IMUS

I am a big fan of Don Imus. Granted you either like him or you don't. There is very little ground in between. He has a knack for rubbing people raw. He also does a lot of good. He used his show to shame congress into raising the death benefit for soldiers from $12,000 to $250,000. He has raised money for a number of causes.

Recently he said a dumb thing while he was bantering back and forth with Bernard, his producer. Both of them are prone to use sophomoric humor. This time Imus stepped over the line, and uttered a remark repulsive to the Rutgers woman's basketball team members and offensive to the Black community. When he said it, I knew he stepped in dog s%@t. Do I think he is a racist....no! Along time ago when a member of management in the Los Angeles Dodger organization said black players had great skills on the field, but not the mental skills to manage, he was fired. At that time, someone said media people are one sentence away from being fired. The usual band of "offended" black leaders (Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) are getting their face time calling for his firing, demanding that sponsors leave his show or they will have their product boycotted.

Imus said a dumb and hurtful thing. However, I wonder if this had been a team of blond white girls and a black radio personality had referred to them as "dumb blond hoes" if there would have been a hue and cry. I can't think of a white counterpart to Jesse Jackson to lead protests.

My final thought, the three young men from Duke who were vilified by the same outraged black leaders over a year ago, have been cleared. We may never know who mistreated that woman, but it was not the Duke Lacrosse team. I wonder if Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will apologize for what they said back then about these young men. I doubt it.