USA: TV talk show host Don Imus suspended after on-air racial remarks

Radio talk-show host Don Imus, who has made a career out of outrageous comments, was suspended on Monday (April 9) for making racist remarks by both the radio and television networks that carry his program. CBS Radio and MSNBC, which broadcasts the radio show on television, suspended Imus for two weeks for saying the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team looked like a bunch of "nappy-headed hos." "Hos" is slang for whores and "nappy-headed" a derogatory term for the hair of many black people. CBS, in a short statement, said the suspension of Imus and his show for last week's remarks would begin on Monday. MSNBC said the program would be closely monitored when it returned to the air and added that Imus had agreed to "change the discourse on his program." "Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word," MSNBC said. But the suspension did not satisfy one of Imus' most vocal critics, civil rights leader Al Sharpton. Sharpton has called for Imus to resign or be fired. "We continue to be organizing and mobilizing and these two weeks and to meet with the heads of both stations to say why he can't come back. We also intend to deal with advertisers," said Sharpton. Appearing on Sharpton's radio show, Imus said his remarks were "repugnant" and "repulsive." "Our agenda is to try to be funny and sometimes we go too far, and sometimes we go way too far," Imus told Sharpton. The suspension was a stinging rebuke to the radio personality, who usually gets away with saying what he wants on air and manages to attract many top political and media figures to his show. But his remarks this time spurred nationwide calls for his firing and a boycott of his sponsors. Imus said he wouldn't resign. In New York City, anti Imus protesters gathered in front of NBC headquarters. " This is not a slip of the lip, this is a pattern," said Reverend Jessie Jackson. Imus' radio show had about 3.5 million listeners per week in 2005, according to media research firm Arbitron. The MSNBC simulcast pulls in about 330,000 viewers per week, according to trade publication Talkers, which ranked him as the 14th most influential radio talk show host in the United States. Imus apologized again several times on Monday's "Imus in the Morning" show. He also said: "I'm not a bad person. I'm a good person who said something bad."

ITN Source | April 10, 2007

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