What happened
Shock-jock Don Imus, who was fired by CBS in April for making a racial slur on the air, will return to radio in December. Imus will host a new talk show on Citadel Broadcasting’s WABC radio in New York—the biggest talk radio station in the country—and will receive a multi-million dollar salary. His new show will bump the popular talk team of Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby from their current slot.
What the commentators said
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“Don’t you love how our media culture works sometimes?” said Rick Rockwell in the blog iVoryTowerz. Imus makes racist comments on the air and “in the end, he’s rewarded” with millions of dollars. He does have the right to “speak whatever horrible thoughts” run through his head, “but he shouldn’t have the privilege of using radio airwaves to amplify those thoughts.”
Actually, it’s kind of strange that Imus is “landing” at WABC, said the blog Hot Air. That station is “ground zero for conservative talk in New York,” and “despite what liberals may want to believe about” Imus, “he’s always leaned further left than right.” It’s also surprising that WABC “would replace a more successful program with a less successful one.”
It’s likely that nobody will ever forget Imus’s remarks, said Rick Malwitz in the Home News Tribune, but it’s time to forgive him. After all, didn’t Isiah Thomas just get a huge break? “Thomas did not call women at the Garden ‘nappy-headed hos,’ he treated them like ‘nappy-headed hos,’” yet he still “gets to coach the New York Knicks.” And what about hip-hop lyrics—they’re not offensive? “For six months Imus has been silenced. He’s been punished enough.”
