Person of the Day: Don Imus

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DON IMUS. In the furor over his ugly comments about the Rutgers basketball team emerges the dollar-and-cents reason he hasn’t been fired (something that would have happened in a nanosecond to a lesser mortal). The NY Times today reports that his broadcasting empire rakes in $50 million a year. Advertisers like AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Ditech.com do very, very well by advertising on this show, which descends to the lower depths of human sensitivity on a regular basis. Anyone who has listened in knows Imus’ good-boy/bad-boy drill. And sexism/racism is part of the package. It’s there for an important reason. He knows what certain people will guilty-pleasure-belly-laugh at. Bo Dietl, a former NYC detective, a regular on the show, says, “If you handcuff him and just take away the ‘entertainment’ [my quotes] it will just become like any other talk show.” Yep, that’s “entertainment.” So, perhaps the fault, dear Nextel, is not in our radio stars but in ourselves. His name says it all: I’m Us.

PS: Larry Gerbrandt, senior vice president and media analyst for Nielson, says, “My bet is he survives…If the notoriety pushes up his ratings, he could even come out ahead.”

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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