morning program, which is run by CBS Radio and simulcast by MSNBC.
"These comments were deeply hurtful to many many people," NBC News President Steve Capus said in a broadcast announcement of Imus's sacking.
He said the network had concluded that "there should not be any room for this sort of conversation and dialogue on the air. It was the only decision that we could reach."
Capus denied his decision was influenced by the withdrawal of advertising by powerful sponsors like American Express, Sprint Nextel, and General Motors.
Meanwhile CBS board member Bruce Gordon, the former head of the powerful NAACP minority rights group, told CNN television Tuesday that he wanted the network to cancel Imus's show, saying that the veteran radio host had crossed a line with the racist slurs.
Both NBC and CBS had already announced that Imus, 67, would be suspended for two weeks.
Media drumbeat reached a climax
But the move to cast him off MSNBC completely came as the clamour by anti-racism activists and the media drumbeat reached a climax.
US cable channels carried almost obsessive coverage of the affair, while major newspapers from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal gave prominent play to the agonies of Imus, who has repeatedly apologised for his remark and sought a private meeting with the Rutgers players.
Supporters of the irascible broadcast personality defended Imus, arguing that art forms such as gangsta rap are rife with language even more coarse, provocative and racist.
Caught in the middle were many of the movers and shakers of US society, from pundits to presidential candidates, who have been guests on Imus's show and now must weigh the risks of a return visit.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, was among those willing to give Imus another shot.
"I would appear on his program again, sure," Giuliani was quoted as telling reporters. "I believe he understands he made a very, very big mistake."
Imus started his career at a small radio station in California in 1968 and attracted as many devoted followers as enemies with his sharp-tongued brand of "insult humour."
'Comment was disrespectful to women everywhere'
He has never flinched from taking on the politically powerful and has often found himself at the centre of controversy.
In 1996 he created headlines with biting criticism of then-president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary at a dinner of White House radio and television correspondents, launching an acidic attack on the Clintons' allegedly shady land deals and the president's extramarital affairs.
On her presidential campaign website on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton praised the Rutgers team while she blasted Imus.
"Don Imus's comments about them were nothing more than small-minded bigotry and coarse sexism. They showed a disregard for basic decency and were disrespectful and degrading to African Americans and women everywhere."