Don Imus

Okay, I felt like I should weigh in on the Don Imus situation. Honestly, I'm sick of the whole damn thing. Yeah, what he said was stupid, insensitive and racist. But I mean, are people really that surprised? He's a southern, white, male, controversial radio host (okay, I know I'm being slightly hypocritical by making a large, sweeping generalization about white Southern males, but Imus truly fits the stereotype). He's made a living by being controversial. A good living at that. And c'mon, the man wears frickin cowboy hats for fun! Did we expect him to suddenly become a bastion of African-American rights, a white Jesse Jackson? I don't fuckin think so. Dude's made a lot of money off of making fun of females, minorities and gays. That's what his core audience wants, so that's what he gives them. When they all heard him refer to the Rutger's women's basketball team as a bunch of "hos," they were probably agreeing with him. Is it sad that someone of his ilk is on the air at all? Yes, of course. He stays on the air by appealing to the basest of people's instincts: racism, fear, hate. And why is he on the air? The same reason why so many other Republican, pro-America gas-bags on the air: people are listening. (For a great article on this check out David Foster Wallace's piece. I forget what it's called. It's his last piece in Consider the Lobster.)
A large proportion of this country, whether we want to admit or not, is still inherently racist and tends towards bigotry. People like Imus are their 'spoke-people.' We should know by now that the media has no integrity and will air anything as long as it makes money, and these blow-hard shows are highly profitable. If you think Imus, doesn't want all this attention, you're just being naive. A man like him LIVES for publicity like this. You can't buy it (granted, losing his simulcast on MSNBC hurts... bet the fucker didn't see that coming!) I'd never heard of Imus before this whole debacle. And all this incident will do is to make him seem even more 'real' and give him added credibility in the eyes of his listeners, and to allow him to attract more interested parties to his show. If we want to stop media figures like this from making such statements and, in reality, embarrassing the country as a whole, we have two choices: 1) Change the prevailing atmosphere of intolerance that is still prevalent in America, or 2) Ignore the loud-mouthed fuckers. Obviously, choice number one is not possible. You simply can't change a whole culture. So that leaves us with choice number two. All radio hosts want is people to listen them. Ignore them, and they lose all their power. Sure their listeners will still pay attention to them, but do you know anyone that listens to Don Imus' show? Do you want to know anyone who listens to his show? I think not. Once we stop giving money-hungry bigots like Imus the air-time and attention they want, they will be revealed for what they truly are: ignorant, loud-mouthed, pathetic, and ultimately not really happy with themselves. Imus will not be the last jackass to come out and say some stupid-ass things, but if we stop listening, he may be the last one to get fame out of it.