TheGibsonReport.today.com

The question is not should Don Imus quit… but when? The question is not should complaints be filed with the Federal Communications Commission… but why? And, the question is not should Don Imus be fired… but how has he lasted so long?  The answers are:  Immediately, the FCC is an impotent institution and needs to be replaced, and preaching to the choir.   Because profits come before principles, I would predict that Imus will be gone by May 1, 2007. The fact that he was neither fired nor suspended immediately, indicates that the wagons are being circled; he’ll be eased out the door with a hefty severence pay and pension package. At 66 and already in the NBC Hall of Fame, now may be a good time for Imus to start blogging. The other reason Imus is a goner is because his preaching to the choir has attracted the attention of others with money who don’t agree with him.

As a recovering alcoholic and cocain abuser, Imus has always lacked a three-second delay mechanism on his mouth. Of course, he’s sorry when he is called on his politically incorrect behavior. The problem is that absent a three-second delay brain, Imus will periodically forget and repeat what he hears around his water cooler, as reality.  He didn’t make up the notion of “nappy-headed hos.” Imus surely heard it from someone of power that he admires.  As a loose-cannon he has to go when he begins to substantially affect the bottom line of his admirers or their reputation. 

So, it would be wiser for the reverends -  Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who both have had experience with the power of redemption - to develop some newer tactics. Instead of protesting a lone AM radio station in New York or complaining to the FCC, they would do well to carry protest letters and demands higher up the food chain - Westwood One & MSNBC Headquarters; Black advertisers, churches, greek organizations, universities, White advertisers who depend upon diversity and goodwill.  It should not be forgotten there are some business-as-usual reasons why Imus was not immediately publicly disciplined and why his apology was conspicuously delayed: his closest friends are not Black and do not represent a wide spectrum of opinions.  That is to say, he didn’t immediately hear rage from Chris Rock, Oprah, Senators Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Bill O’Reilly, Tavis Smiley, our watchdog agency - the FCC, the academic communities’ women studies programs, you or me.  We obviously were not in his choir of appreciative listeners. But some did respond for us - Essence Magazine, the National Association of Black Journalists, a Daily News columnist, the reverends - and they should be commended.

But it is Al Sharpton’s warning that he is going to write the FCC that is equally distrubing.  It only takes a quick read of an unpublished University of Michigan dissertation (Ideological Narratives and the American Airwaves: Reconstructing the Public Interest Concept, 1995) to see that the FCC is more the problem than the solution. As the author, I established that the FCC changed its mandate when it redefined the public interest concept and decided in 1984 that “the public’s interest,” that is to say, the marketplace should determine television standards. Since the mid-1980s, the FCC has not operated under the belief that broadcasters must provide programming that is in ”the public interest” or for the common good. That is why CBS and other stations never should have been fined for the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. It didn’t make sense because most people who claimed they saw and/or were offended by the incident really didn’t see it on over-the-air broadcast stations but on cable television. Since the FCC does not regulate the content of cable television, how did it get away with regulating some of the channels on cable TV. Unfortunately Rev. Sharpton assumes, like even most members of Congress, that the FCC is continuing to carry out a mandate that would prohibit the airwaves being used for sexist and racist remarks. Deregulation killed that narrative; an uneven regulatory playing field makes it unlikely the FCC will do anything.  Where was FCC action when Imus called a PBS journalism - “a cleaning lady?” It is paradoxical that the FCC which goes through the motion of licensing TV stations makes cable TV watchers experience words being excessively bleeped on one channel while being clearly and frequently heard on the next or near-by channel.

Rev. Al Sharpton would thus do well to lead the push to dismantle the FCC  and encourage those who believe in a diverse society to speak out when the free speech rights of one or some pounce on the free speech rights of others. Don Imus’ behavior is thus an important and a timely reminder that we do not live yet in a color-blind society, that some individuals still believe in white and/or male supremacy, and that hatred is the kind of addiction that is rarely found separate from other kinds of addictions.  For this reason, the issue is not whether the Rutgers University women’s basketball team will accept the apology of Don Imus.  Of course, he is humiliated he was caught or called on his remarks. But all Imus can say as he collects his weekly pay check before being suspended next week on April 16th is, “I’m sorry.”

The women on the Rutgers basketball team and the rest of us will ultimately forgive and move on.  But we will never forget that Don Imus has demons that keep him from being a happier individual.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS