Don Gets Dumped: The Bitter End of Don Imus

America's original shock jock falls amid an outrage that spawned from his choice of words, directed at the women's basketball team at Rutgers University. MSNBC, which ran Imus' radio simulcast, was the first to act by cancelling their simulcast and was followed days later by CBS radio. The story started off small, but grew in intensity as more and more outlets became involved in the story: namely Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who called for Don Imus to be fired for his comments. The popular show, which was able to bring many high-profile individuals in the political and journalism domains onto its airwaves, has been known to originate other controversial statements in the past. One of the interesting points to this story is the selective outrage by many of the people who have recently commented on this story, and especially Reverends Sharpton and Jackson. The people who went on the Don Imus show knew what had been said in the past by Imus and his crew, but only now called for him to be fired. Others I have heard claim a kind of ignorance which I find laughable. This attempt at a plausible denial is implausible. I think what Imus said was over the line especially when you look at who he was directing it at. These were young women who had achieved a great deal of success and were caught in Imus' cross-hair. But I also think we should look at how this story gained steam like it did. We had Sharpton and Jackson involved, like they always are in situations like this. These are two men who have not met soapbox they would not stand on to spout their opinions. These self-declared spokesmen for all African-Americans called for the head of Don Imus. This, at the time that the Rutgers' women had met with Imus and accepted his apology. But it was too late for Don Imus as sponsor after sponsor pulled out and the executives got scared and reacted. This reaction of course was not immediate, but after a few days when I guess Imus' words had gotten worse over time. The main point of my diatribe is focused on Sharpton and Jackson. These are two men who hardly have the moral authority to be denouncing anyone's words. I am sick of these two men constantly inserting themselves into every issue or event. I am really sick of the selective moral outrage shown by these two men. They condemn people like Imus but refuse to focus their attention on the music industry where such degrading speech is a constant presence. It seems they are blind to the real crises that the African-American community is confronted with like teenage pregnancy and school drop-outs. But individuals like Sharpton and Jackson have an agenda and instead look for easy prey that they can target and exploit for their own personal gain.