Worse, Imus (and shows like his), empower and embolden those with more closeted racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynist views.

I really like the Broadband-Everywhere idea. Great information.

Excellent, Matt! Exactly the point. The airwaves are the public forum. The putrid poison of contempt for the human person must be cleared away if we have anything approaching civilized speech and communication. We must reclaim the public forum from these pirates.

How on earth can these "white media men" who along with Imus, don't get it at all.  They all went all over these television shows with the "he's a nice guy, but said a bad thing" and tried to hold him up.  Guess what, it did not wash with America, especially WOMEN.

What Imus did is this:  offended, disrepected and demeaned the Rutgers Basketball Team; attacked this team with venemous words; indirectly disrespected Coach Stringer, Rutgers University, the staff and students of Rutgers (current and former), the President of the University, the Athletic Program of the University, and finally their FAMILIES.  But you know what is the harshest reality of this is?  Imus and these "white media men (with a few blacks, very few)", totally do not get this at all.  If they did get IT, they would not be taking up for this blatant RACIST.  And I also find these men just as, or even more over worse, than Don Imus.  PERIOD.

Finally, I don't care what anyone says, but after watching the press conference at Rutgers University, I knew Imus was history.  He wouldn't know what civility is if it was thrown in his face.  And again, for these "media pundits" taking up for Don Imus, shame on you.  If hawking or peddling your book is more important than calling a racist, a racist, you do not belong in this business.  You have sold out, period.  WORD ON THAT..

I don't know why Begala, Carville, etc., get along with Imus so well.  The cheap answer is that they are all media insiders, but that doesn't explain it.  Media insiders are often nasty and bitchy at each other; Howard Stern is an insider and he and Imus each have wanted the other to die in a fire for years and years.

Are they just that sycophantic by habit, or are they so drenched in an attitude of "screw black people, to hell with the women, they are voting for us anyway" that they will tolerate anything out of this obnoxious pest?  Or is it just terminal stupidity?

Let me point out that just about everyone has had a scummy friend at one point or other. It's good that Imus is going but I think a few of his defenders should be seen in that context.

That doesn't mean Imus's actions are defensible, it means they aren't being good friends and telling him that what he is doing is bad. To me their sticking up for their friend is understandable if the wrong thing to do.

Boomer white males continuing to get rich off public airwaves that should belong to everybody.  It's sick.  And what makes it worse is that the rich guys get rich by rich hosts of radio shows catering to the most base, banal, and bigoted of minds.

Slavery ended 150 years ago; segregation forty years ago; yet, blacks and other minorities have yet to get a piece of the pie.  Slavery made generations of white people rich beyind belief and much of that old money is still kept in the same hands today.  AND they own the "public" airwaves?  It's repugnant.

I'm glad they got rid of Imus, but don't they have a point about hip-hop?

How is it acceptable for Snoop to call a woman a "bitch" or "ho" or "slut"?  He actually had the nerve to criticize Imus for using language that he himself used, but Imus couldn't use because he was an old white man.

I don't think ethnicity is an excuse for misogynist or racist behavior.

I think there may be common ground here for bipartisanship. Better yet, call it a ceasefire in the culture wars. Many Republican voters simply want greater decency in the MSM. They aren't all authoritarians. I mean that sincerely.

On the Left, we may laugh about wardrobe malfunctions, but on the Right this kind of media programming is wrong--I have kids too, so I understand. While I would defend the right to free speech and even rude speech, there is an appropriate forum for what we say, do, or sell. Context matters whether it is Cable News or the Super Bowl.

For example, Imus and Beck work for mainstream cable news networks. What they do is mainstream racism. That is why we can't tolerate them. And, that is why public outcry forced MSNBC to fire Imus.

The Left and Right may not define Decency the same way in all cases, but there may be more common ground than we might assume. The "mainstream media" is by definition mainstream, that is, not radicalized to one extreme or the other. This simply means that what is decent is defined by the collective social norms represented in the "mainstream" media.

This is also why the MSM is a political battleground. For most Americans decency is defined by default through the MSM. That is why we can't stand to see Imus' racism on cable TV. It is also why the Right can't stand to see wardrobe malfunctions at halftime.

This may be too obvious but aren't most Americans looking for something similar, a sincere form of civility? Can't progressives reach out and make this connection? (Don't talk to me about the Christian right. We have no debate there.)

By the way, I think all forms of hell should be tolerated on the internet.

These are our airwaves and it's time to reclaim them . It's time to hold the Media accountable. It's time we "help" them understand that the dropping of the Imus Show from MSNBC is not the end of it. Matt brought up some very important concerns about certain pundits coming to the defense of Imus. I think that needs to be addressed. I would also like to see someone take a closer look at the real reason why Mr. "I'm Imus Biggest Fan" dropped the show. It may not have been because of the advertisers. He kept stating that it was the employees at MSNBC that caused him to make this openly lamented and reluctant decision. Did a threat to file claims with the EEOC cause Steve Capus to make this decision?

Hear! Hear!

"Apparently in Maher's world the only people offended by racism and misogyny are black people. What is with these boomer white idiots? Freaks, all of them. We really (need) new people in charge of our public airwaves, this corporate welfare has created a bunch of weirdos dominating our media discourse."

The feminist second wave got started when these "boomer" men, our guys in their 20's, didn't get it then about making fun of women as women - Can't you take a joke? and the joke was always on us. They didn't age gracefully, I see. I'm so glad your generation's men (and my sons) see them for what they are - boomer white idiots.

What your problem Matt? You complain about Imus and his problems with treating people of one kind wrong and then you get ugly with boomers. Nasty!!  

So you think it's bad to call blacks names, but insulting an age group is just peachy?

I find some inconsistency and perhaps hypocrisy here.

Imus is older than boomer age, BTW.

Also, the polling I've seen shows that 25-40 somethings vote about the same as boomers.

Sadly, even Jon Stewart didn't seem to get it.

We can try to use this opportunity to raise awareness about the rantings of Beck, Savage, etc. How can CNN continue to have Beck associated with their network?

Here's something you can do in your club or at the Democratic Central Committee level in your area to reclaim the public airwaves.  Introduce the following resolution inserting the name of your club or central committee and push this issue in your state.  This resolution passed the Northern Solano Democratic Club and the Solano County (California) Democratic Central Committee and will be reviewed at the California State Democratic Party convention in San Diego from April 27th to April 29th.  

A Resolution in Support of the Free Flow of Information

WHEREAS radio and television stations license holders are granted a public trust for a fixed period of time to broadcast over the public airways and stations are licensed for the public interest, convenience, and necessity, and

WHEREAS ownership of multiple stations in a single market as well as ownership of multiple information distribution systems and/or simultaneous providing of content constitute a restraint of trade that is harmful to the public interest, and

WHEREAS vertical integration of an industry is detrimental to free enterprise and the free market,

Therefore, be it resolved that [insert the name of your group here] supports creation of federal legislation and Federal Communications Commission regulations that limit:

- the number of broadcast stations that may be owned by one company to no more than one AM radio station, one FM radio station, and one television station in a given market -- with no ownership of newspapers within that same market, and

- to no more than 5 AM radio stations, 5 FM radio stations, and 5 television stations in the United States, that may be owned and/or operated by a single licensee, and

- the assignment of broadcast licenses to only United States citizens and/or companies

and

be it resolved that [insert the name of your club or group here] supports creation of federal anti-trust legislation that limits a person, company, or organization to either only (1) own or operate broadcast stations, or (2) own or operate information distribution systems, or (3) provide content -- that is operate a web site and/or create and produce broadcast programs -- to broadcast stations or information distribution systems.

If you attend the California State Democratic Convention, please be sure to support the resolution.

Let's learn from this. Money / advertisers talk. A vital precedent has been set. Let's start working on dumping Rush next - the only things that keeps the biggest hatemonger of them all in the air are the huge advertising revenue and the republican FCC. We can't do much about the FCC, but we can certainly do lots about ad revenue.

Rush out Limbaugh!

If you were on his show, you were a part of the "in" crowd. You were considered an important part of political discourse. Influential.

The people that listened to Imus weren't us regular folks, they were the pundint heads, checking into the daily news cycle to see what the "important" people were saying.

In seeking a sort of fame they overlooked a few too many insults.

I think it is important that in this onslaught against "hate speech" we don't use hate speech ourselves.

Steve Capus did the right thing, and it was hard for him to do, so cut him a little slack here. He was tuning into the elite discourse of the day. How odd that it came in such a crass format.

I suppose Imus might have been thought of as tweeking the powers that be. Sticking it to the big guys. He just finally went too far.

I agree the interview with the team left no questions.  

Matt gets to call my generation's men idiots when they are idiots.

Misogyny didn't just wash off, y'know. Your comparison is flawed because you aren't working with 2 comparable classes. Everyone gets old; not everyone had African ancesters. Women are the majority of every race and of the elders, but they have had the most insults flung their way.

The reasons I like hanging out with my children's generation instead of (insult, insult, insult, name-calling) of my own generation:
they respect and cherish the elders,
their friends are all races,
the men and women treat each other as equals,
they believe in the Constitution and the rule of law.

from the conservatives who feel they must now stifle their hate speech, as if being civil is unfair.

They are already talking about the tyranny of the left...... to be politically correct. Too bad.

Maybe folks will start talking about issues instead of personalities now.

Already feeling victimized, they fear the return of the fairness doctrine, that they think targets them.

What they don't get is this isn't legislated fairness, it is a new awareness of a social contract that folks have to stop tearing everyone down.

The best way to combat idiotic generalizations about a group of women (in this case the Rutgers University basketball team) is to make idiotic generalizations about an even larger group of men (in this case....white baby boomers).

I mean, christ.  I haven't seen comments this absurd since Duke scandal broke over at Gilliard's blog.

Begging your pardon, I'm one of those.

My first demonstration was in early 1960, against our Vietnam involvement.

My last was St. Paddy's Day.  The beer was green, and y'know what?  The women on the barricades are still the prettiest around...

"...boomer freaks?"

Ageism is just another subset of the bigotry that infects us.

DO YOU FUCKING MIND?

A few observations:

Cable tv such as MSNBC or for that matter Playboy are not the public airwaves in the way your local ABC, NBC, or CBS station. They are delivered across common carrier satellites that may not even be licensed by the US FCC, Canadian and Mexican satellite are often used by US customers. The spectrum space they use can be utilized for everything from channels like MSNBC, Walmart's internal corporate proproganda channel to data services such gas station credit card processing or rural internet access all at the commercial discretion of the satellite operator. Note these companies are not in the media business but specialized operators such as SES Astra and PanAMSat.

Second
As more media power become distributed broadcasting standards decline. They are plenty of small conservative owned radio syndcators that can afford a leased satellite transponder and by not being tied to any large media conglomerate will face adverse reaction from putting a Bob Grant or even harder right on the air. This is why Sharpton, Jackson, and Co can't get a boycott against Rush or Bob Grant. Neither are affiliated with a large media company that has other shows that can be boycotted.

In the end Imus will probably be fired by CBS but picked by one of the myriad right wing syndicators. CBS whose radio generates 20 percent of its revenue from Imus is probably wishing its spun off as Disney/ABC its radio division which due to the anything goes nature of radio would probably be able to keep Imus without affecting its TV business

How did Imus manage to last this long?  He's been an abusive, offensive trashmouth for years.  Why have we set the bar so low in our public discourse that a piece of trash like Don Imus can prosper?

Imus is a misogynist, an antisemite, and a racist.  That's been obvious for some time.

I think the Imus thing has gone right over the edge.  Do you relize that religion and age are also protected under EEO?  So when the religious zealots get pissed off because "liberals" keep attacking them, their jesus, and they demand that Cenk Y. (Young Turks) or some other liberal get canned because they don't like his hurtful anti-religious words, then what?  And what's with your fixation on boomers and freaks? Gee Matt, that's pretty damned hurtful and ageist of you to be calling boomers freaks.  How insensitive can you be name calling old folks.  Do you hate all old people or just that generation?   I am so offended by you calling me a freak, I am beside myself.   I think you need to be fired for name calling and degrading old people in general and boomers in specific. This isn't the first time you've done this either, so don't bother to apologize.   The internet was developed with my tax money, and I want it back!  

(That was snark, but where the shoe fits - or be careful what you ask for!) I think the Imus mob will stiffle all discourse in the country, which is the last thing we need more of.  Only right wing rhetoric and other institutionally approved messages will ever be allowed on the airwaves.  1984, 1984 - shh, don't let anybody hear you.  If they came for Imus, you could be next.

Hooray for censorship!

Seriously, the guy has been saying similar shit for such a long time. I would have rather see this guy be confronted on air than be fired. FWIW, if you look at my comments history, you will know I dislike this guy very much. Yeah yeah, I get the whole thing about public airwaves. But short of advocating harm on someone else, I do think broadcasters should allow someone to be on air for the term agreed unless that person does not deliver on ratings. I do not a person should be fired for saying offensive stuff considering the format of the show.

ABC was dead wrong to fire Maher. MSNBC was dead wrong to fire Donahue.

It's like tenure for professors at private universities. A lot of professors get away with crap when they get tenure but the system stays because of the greater good of the system to allow professors to operate in full freedom.

There should be a freedom to be offensive and let him face the consequences of lower pay with reduced ratings or a non renewal of a contract. I would prefer MSNBC be forced not to renew the contract for whatever reason or drop it when ratings fall.

The way to kill off such shows is preferably through applying pressure on guests to not be so friendly with Imus on the air anymore and let him boost ratings by having such high profile guests.

.

Hooray for the ability of hustlers like Al Sharpton to jump on Imus!!  I cannot wait for Sharpton to apologize to the Duke Lacrosse players, the Jewish families in Crown Heights, Korean grocers, NY Attorney General Bob Abrams, and the tax payers of New York state (we paid the bill for the Brawley fraud).  But I won't hold my breath.

Sharpton's misbehavior does not excuse Imus, but if he wants to be the judge of what is acceptable radio content then he needs to be held to a higher standard.    

They are our airwaves.  Let's reclaim them.

I've been boring people with this sort of talk for 25 years now.  Most people have no idea that we, the people, own the airwaves.  But at least now I don't feel like I'm the only one trying to educate anyone about that fact and its implications.

This is fun reading the outraged comments by bee-stung, self-identified boomers here.

What I've relearned about the boomers (now geezers) of my generation: Don't criticize old white guys as a group, and don't make demands on their sense of entitlement to unlimited speech. Oh, and don't take away their pornography.

Sorry, guys. You are so busted.

C'mon, the misogynistic lyrics in a lot of hip hop are just as bad if not worse in abstract terms than what Imus says. Still I fail to see what the point of bringing that up is in regard to Imus by the talking heads.

Because hip-hop is bad does that mean Imus is not bad? Are they trying to charge hypocrisy--that's really really stupid.

Busted?  By who?  The politically correct ninny squad?  

And yes as a young white guy I do have a sense of entitlement to unlimited speech.  Why shouldn't I?  You have that same entitlement, not to sound corny but this is America.  

Uh, I agree that Ridley (and you) see this clearly while the mediocracy doesn't, and I'm not trying to make a federal case out of it, but as a "boomer", I object to being labelled a "freak."  Just sayin'