Pace Paw Print

Media Credit: www.Nypost.com Shock Jock Don Imus might be facing unemployment after making a racist comment on air.

Throughout his career, he's been cracking jokes and offending everyone from political candidates to celebrities. But on April 2, Shock Jock Don Imus made a comment that could possibly end his career in radio.

Imus had initially been suspended from MSNBC's morning talk show for two weeks for his reference to the Rutgers's Woman's basketball team as "a bunch of nappy headed hoes."

On his show, Imus in the Morning, the host and fellow air talents, Sid Rosenburg and Bernard McGuirk, were discussing the Rutgers versus Tennessee NCAA Championship Game that took place the night before. The conversation drifted into the girls' appearances, where Imus then made his now infamous comment. Rosenburg then compared the women to the Toronto Raptors.

At first, Imus brushed the comment off as "some idiot comment meant to be amusing," but realized the severity of the situation once he received the call from MSNBC in regards to his suspension.

On April 6, Imus issued an apology. "I want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team, which lost to Tennessee in the NCAA championship game on Tuesday," he said. "It was completely inappropriate and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry."

MSNBC then also issued an apology to viewers, noting that Imus's views are not shared by the network. Brian Williams of NBC's Nightly News then announced that evening that Imus in the Morning would be suspended for two weeks which was supposed to begin on April 16.

That next Monday, Imus appeared on Reverened Al Sharpton's radio show in an attempt to explain himself.

"Our agenda is to be funny and sometimes we go too far. And this time we went way too far," Imus said on the show.

As for Sharpton, he remained angry about the situation. "I'm going to say what you said was racist. I'm going to say what you said was abominable. I'm going to say you should be fired for saying it," he told Imus.

For years, Imus has been known to crack slightly racial, sexist, and inappropriate jokes on his show. Back in November, Imus and his crew referred to the "Jewish" members of the CBS management as "money grubbing bastards," deeply offending viewers who reported to the Anti-Defamation League for the anti-Semitic remarks.

Sidekick talent Rosenberg was recently also involved in making controversial statements. He remarked that tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams were "animals" better fitted to pose for National Geographic than Playboy. He also made audacious remarks in regards to singer Kylie Minogue's breast cancer.

Infamous Shock Jock Howard Stern has also had his run-ins with Imus. Stern accused Imus on air of copying his own show, by inviting cameras in for TV, and by adding more realistic dialogue between the talents. The two have been known to bad mouth one another to their many viewers.

Jesse Jackson joined Al Sharpton in the fight to get Imus fired, and protested with 50 others in front of the NBC tower in Chicago, shouting "Imus must go."

Others are rallying against him as well. The President of the National Association of Black Journalists, Bryan Monroe, was one of many who found the comment to be unsettling. "What he has said has deeply hurt too many people - black and white, male and female. His so-called apology comes two days after the fact, and it is too little, too late." Bryan Monroe and fellow members of the NABJ also requested that Imus be removed immediately.

On April 11, two days before the suspension was set to commence, MSNBC dropped Imus in the Morning from the network. "What matters to us most is that the men and women of NBC Universal have confidence in the values we have set for this company," MSNBC said in its statement. "This is the only decision that makes that possible."

More than eight of the show's biggest sponsors, such as General Motors and Staples, pulled their ads from the morning show, ultimately causing its cancellation.

On April 12, after 30 years, Imus was fired from CBS, ending the Imus in the Morning reign. Imus met with the Rutgers team that night, offering his apologies. According to his wife, Deirdre, "He feels awful. He asked them, 'I want to know the pain I caused, and I want to know how to fix this and change this.'"

The women reportedly forgave Imus, but not everyone is as forgiving. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice added her own two cents to the situation. "I'm very glad that there was, in fact, a consequence. I think that this kind of coarse language doesn't belong anywhere in reasonable dialogue between reasonable people," she said.

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