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Imus Dead [by William F. Buckley Jr.]
National Review ^ | April 14, 2007 | William F. Buckley

Posted on 04/14/2007 12:05:10 PM PDT by aculeus

Some years ago, Cokie Roberts, faithful to her profession and to the proposition that those engaged in public discourse, at whatever level, should be left free to do as they liked, stopped short. What did it was a speech at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner, an annual affair at which, in 1996, 3,000 guests ate and drank in the company of President and Mrs. Clinton and listened to Don Imus. After that night’s performance, Ms. Roberts changed her mind. “I really don’t think it would be appropriate for any of us to ever go back on [Imus’s show],” she said. Imus’s monologue “was profoundly rude not only to the President of the United States and the First Lady, but also to our colleagues.” Two days later we learned from Mike McCurry, the president’s press secretary, that National Public Radio’s Elizabeth Arnold, who sat between him and the First Lady on the dais, was trying to incite a mass walkout. In retrospect, McCurry wished he had backed her up instead of sitting there for 25 agonizing minutes. “I was getting prepared to send a note down the table saying, ‘Let’s go,’ when mercifully [the speech] came to an end,” McCurry later said. “I think we would have gotten a standing ovation if we’d done it.”

Well, eleven years later “it” was done to Don Imus, and the sense is of the restoration of clean air. Not universally — nothing like that. The world of hip-hop, one learns, is untouchable. The language there is heavily coarse, profane, and perverted. It is ironic that although hip-hop is disproportionately black, it was an anti-black crack that finally undid Don Imus.

(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: dnctalkingpoints; donimus; imus; macacamoment; mediabias
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1 posted on 04/14/2007 12:05:12 PM PDT by aculeus
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To: aculeus

http://imonthe.net/imus/ispeech.htm

Don Imus’ speech at the Radio/TV Correspondents Association Annual Dinner, Thursday, March 21, 1996.


2 posted on 04/14/2007 12:07:25 PM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: aculeus

He was long overdue for being put out to pasture. I don’t care what rappers say. He’s trying to pose as a journalist and you can’t be both that and a shock-jock.


3 posted on 04/14/2007 12:11:02 PM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: aculeus
Doesn't CBS own MTV and BET?
4 posted on 04/14/2007 12:12:42 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Withhold Taxes - Starve a Liberal)
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To: Cowboy Bob

Yes. SeeBS pwns MTV, BET, AND Comedy Central AND censored the NYFD and NYPD booing Queen Hillary and dubbed in fake cheers for her instead and released that edition to DVD to the DUmasses.


5 posted on 04/14/2007 12:14:26 PM PDT by weegee (I'm waiting to exhale. The Supreme Court has ruled that CO2 is pollution.)
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To: aculeus
Standing inches away from the president, that night in 1996, Imus said, “Mr. President” — he was parodying the questions asked at presidential news conferences — “we all know you’re a pot-smoking weasel, that you once ate an apple fritter the size of a baby’s head, and that you actually run a 12-minute mile. Could you therefore tell the American people why that thing on your lip looks like a milk dud? And if it is a milk dud, then I’d like a follow-up.”

I sympathize with Buckley's opinion that Imus has finally gotten his commupance for years of bad behavior. But I remember this speech at the National Press Dinner with great affection.

Also, I think that remembering it lends support to what Peter Paul has said: That the person responsible for sticking the knife into Imus, to get him conveniently out of the way of her forthcoming campaign, was none other than the Hildabeast. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

6 posted on 04/14/2007 12:16:17 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: aculeus

Don Imus is a liberal jerk a-hole and his overdue retirement is hardly any kind of blow for conservatives. Granted, I get the ‘PC angle’ to this whole fiasco (and the hypocrisy of Sharpton, et al) but I really don’t care if it’s socially unacceptable to call teenage college girls “nappy-headed hos”....


7 posted on 04/14/2007 12:16:59 PM PDT by AntiGuv ("..I do things for political expediency.." - Sen. John McCain on FOX News)
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To: aculeus

But not a word from Buckley about the hypocrites who were working the hardest to bring Imus down, not a whisper about the race hustling Revvum Jackson, not a peep about the lying scammer Al SharpTon, Bill must have been working against a deadline with this brief column.


8 posted on 04/14/2007 12:20:08 PM PDT by mkjessup ('President Rudy!!! = an aborted fetus in every pot, and no guns in any garage!!!')
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To: AntiGuv

I’m rather suprised that I’ve heard no objections to the fact that he also used the word “jigaboos” after the “nappy-head hoes” comment.


9 posted on 04/14/2007 12:20:23 PM PDT by Firefigher NC
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To: Cicero

That was Imus’s best moment. The next morning he said on his show

” I could see Bill & Hillary looking at me with daggers for eyeballs, so I took my gloves off, and REALLY hit em hard.”


10 posted on 04/14/2007 12:20:39 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker ( Hunter/Thompson/Thompson/Hunter in 08! Or Rudy/Hillary if you want to murder conservatism)
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To: Cicero

if it was proven w/o a shadow of a doubt,this would backfire on this carperbagging bitch BIG TIME.


11 posted on 04/14/2007 12:21:28 PM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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To: AntiGuv

And, to be clear, by “don’t care” I mean that I don’t have a problem with it, it doesn’t bother me in the least, etc. I can’t think of any good reason why someone should call any girl a “nappy-headed ho” just for playing a basketball game, so a liberal jerk a-hole like Don Imus getting sacked for it is perfectly fine by me.


12 posted on 04/14/2007 12:21:42 PM PDT by AntiGuv ("..I do things for political expediency.." - Sen. John McCain on FOX News)
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To: aculeus

IMHO, the entire Iimus episode has done more damage righteousness and justice in the black community than they realize.

I suspect it was due to efforts of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and other ‘black’ community extortioners who threaten corporate America to perform their will or face opposition. When the political issue seems innocuous to consent, those so threatened acquiesced in order to avoid controversy. Imus then lost corporate advertising revenue for his employers.

Consequentially, the very power groups within the ‘black’ community which offer nothing to ‘black’ America other than continued racism and extortion, have now become stronger in the eyes of those they might face in the future.

Now the ‘black’ community will become more closely associated with extortion and racism than with righteousness and justice than before.


13 posted on 04/14/2007 12:23:44 PM PDT by Cvengr (The violence of evil is met with the violence of righteousness, justice, love and grace.)
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68
Although, all this stuff about Pat Buchanan being anti-Semitic, I don't know about that. A lot of people aren't aware that he lost a relative in the concentration camps. His uncle fell out of a guard tower.

Imus is a silly guy.

14 posted on 04/14/2007 12:24:22 PM PDT by Mark was here (Hard work never killed anyone, but why take the chance?)
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To: aculeus

There is such a thing as overkill, even to a mentally challenged faux cowboy.


15 posted on 04/14/2007 12:28:01 PM PDT by hgro (Jerry Riversd)
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To: aculeus

I get the distinct impression that William Buckley thinks this was long overdue.


16 posted on 04/14/2007 12:28:40 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Cicero

The Klintons and their cronies waited a long time for revenge. They finally got what they wished for.

I say they best be careful their wish doesn’t turn into a nightmare.


17 posted on 04/14/2007 12:31:16 PM PDT by OldFriend
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To: aculeus

>...who sat between him and the First lady on the dais....<

LOL! By no stretch of the imagination can I imagine W.J. Clinton referred to as First “gentleman”.


18 posted on 04/14/2007 12:33:05 PM PDT by Paperdoll
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To: Liberty Valance

me too and with Matthews like spittle flowing


19 posted on 04/14/2007 12:33:43 PM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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To: Liberty Valance
I get the distinct impression that William Buckley thinks this was long overdue.

And once again, I find myself in complete agreement with him.

20 posted on 04/14/2007 12:36:07 PM PDT by Wormwood (Future Former Freeper)
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