<p>I watched the news report/presentation this am - and have to say that I was quite impressed with the coach and the young ladies during the presentation. </p>
<p>I certainly hope they continue to deal with this situation in the same manner that they have been - lots of class :)</p>
<p>I agree, JeepMom.
I also think that Imus should be fired. Permanently.
And I wonder why what he said seems to be seen as an issue for only black people to protest. What about women, athletes in general, students and parents in general?
I have also been amazed at how many people on message boards have excused what he said by saying he must have had a bad day. IMO people don’t say such reprehensible things unless they really believe them. Such people don’t need to be on major media.</p>
<p>NOW and other groups have been making statements. It should not be a “black issue” and is not one. Anyone who can talk that way about young girls shouldn’t be on the air. I hope the pressure to get him out will continue. Here in NJ this is big news, and not just in the black community. You can read our local reactions at nj.com, which has the local papers online.</p>
<p>Thanks OldinJersey for letting me know that more than black people have been speaking out against Imus’ comments. That’s very reassuring to me to hear about.</p>
<p>It is a human decency issue - Imus went way over the line here - ooo sure he made a publisized apology - in the papers/on the news, etc… but has yet to personally apologize to the team - which I understand may be coming - when they meet with him - but it never should have happened in the first place.</p>
<p>Also see these threads from rutgers.rivals.com:</p>
<p><a href=“http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=640&tid=92859308&mid=92859308&sid=988&style=2[/url]”>http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=640&tid=92859308&mid=92859308&sid=988&style=2</a>
<a href=“http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=92790999&mid=92790999&sid=988&style=2[/url]”>http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=92790999&mid=92790999&sid=988&style=2</a>
<a href=“http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=92862515&mid=92862515&sid=988&style=2[/url]”>http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=92862515&mid=92862515&sid=988&style=2</a>
<a href=“http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=640&tid=92844187&mid=92844187&sid=988&style=2[/url]”>http://rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=640&tid=92844187&mid=92844187&sid=988&style=2</a></p>
<p>i personally think this thing is blown up way too much. He made a joke, albiet one in poor taste, but it was a joke.</p>
<p>Its funny–if a girl or group of girls dress very provactively or with the bits falling all over the place most people think nothing of calling them tramps or hos or whatever else (like britney, paris, lindsay, etc). Yet a someone makes fun of a bunch of girls who arn’t exactly eye candy, and he gets blasted. Imus is an over the hill shock jock, I don’t think he deserves to be fired over this.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you all just “heard” what Imus did, but actually watched it. go check it out on YouTube, it really wasnt that bad.</p>
<p>" a girl or group of girls dress very provactively or with the bits falling all over the place most people think nothing of calling them tramps or hos or whatever else (like britney, paris, lindsay, etc). "</p>
<p>Actually, most people I know don’t do that kind of name calling. That includes newspaper columnists whom I know.</p>
<p>Not sure, jags, if you are a parent or a student, but if you’re a parent would you be OK with a public figure calling your D a “ho” as some kind of joke on a radio show? If you’re a student, how would you feel about a public figure calling your sister, close friend or romantic partner that kind of name?</p>
<p>northstar,</p>
<p>I’ll repeat, I don’t think what he did was right. But it wasn’t racist (if you watch it…he says something to the effect of “the rutgers kids look scary but the tennessee girls look pretty”…both teams are predominantly black). It was said in jest. I’m sure you’ve said SOMETHING in poor taste at some point on the job…it doesn’t warrant getting fired.</p>
<p>I don’t think that calling people “hos” – prostitutes – is funny nor is it simply in bad taste. He could get sued for slander. I don’t make those kind of jokes.</p>
<p>For the record, here’s information about the captain of the Rutgers team:
"Rutgers sophomore guard Essence Carson is a bit of a Renaissance woman, excelling on the court, in the classroom and on the stage.</p>
<p>A starter in all 16 games this season, she ranks second on the team in minutes (32.9 per game), chipping in 7.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per contest. For her career, Carson has started 39 of 51 games and has averaged 6.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per contest, posting 13 double-digit scoring games, three double-digit rebounding games and one double-double.</p>
<p>Away from the court, she was a straight-A student at the Rosa Parks School for the Fine and Performing Arts, and competed athletically at Eastside High School. A gifted musician, she plays the piano, bass guitar, drums and saxophone, and is majoring in music at Rutgers.:"</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.doubleazone.com/2006/01/the_essence_of_being_a_student.html[/url]”>http://www.doubleazone.com/2006/01/the_essence_of_being_a_student.html</a></p>
<p>"Robert Cooper and his late wife, Betty, raised Carson for most of her life, and Essence still lives with her grandfather and cousin, Jahmir, when she is not at college. (Essence’s mother, Stacey Robinson, is still actively involved in her life; Essence’s father, Joe Carson, died.)</p>
<p>Jahmir is one of five children of Latasha and Keith, who live separately in Paterson but spend a good deal of time helping Robert at his home.</p>
<p>Robert and Betty, who died suddenly after an asthma attack in early 2005, taught Carson to value education, church and music above all else. </p>
<p>A straight ‘‘A’’ student during her time at the Rosa Parks School of Fine and Performing Arts in Paterson, Carson also plays the piano, saxophone and bass guitar.</p>
<p>When “Ma Betty,” as she was known around Paterson and at the Christ United Methodist Church where she was actively involved, passed away, Carson had a special pendant made featuring a black-and-white photo of her grandmother and the years of her birth and death."<a href=“http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjUmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxMDUwNjImeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2”>http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjUmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxMDUwNjImeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2</a></p>
<p>From the same source, info on Coach Stringer:
"Coach Stringer no stranger to tragedy</p>
<p>Coach Stringer and several Rutgers players attended Betty’s funeral, and Robert said the coach whispered some words of consolation to him. Stringer herself has experienced more than her share of tragedy. </p>
<p>Her daughter contracted spinal meningitis as an infant. </p>
<p>She lost her husband to a heart attack at 47 on Thanksgiving 15 years ago. One of her sons was involved in a serious auto accident, and another was indirectly involved in the shooting death of a fellow student at North Carolina State. "</p>
<p>This was not just a mistake or slip by Mr. Imus, IMO; such comments are what he and his show are about, it is what he does. What he said was deplorable on so many levels and in so many respects. </p>
<p>After watching the Rutgers news conference this a.m. I am all the more convinced that his comments were inexcusable and he need be released from his contract by NBC/MSNBC/CBS.</p>
<p>Here’s another example of what Imus is about. This is from a column by Gwen Ifill, an African American woman who is senior correspondent for The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” and the moderator of “Washington Week.” Sad statement about our society that this kind of show could have lasted so long and have so many fans.</p>
<p>"I was covering the White House for this newspaper in 1993, when Mr. Imus’s producer began calling to invite me on his radio program. I didn’t return his calls. I had my hands plenty full covering Bill Clinton. </p>
<p>Soon enough, the phone calls stopped. Then quizzical colleagues began asking me why Don Imus seemed to have a problem with me. I had no idea what they were talking about because I never listened to the program.</p>
<p>It was not until five years later, when Mr. Imus and I were both working under the NBC News umbrella — his show was being simulcast on MSNBC; I was a Capitol Hill correspondent for the network — that I discovered why people were asking those questions. It took Lars-Erik Nelson, a columnist for The New York Daily News, to finally explain what no one else had wanted to repeat.</p>
<p>“Isn’t The Times wonderful,” Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the radio. ‘It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.’"</p>
<p>A flawed joke. Poor taste. Seemingly bigoted. Boorish behavior from a fool. But I am not convinced the situation deserved the attention it has gotten from a usually blissfully ignorant media. Also, I’m concerned about the grandstanding by apparent spokesmen for the young women. What is clear and what does disturb me is the fact that he insulted young people; college students. These kids are not paid to take abuse from the pubic, unlike professional athletes. They didn’t deserve the “street” insult from Don Imus. But that’s his stock-in-trade.</p>
<p>But my support of the team is tempored by the fact that, sadly, some Rutgers players have displayed the all-too-familiar bad behavor or bad atitude by athletes, including violent criminal acts. For example, I believe that Coach Stringer’s response to the vicious assault committed by one of her players upon a fellow student a couple of years ago was really inadequate. I wonder if Stringer or the Rutgers administration ever apologized to that victim.</p>
<p>It is sometimes difficult for drug addicts, even those in recovery, to change their overall behavior, especially when great effort is often needed to stay clean.</p>
<p>I never heard of Imus until his statement about the Rutgers players. What I’m puzzling about is why he is allowed on the air and why he has an audience. Given the virulent racism, antisemeticism, sexism and other isms that he has long displayed, I don’t understand why has he been allowed airtime.</p>
<p>We have to decide, as a society, whether or not we are going to continue to tolerate (which does not equal support nor agreement with…) offensive speech, so that the expression of worthwhile ideas and opinions can continue uninhibited.</p>
<p>Yes, the airwaves are publicly owned, legally speaking. But that hasn’t meant a darn thing when it comes to corporate interests. We seem to uninterested in the fact that ownership of broadcast outlets and major newspapers in this country are concentrated in a few corporate hands. Nor, in my opinion, is there adequate debate about what news and issues are broadcast or reported widely upon. But I guess that’s another thread.</p>
<p>What The Guy Said Was Both Racist And Sexist!!! He Has Had Past Experiences With Racial Comments, Usually Directed Towards Blacks! AS An African American Female Who Is Attending Rutgers This Fall I Am Greatly Offended! The Guy Is A Racist And Needs To Be Terminated Immediatly! End Of Story!!!</p>
<p>sclreed:</p>
<p>I’m with you.</p>
<p>Rutgers College 1965</p>
<p>Thanks Finally Someone With Some Sense!</p>
<p>I used to listen to Imus on the way to work six years ago, when I had an early drive and there was no other talk on (other than NPR). MSNBC is a liberal-leaning station–the radio station simultaneously broadcast his morning tv show. As I remember it, his most frequent guests were (and are, from what I’ve since heard) Howard Fineman of Newsweek and David Gregory of NBC. I also remember Joe Lieberman being on it very often.</p>
<p>Curious that these guys and the station’s management never picked up on Imus’ racism and sexism before this incident. ;)</p>