The Downfall of Don Imus...

Did you see MSNBC's long-winded and certainly anticipated run for cover by that sterling alumnus of Temple University, Steve Capus, on "Countdown" hosted by the also usually sterling, but suddenly tarnished host, Keith Olbermann last night? What a joke! There was Capus, looking ever so much like the illegitimate, be-speckled son of John Cleese, bearing that familiar and sad "Poor Me..." puppy dog look that all rich, white men show with such over-acted presence whenever they are about to explain how bad they feel at the very moment they have just done something "for the good of us all...", but invariably involves the certain fucking-over of at least one of us. Are you serious?

His expression of his was, without a doubt, one that he has been practicing to show us every morning while shaving his bland mug ever since he slipped in behind the colored feathers of the Mighty Peacock and took over their news division, supposedly in the pose and guise of becoming the "ethical anchor at NBC..". Meanwhile, the intrepid Don Imus was out there twisting in the public air wave winds in the foreground, sitting barefaced and brazen on his show every morning on MSNBC. These jokers knew from jump street that Imus was ever-threatening to make a potentially dangerous ass out of himself and the rest of these pale, white executive geniuses who were "...right behind Don"...right up to the last moment until they realized their money cow would have to be killed and butchered.

And all the while, these pablum and milktoast eating empty suits were shoveling in bushel baskets full of money that advertisers would spend to kill their own mothers if they thought it would give them a better chance to have Don Imus pour their syrupy droning drivel into ears and eyes of all those loyal Imus followers in America. Do you think for one minute that Capus wasn't prepared for what took place on April 11th, 2007 when he shit-canned Don Imus from the moment he arrived at NBC?

But now we come to the real subject of the sub-text to this story. Did you notice how often Capus mentioned that apparently, complaints about the bad conduct of Don Imus had been pouring into his office and "piling up for some considerable amount of time"? I would bet Dollars to Colored Peacock Feathers that the real reason for Imus suffering his inevitable and catastrophic public failure was due to the refusal of Capus and the rest of the supervision at NBC to effectively deal with him as a problem employee.

Here was a man who spent so many years gawk-walking while gawk-talking down the hallowed halls at NBC, terrorizing lesser minions in his wake and, while so many others around him got filthy rich, making the balance of his support team perpetually miserable. Meanwhile, Imus was giving those at the top grossly generous paychecks and perks, with the others around him receiving the rest of the money that very nicely trickled down and provide them all with job security. Yet all the while, the likes of Steve Capus and his ilk were always ready with a razor sharp axe (and a good cover story) to chop off the old tousled, sandy haired head of their Golden Goose.


Do you suppose there would be many justified law suits against an organization that would allow the behavior of someone like Don Imus to perpetually and tyrannically rule over all those employees who were incessantly and publicly harassed by that old jackass, only to be threatened with dismissal for complaining about it?

I can almost hear his too soft and oh, so smarmy voice of the character who could play Capus in the “Made Just For Real People” Movie of the Week:

Scene:
Fade in.

A dimly lit, but huge and nicely appointed office. There is a tiny, trembling and emotionally wounded female employee of MSNBC’s “Imus in the Morning” staff cowers in an uncomfortably stiff-backed office chair (with two inches of the legs sawn off for effect) Opposite her is “Caput”, the smarmy, mean executive who is sitting opposite across the vast landscape of his oak desk, framed by the perfection of his Feng Shui balanced document organizers. Looking at the little woman without so much as one blink, he leans slovenly back, almost canted in angular disgust, gazing back at her from his plush, soft leather chair. Then, quite suddenly, he launches himself to a standing position and hovering across his desk, he glares wildly, with that twisted, stupid smile he so often shows when in the act of destroying those in his way and yest, quietly speaks to the shuddering victim:

"Do you like your job here at NBC? A long, pregnant silence follows and fills the room. He adds thereafter with a confirming, “Well…of COURSE you do, don’t you? Well then… perhaps you should re-consider your personal problems and these issues you seem to be creating and …..JUST STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THE “IMAN”!!! At the loudest portion of his demand, he gestures in the air with a bat-like motion, showing his effeminate hands and fingers, using bi-lateral finger quotes ”” for additional and redundant emphasis where none is really needed. He then continues to hiss loudly while slowly sinking back down into the comfortable chair, “…and while you’re at it…why not just enjoy all that money we are paying you to put up with him....Yes?" The little woman’s head droops into her waiting open palms, lubricated by her sobs and tears.

Scene:
Fade to Black.

Now, if you take all of the supposed bosses over Don Imus, starting with his bald producer, Bernie McGuirk and perhaps ending with… let’s not forget…. Good… Old….Ethical… Steve Capus…and you fire the both of them for neither disciplining him properly for all those prior violations of NBC’s sacred Rules of Conduct for All Employees nor firing him at the very instant that Bernie (first) and Imus (second) uttered the killer phrase “Nappy Headed Hoes”….Then ….Yes… Then and only then would NBC will be able to tout it’s alleged value system on all the other media outlets that now pander to such a disgusting display of corporate-cover-your-ass Bullshit.

Had they done this…Don Imus would never have been able to acquire the legendary status of being such a serious asshole or ever been put in a position to be martyred. And had they really done all of this truthfully…honestly…without all this disgusting, fake and false indignation….NBC would have been able to hold their “ethical” heads high. But wait a minute…Are You Serious???

The Don Imus Debacle...

Okay. So let me get this straight. Your Affiliate Radio Station is actually interested in finding out what the opinions of your viewers are about the Don Imus Debacle? I doubt it. I would suggest instead that with the same lack of real concern for the feelings of those female basketball stars, the real reason for your Boss' open request this morning on the radio for public opinion and commentary follows Lemming-Like along the same lines as the reasons that some companies that have already stopped advertising on the Imus in the Morning Show. Money and profits, not too mention what an opportunity this thinly disguised offer of concern is for him to find out how many people might be listening to TanTalk radio! Market-Share...Babeee.....Market-Share!

Money. That's right. In the end, that is what this is all about: The Money. The dumbasses who once advertised on the Imus Show have knee-jerked themselves and unfortunately, dragged the rest of us along into this deepening chasm of what is obviously an already sad situation involving an Old, Desiccated, Former Drug Addicted, Burned Out, Dry-Alcoholic Bum. yup...and this Bum simply echoed his own Boss's thoughtless comments...Yeah...that's right....Listen to the sound byte again...and you'll hear Good Ol' Bernie.... Now if ANYBODY needs to be fired for making disparaging and racist comments and egging others on with his bigotry, it's that jackass! Just ask the Honorable Mayor of New Orleans, Mr. Ray Nagin what he thinks about Bernie!

The self-serving, self-righteous actions and reactionary behavior of stupid advertisers, and some who are spring-loaded to see racism in every nuance of society, seemingly brought to tears with all this furious, faux indignation is just ridiculous! Do they really imagine they'll advantage their company images on the back and bones of someone who is arguably entertaining, yet the most easily ignorable person who ever saddled up an easy chair in front of a microphone? Please! Nothing could be more absurd!!!
Those advertisers who "Dumped on Don Imus" so quickly before finding out all the facts and elements of the situation may ultimately regret asking so soon for his head, for the simple reason that those same harmful, hateful and corrosive racial epithets and misogynistic comments are too often echoed in songs written and created by many black males and quite often, by some black comedians using disparaging racial expressions at the expense of both black and white races without regard to sex, race creed or color.

Instead of being dragged, body, soul and reputation, in front of the entire world by the likes of the Rev. Al Sharpton, and or each and every tangential person associated with the NAACP who has just clambered in front of the TV pundit's cameras to heap every single racial inequity since the beginning of slavery on the weak, narrow shoulders of one Don Imus, maybe a better outcome should have occurred. By the way...Remember the Tawana Brawley farce? I wonder...was he ever threatened with being fired for racially disparaging an entire community based on her lies and deceits, supported by his strong effort at retribution for something that never happened? Hummmmnnn.



Perhaps this event would have been better served had the coach of this wounded group of fine, wonderful, talented young women called a news conference from the campus of Rutgers University to address their own, un-alloyed feelings brought about by Imus' thoughtless diatribe, and in their own words, just as simple human beings, sans Al Sharpton, the NAACP, Falsely Indignant Corporations ands any other hangers-on who want to push their own agendas, spoken directly to him and to us all. Imagine the scene unfolding, when asked what she thought of the situation and the comments made by Don Imus on MSNBC...the coach would gently lean forward over the array of microphones and then while looking into all the television cameras, answered that question with her own by asking simply, "Who is Don Imus?"

The roar of approving laughter that would have come from the crowd of reporters and on-lookers would have given strength to the idea of the poise and beauty in there athletic and intellectual performance being carried from the basketball court into their very lives as Americans...Not Black Americans...Just American Heroines. She could have continued by stating, "We are from Rutgers University...And We....are Champions... And now, if you have any further questions about that reality, We are here to answer them. Anything else you have in mind to ask us about Mr. Imus and his problems are unimportant." Had this event taken place instead of the public show trial prompted by nervous advertisers and, greedy, soul-less corporations, perhaps in that very public moment of clarity, Don Imus would have been put in his proper place for all time. By not allowing this to happen, these young women were cheated out of redeeming their true dignity by all of this senseless over-reaction. The people who jumped ahead of them to take up their cause will, In the end, have to step aside because it will; be these young ladies who make things right when all is said and done. They themselves will do more to heal this situation than all the ranting and ravings, justified or otherwise about racism and any repeated apologies from Don Imus would ever accomplish.

Perhaps a visit with The Bard, William Shakespeare and his play "Henry the Fifth" would put all of these supposedly well-intended entities back on track. When the young King Hal questioned a group of suspected conspirators in his court who were planning his early demise, he asked them all what they might do in the way of punishment for an offense of a particularly modest nature. These lying bastards goaded him toward the extreme ends of punishment, only to be admonished by the young king to temper their vigor for severely punishing such mild misdemeanors, lest the kingdom lose its r ability to recognize and properly punish real offenses against the state when such crimes came to light. Henry the Fifth would have admonished these advertisers and the American population at large to measure such things with appropriate responses, so that when real and injurious racial slurs; remarks done with great malice and with vicious aforethought designed to malign any race, be properly punished in the eyes of society. In that regard, the vocal members of the black community who might be thirsting for every sorry drop of blood in the sorry likes of Don Imus might serve their people's real needs for racial and social justice by demanding the same of them selves and perhaps worry less about destroying Imus and more about cleaning up their own "troubled house". Trust me...not matter what happens...Black People will not find complete satisfaction to all the problems of racism that continuously plague their hearts and minds in this circumstance. It can't be done!
There is an old saying that goes something like this:

"There is No Right Way...To Do a Wrong Thing..."

We could all reflect and learn from one another, if we consider how this matter could better be handled in the racial consciousness of our country. I agree that firing Don Imus would serve some people in this equation of imbalanced and reactionary feelings and sudden punitive actions to his alleged "capitol offense". But just understand that while it might serve to sooth the fevered brows of those offended and those who should never imagine being so offended don't be surprised by the sudden and silent backlash that may come against those who cried out too soon and too loudly for his head!

I am one American who neither needs nor wants any advertisers or self-appointed prophets of racial equality and perfection telling me what I should, or should not believe or how to handle such situations. Neither do I want them telling me what I should, or should not be watching or listening to on any kind of media. We only need look at the dreadful state of our country; our dissolving rights under the constitution and or the poor conditions our other real heroes endure as soldiers abandoned to do warfare in foreign lands for a handful of self-righteous politicians to understand the need for level-headed and proportionate responses to problems of this magnitude.

Those of us who want and seek such impossibly achieved perfection in society will do more harm then good in the long run to their causes by acting too strongly and trying to achieve their goals with too much enthusiastic energy and fall prey themselves to such sinister attempts at manipulating public opinion. Just imagine how hard and long Karl Rove is laughing about this situation behind the gated White House lawn. because the longer we all are so ferociously focused on one small, dumbass of a man...the more shenanigans can be dealt our way in the background. I wonder how many Black American Soldiers and Marines will be taken care of in the Veteran's facility built in part with the huge money donations made by Don Imus. I wonder how much was given to that cause by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

But...by all means....please do list all of the advertisers and all the people, pundits and politicians who have ridden this racial bandwagon over Don Imus on the Road to MSNBC and who seek his ultimate destruction. Those of you who have decided to play this game... just watch very closely how much business, money and support you will all lose in the offing, all because of one stupid, thoughtless remark made by Mr. Dumbass... Don Imus. Imagine that! Are we people...or "Sheeple" Folks???