Imus and the Teddy Bear
Don Imus, the radio shock-jock, for years said things that were intended to make his point with brash disregard for common courtesy. He just happened to finally say in public something that was not only morally but also politically repulsive—and he paid a price for it.
It was akin, for Imus, to being sentenced to 15 days in a Sudanese prison, listening to mobs cry out for blood because you allowed your students to name a teddy bear in honor of their deity.
Recently, both Imus and an English teacher who actually suffered that fate were both given back their freedom. What a contrast in human behavior. The school teacher was let out of prison. Don Imus went back on the air.
Don Imus, by his own admission, has lived anything but an exemplary lifestyle. He's suffered a wide range of physical and behavior addictions—the most unfortunate being his appetite for spouting insults and filthy language on the public airwaves. Equally unfortunate is that the American public has enabled the latter addiction to the point that he forgot it needed controlling.
After a long and colorful run of insulting dialogue—which earned him the dubious title of "equal opportunity offender"—in his dotage he happened to comment that a major women's basketball team with a number of African/American players looked like “nappy-headed hos.”
Everyone will agree that was an ugly thing to say and, apparently, it was the political straw that broke the camel's back. They fired the old guy.
Imus is, however, not a stranger to falling down and getting back up. In fact, while in very public exile, he threatened to sue CBS over the five-year, $40 million contract he signed just before his racial faux pas. He settled for an undisclosed amount in August.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate teacher in Khartoum, Sudan, who let her students name their class teddy bear after Muhammad, won't be welcomed back with open arms to the community where she was teaching. In fact, she was lucky to escape with her life—protesters staged demonstrations demanding the death penalty for her “offense.” Gillian Gibbons, however, apologized. “I have great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone... I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan.”
Imus, on the other hand, wasn't nearly so contrite nor conciliatory. Upholders of political correctness everywhere sighed when he said, “Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hilary Clinton is still Satan, and I'm back on the radio.”
I wonder what Imus would have named the teddy bear.
Write to Francis Shrum in care of King Features Weekly Service, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475, or send an e-mail to letters.kfws@hearstsc.com.
(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.
