Hours after CBS fired him, radio host Don Imus met Thursday night with the Rutgers University women athletes whom he had ridiculed with racist and sexist comments.
The Rutgers women’s basketball coach called the meeting with Imus “productive.”
CBS’ decision to dump Imus came a day after NBC Universal decided to cancel his TV simulcast on MSNBC cable channel and followed nearly a week of cries for the firing of the radio host.
The Rev. Al Sharpton applauded the Imus firings as a victory in the battle against abuse of the airwaves.
“I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air,” said Leslie Moonves, CBS president and chief executive officer, in a statement announcing the decision.
CBS, which carried Imus on 61 radio stations, originally had said it would suspend his show for two weeks.
CNNMoney.com reports “Imus in the Morning” generated about $20 million in revenue last year, about 1 percent of CBS Radio division’s total. (Full story)
The Rutgers team including the 10 players, their parents, coaches, administrators and religious leaders met with Imus at the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion in Princeton.
“We were able to really dialogue,” said coach C. Vivian Stringer. “I thought it was productive. I am extremely proud of our 10 young basketball members. I have been throughout this entire ordeal.”
Stringer declined to talk about what was said during the meeting or the CBS decision.
Imus’ wife, Deirdre, who filled in for him on a radio fundraiser Friday morning, also attended the meeting with the basketball team.
“They gave us the opportunity to listen to what they had to say, why they are hurting, and how awful this is,” she said. “I have to say that these women are unbelievably courageous and beautiful women.”
She added, “The hate mail that’s being sent to them must stop. This is wrong. If you want to send hate mail, send it to my husband.”
Asked about the hate mail on Friday, a team spokeswoman told The Associated Press there had been “two or three” negative e-mails, but that the team had also received “over 600 wonderful e-mails.”
Imus: ‘I’ve apologized enough’
The outrage started last week, when Imus described the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” the day after the team lost the NCAA championship to the University of Tennessee.
Amid the outcry over his on-air racial slur, Imus said Thursday that he had “apologized enough” and that he will not go on “some talk-show tour.”
“I’m not going to go talk to Larry King or Barbara Walters or anyone else,” Imus said on his flagship station in New York, WFAN-AM, which is owned by CBS Corp. and distributed “Imus in the Morning” nationally.
“The only other people I want to talk to are these young women at the team, and then that’s it,” Imus said.
NBC News President Steve Capus, appearing on CNN, said Imus’ comments had “touched a nerve” within the organization and firing him was “the only action we could take.” (Vote: Is Imus’ career over?)
Despite being dropped by NBC, Imus hosted his show Thursday from the MSNBC studios in New Jersey, though he did not appear on TV.
“As you know, MSNBC folded up yesterday, so we’re just on the radio,” he said.
Imus was broadcasting his 18th annual radio charity fundraiser, which has pulled in $50 million since 1990. It ends Friday.
“This may be our last radio-thon, so we need to raise $100 million,” Imus said, chuckling.
According to AP, Imus raised $1 million in the first five hours of Thursday’s fundraiser.
Imus’ disparaging remarks about the Rutgers players prompted eight companies to pull their ads from his show: Staples, General Motors, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, PetMed Express, American Express and Bigelow Tea.
Sharpton: ‘No champagne bottle popping’
Sharpton had pressured CBS to cancel Imus’ morning show, but the issue “was never about Don Imus,” he said Thursday.
“It was about the misuse of the airwaves,” he said.
“We cannot afford a precedent established that the airwaves can be used to commercialize and mainstream sexism and racism. But there will be no champagne bottle popping by those of us involved in this. This is not about gloating.”
Sharpton said he wants to show the media and the public that it is not necessary to “be misogynist and racist to be creative or to be commercial in this country.”
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Well, There you have it Baby Boomers…Don Imus kept his word and talked to the Rutger Team. I aplaud him for that.
I applaud the Rutger Women Basketball Team for being good sports and up standing young ladies and hope that they can find it in their hearts to forgive and go on with their lives.
Life is about living and part of that is making mistakes and having the ability to acknowledge them…learn from them…correct them if you are able to and move on.
For those of you who have brought up rap music so much…I don’t believe that you know that the demographics of rap music…it is not the black culture that is buying rap…it is the white culture.
Don’t kill the messenger! LOL
Smiles and world peace,
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 13, 2007 at 12:52 pm
He made an error. He has apologized enough and for the Rev’s Sharpton and Jackson enough is enough. Seems that the only people they go after is the caucasion race and I for one am sick and tired of it. We need to forgive and we are one race under God but it seems that attacking the white race is what it all seems about. It seems that since the civil war which we the white race from the north did not believe in slavery and wanted nothing more then to stop it and help the people have been brutalized for it. When does it stop!
April 14, 2007 at 12:04 am
Hello Judy…
Thank you for coming to my blog and posting a comment.
I would like to say that Sharpton and Jackson do not represent the African Americans of the U.S..
As well…not all Southeners were/are for slavery or had slaves…
But, let me ask you this…do you feel that the African Americans were equally treated as the caucasions were…from the Civil War until now?
I think THAT is more the issue, at hand.
Because I am a Baby Boomer…I can remember white and black water fountains, seating arrangements, separate bathrooms, doors, seats in buses, bars and resturants that they were not even allowed in or had their own sections…I could go on and on.
And this was not just the South.
I think the phrases that you are looking for is “one Nation under God…and WE the People”
I can remember going to church and they had a big pow wow to see if they were going to let blacks come into thier church…when in Sunday School…they taught us the song “Red and Yellow Black and White they are precious in His sight…Jesus loves the little children of the world.” I told my Mother after that…That I no longer wanted to go to that church…and why. She tried to explain their actions…but I knew what their actions meant.
I am glad that you want hate to STOP!
Please come back and visit soon.
~The Baby Boomer Queen~