Letters to the Editor
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No Pain, No Gain
My sympathy goes out to everyone caught up in this who thinks that making Don Imus go away will “do something” or “send a message”. If you think this is doing any good in helping us see our collective denial or to help heal our suffering society, I say “good luck with that”.
--Anonymous
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I rather agree with Anon. My idea was to force Imus into a series of on-air conversations with leading African-American and female intellectuals, academics, writers, athletes, and other personalities about racism and sexism in American media and society. NBC and CBS could have insisted that he hold a 90 or 120 day cycle of such interviews and on-air discussions. He could have started with the Rugers' Female Basketball Team. They could have offered him a chance at salvation and the rest of us an opportunity to hear some enlightened speech. If he didn't want to do that then he would be fired.
I don't believe that NBC and CBS's motivation, at least their primary reason, was to "do the right thing." I don't say it was not at all their motivation just that their first and foremost concern was the bolting of their corporate sponsors. That's the hit that is most clearly and immediately understood and actionable by corporate elites. Too bad, an ugly on-air event was made worse and an opportunity was lost to engage in some relevant conversation about these social ills in a popular context that would have had the most impact.
Such as it is, this event will lead to nothing more than an increased sense of race and gender self-righteousness on the part of blacks and women and make Imus's supporters feel more sullen and misunderstood. Nothing much of any consequence will have been gained.