Stupidity Killed The Radio Star

What is it about the curse of celebrity that causes an otherwise rational and, seemingly, sane human being to say the most insane thing at the absolute worst possible moment? Let’s just say you’re a world famous radio personality. Now let’s say that your on the air discussing an NCAA women’s basketball match. Now let’s say one of the teams in question is comprised mainly of African American players. You have a choice to make here. Think really hard on this one. There’s a lot of people listening and their waiting with baited breath to be entertained. Do you….A) Compliment the team on a hard fought game and make some sort of witty comment on the inadequacies of their opponents? B) Give the score and fight the instinct to say something that, in these oh so sensitive times, could be construed as racist? Or…C) Call the girls on the Rutgers Basketball team a “bunch of nappy headed ho’s“? Guess which choice Don Imus made.
That’s right dear reader, Mr. Imus chose door number three, career suicide. I know this to be true because Al Sharpton has been on television for three days now and when Al Sharpton, that harbinger of trust, makes an appearance you can pretty much kiss your career goodbye. This of course begs the question. At what point in an otherwise respectable career do you decide that you have reached the point where it would be O.K. for you to start spewing racist and hateful nonsense?
The act of accidentally sabotaging ones own life seems to be a fairly common occurrence these day’s and the number of A and B list celebrity’s who have trod this treacherous path seems to be constantly growing. We can now add Don Imus to a list of names that include Mel Gibson, Ann (kill me now) Coulter, Michael Richards, Jimmy “The Greek”, and a host of others who have unwittingly roused the likes of Al Sharpton from his listless slumber. It’s almost as regular as the mail. At some point during every slow news cycle we can count on someone we all know to lodge both of their feet firmly in their mouths and then act surprised and shocked that anyone noticed or was offended. Life, perhaps should be on a five second time delay in order to give these idiots time to reconsider everything they just said. It would also give us the choice of not listening.
There are those who will claim that what Imus said was no big deal. They’ll try and tell you that people are being to sensitive and that political correctness has completely taken over our society. In a sense I agree but not in this case. After watching the news conference held by the team in question it became apparent that Imus’s statements were truly hurtful to these talented young women. They have fought their entire lives to get to where they are now and they don’t need to be recognized for the remarks of some ignorant cracker who has no idea what it means to struggle. If anything, these girls want to be acknowledged for their academic and athletic achievements not for the stupidity of someone they’ve never met. Imus, it seems, is truly apologetic for his remarks. But, one has to wonder, is it to little to late for these girls.
As for Don Imus. He will, for better or worse, be fine. NBC and CBS have both suspended him for two weeks and he’s made his apologetic rounds on the morning talk show circuit. Besides, he’s in radio. If his advertising money dries up and the networks lose faith in him he can just pack up and take his show to satellite radio like Stern did. As for the girls on the Rutgers University basketball team. They don’t have Imus’s millions to fall back on. They cannot simply “retire to the ranch.” What they do have is talent, intelligence and a drive to succeed. These hard fought qualities will take them places in life that Imus could never even imagine. They will lead them to a world of respectability. A place that Imus, in his genius, can never buy or apologize his way into.