If you're outta the loop (I hate that expression) as to what Don Imus said and what this article is in reference to, see the information below it. Here, Newsmax gives us the Catholic League's rundown on the disparate treatment given to Catholic-bashers and those who bash anyone else:
'Imus Treatment' Ignored for Catholic Bashers
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:02 p.m. EDT
Weighing in on the Don Imus controversy, Catholic League President Bill Donohue commented Wednesday on the way Catholic bashers are treated compared to the morning radio talk-show host.
"Two years ago, Penn Jillette [of the comedy team Penn and Teller] went on 'Showtime' calling Mother Teresa ‘Mother F***ing Teresa’ and called the nuns who worked with her ‘f***ing c**ts.’ 'Showtime' is owned by Viacom and that is why I wrote to its chief, Sumner Redstone, to register a complaint. He wrote back extolling the merits of ‘artistic freedom’ and ‘tolerance,’" Donohue stated.
"Last year, on Viacom-owned CBS radio, Jillette said Mother Teresa ‘had this weird kink that I think was sexual,’ compared the saintly nun to Charles Manson and said she ‘got her [sexual] kicks watching people suffer and die.’ Again, nothing was done about this.
Donohue then quoted an episode of comedian Bill Maher. "In 2005, Bill Maher went on HBO at the time of the death of Pope John Paul II and said, ‘For those who could not make the funeral, the Vatican has asked that in lieu of flowers, just stop touching your d**k.’ He also said that the whole story of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Resurrection was ‘grafted from paganism’; he ended by mocking the death of the Pope and the upcoming conclave. The letter I received from HBO said that ‘it’s a free country, and people are free to say silly things—even on HBO.’
"Right before Easter," Donohue continued, "the Catholic League protested the chocolate Jesus with his genitals exposed that was to be shown in the art gallery of the Roger Smith Hotel in midtown Manhattan [located on street level, the public was invited to eat him]. Air America radio co-host Cenk Uygur, writing on ‘The Huffington Post,’ said, ‘So is the argument that Jesus didn’t have a d**k? Or were people offended because it was too big? Too small? Too immaculate? Not immaculate enough?’ Regarding Imus’s remark, Uygur called it ‘derogatory and insulting.’
"Similarly, Joan Walsh on Salon.com said the chocolate Jesus was not ‘a big deal,’ and advised people not to go see it if they didn’t like it. She has now called on Imus to be fired. Even New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg said ‘don’t pay any attention’ to the chocolate Jesus, but he now finds it necessary to brand Imus’ comments ‘repugnant.’
"In other words, Catholic bashing is humorous and an exercise in liberty. Racism is awful. Bigotry, then, is neither good nor bad — it just depends who the target is."
In case you don't know about what Don Imus did, here's the video, a transcript, and an article about the incident and its aftermath:
Video of Imus's Show
Transcript
DON IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final.
SID ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night — seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.
IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and –
BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
IMUS: Yeah.
McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.
IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough –
CHARLES McCORD: Do The Right Thing.
McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
IMUS: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?
ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.
Article about it all from the Baltimore Sun:
Imus gets two-week suspension
By Nick Madigan
Sun Reporter
Originally published April 10, 2007
The uproar over talk-radio host Don Imus' racially charged remarks about a women's basketball team prompted NBC News and CBS Radio yesterday to suspend Imus in the Morning for two weeks, starting Monday.
The action follows Imus' reference last week to members of the Rutgers University women's team as "nappy-headed hos." CBS, which oversees Imus' daily broadcasts to more than 70 radio stations, said yesterday, "We are disappointed by Imus' actions last week which we find completely inappropriate. We fully agree that a sincere apology was called for."
NBC News President Steve Capus said in a statement that his decision to suspend MSNBC's simulcasts "comes after careful consideration in the days since his racist, abhorrent comments were made." Capus acknowledged that Imus "has expressed profound regret and embarrassment and has made a commitment to listen to all of those who have raised legitimate expressions of outrage."
In addition, Capus noted Imus' promise to "change the discourse on his program," and said the network's "future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word."
MSNBC announced that it would air the previously scheduled Imus broadcasts Thursday and Friday that benefit several charities.
Imus' remarks about the Rutgers players came during an on-air conversation Wednesday between him and his producer, Bernard McGurk, about the NCAA title game between Rutgers and Tennessee, which Rutgers lost.
Imus spent much of yesterday apologizing and fighting calls for his dismissal. His radio show, which reaches about 2.5 million people a week, originates from New York's WFAN-AM and is syndicated by Westwood One, both of which are managed by CBS Radio. The show is simulcast daily on MSNBC, where it reached an estimated 361,000 viewers in the first quarter of this year, up 39 percent from last year.
The imbroglio erupted when the habitually caustic Imus made the comment while discussing the NCAA women's basketball championship game; most of the Rutgers players are black. Imus apologized on Friday's program and again yesterday, amid mounting criticism.
'Kidding around'
Yesterday, he suggested that he and his producer had simply been "kidding around" but conceded that the times called for greater sensitivity.
"Here's what I've learned -- that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said on his show. "Because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean it's going to be what it's been for the next five years or whatever because that has to change, and I understand that."
He defended his integrity. "I'm not a bad person," he said. "I'm a good person, but I said a bad thing."
He also apologized on a syndicated program hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is among several black leaders demanding his removal. Imus told Sharpton that "our agenda is to be funny, and sometimes we go too far -- and this time we went way too far."
Sharpton told Imus that if the Federal Communications Commission could fine Janet Jackson over exposing her breast at a Super Bowl halftime, "How can we stand for something like this?"
"I don't think the issue is whether you're a good guy, but whether you can say something racist and sexist and it just be glossed over," Sharpton said.
"Don't think I'm not humiliated," Imus replied. The conversation became heated, with Imus saying, "I can't get anyplace with you people" and "I didn't come here to be slapped around."
Unmoved, Sharpton later appeared on CNN and told newsman Wolf Blitzer, "We want him fired."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and about 50 people marched yesterday outside Chicago's NBC tower to protest Imus' comments. He said MSNBC should abandon Imus and hire more black pundits.
Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People board of directors, said it is "past time [Imus'] employers took him off the air."
Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said that for Imus to make a joke "in such an insensitive manner creates a wedge and makes light of these classy individuals, both as women and as women of color."
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine spoke to Rutgers players yesterday and said later that he strongly condemned Imus' words. Rutgers players said they planned to make a public statement today.
Experts yesterday debated the societal standards regarding the use of racially sensitive terms.
Imus' remark is "probably particularly troubling to black women and those of us who love them," said Jabari Asim, author of the recently released book The N Word; Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why (Houghton Mifflin). He said the comment fostered "a pernicious stereotype that's haunted [African-Americans] throughout the history of this country."
The controversy highlighted the extent to which offensive pronouncements have inflamed public discourse lately, most notably in the cases of actors Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and Isaiah Washington, pundit Ann Coulter and former U.S. Sen. George Allen, all of whom expressed racist or bigoted beliefs and were widely castigated as a result.
Allen's use of the term "macaca" to describe a man of Indian descent likely contributed to the loss of his seat in the Senate, while Richards' frenzied rant at a Los Angeles nightclub, directed toward black hecklers, probably did irreparable damage to his career.
Who can say what
These incidents also raise the issue of terms that may be acceptable within a minority culture but almost certainly are not outside it.
For instance, Asim, an African-American who serves as deputy book editor at The Washington Post, does not believe that it is all right for black people to use racial epithets with each other. But he differentiates between casual conversation and intentional satire.
"I defend the right of Mark Twain or Chris Rock to say it, because they are clearly satirizing our own racial preoccupations and neuroses," Asim said. "Imus' remarks appear to capitalize on them rather than to expose their limitations."
William J. Drummond, an African-American and professor at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, also made a distinction.
"The use of a derogatory term within a subculture has always been sort of acceptable," he said. The N-word is "a term of endearment, of teasing, of criticism within the African-American culture, but when it comes from ... outside your cultural and racial group, then it becomes a fighting word."
Referring to the Imus debacle, Drummond said the "level of evolution of our racial sensibilities is surprisingly shallow, even after all these years of legislation and rhetoric."
Richard Prince, an African-American writer and editor who focuses on minority issues in his Journal-isms column on the Web site of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, said yesterday that not everyone "subscribes to the double standard" of allowing slurs within racial groups while rejecting them from outsiders.
"Many African-Americans," Prince said, "believe it's not OK for black people to use the N-word."
