WTF?: "Seinfeld"'s Michael 'Kramer' Richards in Weird-o-Rama Onstage Meltdown

NBC executives said last night that the decision had been made jointly by the NBC Universal president, Jeff Zucker, and the president of NBC News, Steve Capus.

Several NBC employees said that discussions about Mr. Imus had been going on throughout the company over the last few days and that the sentiment among the employees turned out to be a critical factor in the decision to cancel his show.

In one example of that sentiment, Al Roker, the popular weatherman for the “Today” show, wrote a commentary on that show’s Web site calling for the Imus show to be canceled.

Mr. Zucker made the point in an e-mail message he sent to NBC employees last night that conversations with employees had been a driving factor. “Over the past several days, we have had to grapple with an incredibly difficult and sensitive issue,” Mr. Zucker said in the e-mail message.

“After our announcement of the suspension of Don Imus, we have had ongoing discussions with a number of employees and employee groups within our business. The result of these discussions has been very clear. NBC Universal has a strong reputation for integrity and our employees value that integrity tremendously.

“Those conversations have led to the decision Steve Capus and I made today.”

Mr. Capus in an interview on MSNBC last night said that in his view, the comment Mr. Imus made was racist. He added that it was far from the first time Mr. Imus had made insensitive or offensive comments on his show.

“There have been any number of other comments that have been enormously hurtful to far too many people,” Mr. Capus said. “And my feeling is that there should not be a place for that on MSNBC.”

MSNBC paid a fee to CBS to simulcast the show, about $4 million a year. It was spending about $500,000 a year to produce the show for television. For that investment, it earned what it labeled a modest profit.

But the show, which has been seen on MSNBC since 1996, was helpful to NBC in other ways. It provided a forum and promotional platform for many NBC News personalities. The show is of far more value to CBS Radio, and its flagship station, WFAN, which, in addition to the rights fees from NBC, get nearly $20 million in advertising and syndication revenue from the show; the show’s individual radio affiliates, collectively, earn another $20 million in revenue, according to people apprised of the show’s finances. The show is also widely syndicated by Westwood One, which is managed by CBS.

But NBC executives, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters, said that the program had only minimal impact on MSNBC’s budget.

In an interview on MSNBC last night, Mr. Capus said advertising money was not a determining factor.

“What price do you put on your reputation?” Mr. Capus said. “And the reputation of the news division means more to me than advertising dollars. Because if you lose your reputation, you lose everything.”

CBS executives, including the chairman, Leslie Moonves, continued to hold meetings yesterday with groups protesting Mr. Imus’s remark. Among these was the National Association of Black Journalists, which was one of the first groups to demand the cancellation of his show.

Mr. Imus also held a meeting with CBS executives yesterday, according to one executive who was informed of the meeting. CBS put off any further action beyond the suspension, the executive said, in part because Mr. Imus had asked for time to meet with members of the Rutgers team. He was tentatively scheduled to hold that meeting some time today.

At an afternoon rally on the Rutgers campus, students chanted anti-Imus slogans and waved protest signs. State Senator Nia H. Gill of New Jersey, who earned a law degree from Rutgers, called on the college to boycott companies that advertise on the show and said she would introduce a measure in the Legislature calling for New Jersey to stop buying products from companies that advertise with him.

The controversy helped push the ratings of “Imus in the Morning” on MSNBC to their highest level in months. On Tuesday, 624,000 people tuned in, a 50 percent increase from a week ago, according to estimates from Nielsen Media Research. An additional 1.6 million people typically listen to the program on the radio, according to Arbitron.

Starting this week, large advertisers began telling MSNBC and CBS not to broadcast their ads during “Imus in the Morning.” The companies, like Procter & Gamble and Staples, said they were dismayed that their brands had been associated with Mr. Imus’s offensive remark.

“Those comments, they’re just not consistent with our values, and we’re not going to be a part of it,” said Stephen Dupont, a spokesman for Ditech.com, a home loan company, which asked MSNBC on Monday to remove its ads from the show.

Although advertisers have been aware that the program often veered into politically incorrect territory and beyond, “this kind of woke a lot of people to the dark side of Imus,” said Fran Kelly, chief executive of Arnold Worldwide, an advertising agency. “He’s got every right to be on the air and say what he wants to say, but advertisers have every right to vote with their dollars.”

our dad is a big imus fan,but strangely only homophobic(male) and not th least bit racist.

http://odeo.com/audio/10654513/play
al rosenberg is to blame for alot of societyz ills

"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, so, and we're sorry."

I would just like to say at this point how much I fucking LOATHE the editorial "we". HATE HATE HATE.

The way advertisers are fleeing, I think he won't survive the two-week suspension. Back to the ranch, asshole!

weird "i have lots of black friends" explanation
http://www.wfan.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=601845

oh god so tortured. kinda creepy too how all of his black friends are dying black children, but what the hell, it's a start...

meanwhile,the best race humor of the week, BY FAR, was when john oliver on the daily show handed the israeli u.n. ambassador a copy of his screenplay Pimpin' Is Easy so that he could give it to the Jews in Hollywood. And then he made the ambassador play the role of Cinammon and read lines with him. Hahahahahahaha! what a hoot.

"meanwhile,the best race humor of the week, BY FAR, was when john oliver on the daily show handed the israeli u.n. ambassador a copy of his screenplay Pimpin' Is Easy so that he could give it to the Jews in Hollywood. And then he made the ambassador play the role of Cinammon and read lines with him. Hahahahahahaha! what a hoot."

link
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2841774/show/17676

"There is a nasty conspiracy theory going around that your country is run by Jews."

hahahahahahaha

thanks for the link. what is up with the 100% AWFULNESS of comedy central's video site?

i dont know,but at least there are a million other sites,,,,that motherlode player is a piece of crap

In fact I've heard WABC jocks say borderline racist things

Someone way way upthread mentioned Bob Grant, who had a thriving MetroNYC radio career (embraced by tons of area Republican pols) on WMCA and WABC, circa 1970-90s, saying shit like Imus' every day as his core message. He had a 'serious' call-in show.

worst web-sites i have ever seen:

various t.v. web-sites

various newspaper web-sites

various movie company web-sites

various big record company web-sites

various print magazine web-sites

i don't think th debate is whether or not many other racist,off color,"jokes" have been broadcast..but more how do u finesse them into acceptance

being funny helps.

exactly,and we have no tolerance from reptile whispers

for

web-site with the dash in it is so refreshing! thanks scott!

I was really dumbstruck at how he 'reinvented' himself as a political pundit by having Beltway guests. Never heard him do anything but regurgitate the LCD shit from network/cable news, and he didn't even to appear to understand most of that.

"Howard proceeded to turn the discussion back to Imus, with Robin recalling how he once called her the n-word while she was talking to his girlfriend when they worked at NBC together. Howard added he heard Imus use the same word when talking to an African American secretary at the station as well. Howard then played a prank call Richard and Sal made using Imus’ voice from his apology on Al Sharpton’s radio show calling a man named Sharpton."....mashups already

i always spell website like that. i'm sorry! wait, is it two words or one?

W.e_B)_S:"ITe i think

in bob herbert's column today in the new york times he quotes the 60 minutes interview with imus where imus tells mike wallace that Mcguirk was only on the show to tell "nigger jokes".

Imus really calls his wife the "green ho"? that's what he says in that audio up top.

But if anyone is to make a racial crack, or an unflattering reference to Jews, it is often Mr. McGuirk, sometimes in the guise of C. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, who is black, or often in his own voice. He has, for example, been known to refer to the New York Knicks as chest-bumping pimps.

Mr. McGuirk did not respond to a message left yesterday with his assistant in the Imus office. But in an interview with The New York Times in May 2000 he defended the breadth of the show’s humor, even if some blacks in particular might be offended in the process.

“It’s meant to be descriptive, not pejorative,” he said . “If the N.B.A. were peopled by a bunch of Romanians, we’d be making fun of Romanians. To not satirize someone just because of their race, I think that would be patronizing and racist in itself.”

“The bottom line is, I’m not a bigot,” he said in 2000, before adding that he had “lived amongst blacks all my life,” having grown up in the James Monroe Houses in the South Bronx. Mr. McGuirk also said that the co-op in Long Beach, N.Y., where he later lived had a directory in the lobby that “read like Schindler’s list, for crying out loud.”

“Yes, I arrive at the studio at 5 a.m. each day, but before I do, on my way out I shine my lawn jockeys, and then I stop at the cemetery and knock over Jewish tombstones,” he said. “Oh please.”

He thinks the "Some of my best friends are ____" defense is underutilized.

okay, even lamer than the "i have black friends" defense HAS to be the "i have lived near black people and jews in my life" as a defense.

"I am aware that other races exist."

Mr. McGuirk also said that the co-op in Long Beach, N.Y., where he later lived had a directory in the lobby that “read like Schindler’s list, for crying out loud.”

hah i'll be honest thats exactly what i kept thinking

not only is Imus a racist and misogynist but his comments have had the unexpected effect of unintentionally poisoning "home movies"

The longer this story goes on, the more of a mindfuck it is to me that this guy has any sort of cultural pull, with anybody.

have you heard of howard stern?

does this make three?

x-post

Um, yeah. Couldn't tell you a thing about him.

If Imus is confused about all this, I can't say I would blame him. Here he potters along for years making grotesquely offensive remarks about anyone who seems remotely worth blathering about - including racist slurs and crotch-grabbing rudeness - and all that happens is he gets rewarded with fatter and fatter paychecks, larger audiences and a certain sycophantic public admiration, until now. Now suddenly the roof falls on him. What could he possibly make of that?

On the other hand, good riddance to bad rubbish.

CBS has fired him now as well.

good.

He also expressed bitterness that MSNBC had “pulled the plug” on televising his program less than 12 hours before the fundraiser was to begin. “They got their pound of flesh and made their decision,” he said.

Do you think Imus realizes where this phrase comes from?

OMG

He said that today.

hahahaha KEEP DIGGING, DUDE

Aimless OTM

zomg