Just wanted to tell you that I disagree with you on the Imus firing. If you want to punish him thats fine. I think he has been humbled by this whole mess. I would really like the same people who had Imus fired would go after the real hatemongers on radio and TV. There are so many I can hardly believe it. The Lumbaughs of the world are the real racist and they have him interviewing VP Cheney the other day. This Rush character is played for the troops in Iraq. This thing with Rutgers is sad but doesn't compare to the others.

Connie L

It's amusing that Imus, who has at long history of this behavior, and some of his defenders here, including the 1 letter trolls, are reduced to hiding behind the baggy pants of 50 Cent and Company. I'll ignore the Rap comments because most of the people commenting don't really know much about it.

But, in a country where Penthouse and Playboy are pretty much mainstream pubblications and Hugh Hefner is a cultural icon, the notion that "gangsta" rap booty videos are solely responsible for negatively objectifying women is almost too absurd for words. Hef has built and empire selling ass and there's not a pimp rapper out there that can hold a candle to him.

Quote:

But network managers are well within their rights to say, "We just don't want this guy representing us on our airwaves anymore."

Correction: The airwaves do not belong to the networks...they belong to the people.

Rev Jim

Bad argument. Penthouse recently was sold, Playboy is not nearly as popular as magazines like Maxim (which are actually far more sexist and far more stupid) and the magazine itself loses money. Playboy has been struggling to reinvent itself as a brand rather than a magazine, which is why it now has the insipid TV show and opened a new Playboy Club.

Rap music is *far* more pervasive than Penthouse and Playboy these days, which are quite old-timey at this point. And the worst rap music is far worse than Playboy or Penthouse, which do objectify women's bodies but don't go down the whole "bitches n tricks" road.

That said, rap music is diverse. KRS-One is not Easy-E. It's kind of silly to talk about rap as a monolith.

It also is not really relevant to Imus. Someone else did it first/worst is not much of an excuse.

My issue with the Imus clusterfuck is that it is yet another breathless media controversy of the moment.

The people complaining bitterly about Imus seems like brainless zombies - just point them in a direction and say 'go.'

Good alcoholic culture behavior requires blame. If we blame somebody, they take the heat. We are the survivors once they have been banished. By blaming and getting rid of Imus, we have now solved the problem and it is gone FOREVER. PROBLEM SOLVED.

Wow! From the look of the criticism you're getting over your appearance at Smarmy Joe's tonight, the only explanation is that the Freepers are after you again.

It's time for another house-cleaning around here. Scott Rosenberg's "letters" changes worked for less than a week. Now you've got the same old nutjobs with new monikers.

You are right, and they are wrong. I think what bothers them most is that they know their political movement has failed. Their heroes are going down in flames, Imus just being the most recent. So I can see how they could be enraged.

But guess what, losers: Imus is fired. Voted off the island. And you jokers are like a bunch of incontinent old bags pissing yourselves on a bumpy bus ride down to Loserville.

I guess I'm clueless. Why was this the comment that pushed Imus over the cliff? I can see what's sexist about the comment, but what is racist about it? What does "nappy headed" mean?

Firstly, they are still around and have been objectifying women longer than all of the pimp rappers have been alive. Rap is more pervasive now but those magazines certainly set the stage that the rappers and Maxim and FHM are playing on.

What is a bad argument though is the implication that making money selling "open wide, honey" shots of women is somehow better than calling them "bitches and tricks" in a song or featuring them in rump shaking videos.

Garry Owen, you're right. I haven't gotten mail like this since the bad old Freeper Creeper days. Dozens of creepy racist, misogynist email messages centering on my wild sex life with black rappers (who knew?). If I were Michelle Malkin, they'd all be on the site right now. But I'm gonna think about this one. If anybody sees my blog post, or the Scarborough clip, posted prominently on some right wing site, please let me know.

I'm usually treated well by Joe, but he teed off on me tonight in a way I didn't expect or enjoy. And I'm not sure what John Ridley's really thinking, blaming rappers for Don Imus's long-time racism. It's something I'll be giving a lot of thought to tomorrow. Thanks to you and others for the nice words; it meant a lot after coming home to a real sewer of email. These comments are really all fine -- I haven't had to delete anything -- especially compared to what I got personally.

Garry Owen writes:

"But guess what, losers: Imus is fired. Voted off the island. And you jokers are like a bunch of incontinent old bags pissing yourselves on a bumpy bus ride down to Loserville."

Happy to see we're rallying against the coarsening of culture and discourse.

Surely there are no incontinent seniors who would take offense. Depends are for losers anyway.

Imus gets a raw deal on this one as far as it goes. But, I'll feel better about it if this "teaching moment" is only the first.

If you're going to put Imus to the wall, then make it a long wall with room and bullets for more.

A bit coarse maybe...but I'm trying to fit in.