Posted on 05/02/2007 1:04:11 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Don Imus, the tousled and acerbic radio host whose racial remarks engendered a media storm that triggered a swift upending of his career, is not going away quietly even if the imbroglio has all but disappeared from the national conversation in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.
For Imus, who made a career out of operating in the murky space between sophomoric humor and high-brow political talk, there is the little matter of about $40 million left on his contract with CBS Radio - whose boss Les Moonves fired the shock jock on April 12. CBS' lawyers contend Imus was fired for cause and not owed the rest of the money.
But Imus has hired one of the nation's premiere First Amendment attorneys, and the two sides are gearing up for a legal showdown that could turn on how language in his contract that encouraged the radio host to be irreverent and engage in character attacks is interpreted, according to one person who has read the contract.
The language, according to this source, was part of a five-year contract that went into effect in 2006 and that paid Imus close to $10 million a year. It stipulates that Imus be given a warning before being fired for doing what he made a career out of - making off-color jokes. The source described it as a "dog has one- bite clause." A lawsuit could be filed within a month, this person predicted.
A CBS spokesman declined comment, and Imus, through his attorney, also declined an interview........."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I never thought I’be be rooting for Imus. Go, Imus!
Les Moonves = more debt for CBS
It’s CBS! I say I-Man ripem a new one!
Bet CBS-Radio settles this one.
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CBS Radio needs to finally say to one of these groups, "it was a joke, get over it."
I second that emotion. Imus is spending this summer running a ranch for kids with cancer. What’re Moonves or Redstone doing with their time?
How is calling someone a cleaning lady racially charged? Sounds like the listener never heard of a white cleaning lady.
Go Imus those girls never said he had to be fired. Since when does Al Sharpton decide who speaks and says what. Like thye American people really listen to rap.
>Sounds like the listener never heard of a white cleaning lady.<
Sounds like the listener never heard of rap either.
Come to think of it, it has been a while since I have seen a white cleaning lady. A few blacks but seems most of them have been replaced with Hispanics. I suppose there are no complaints from those who are displaced and placed on welfare?
This ‘IS’ about freedom of speech. Black people can sing, speak, and market lyrics with the word “HOs”, but let a white guy say that, and BAAMMO!
Let’s see now, wouldn’t he be having dinner with Jesse?
Really, it doesn't matter who fights the good fight ... just so's long as it's done.
Sounds like a good contract,they need to pay him.
I don’t care for the guy, but I hope he ends up owning CBS.
The theory on this that makes the most sense is that he was fired due to pressure from Hillary. He doesn’t like her at all, so her people started looking for him to say something that they could make a case out of and get him marginalized. Don’t tread on Hillary or else. If he had been one of her sycophants he would still be saying anything he likes and the democrats would just giggle about it.
Yachting...Martha's Vineyard...along with Kerry,Kennedy,Cronkite,Carly Simon and most of the rest of the phoney,disgustingly rich (and idle) on the East Coast.
Concur..FWIW..out of the $10 mill or so, he got, Imus paid for the productions costs and staffing on the show..so figure he netted $6 mill per year...I figure he’ll take $15 mill to go away..
For thirty years Imus was paid big bucks to be a rude and insulting radio personality. This April he was caught being rude and insulting and now he's off the air and we are all the poorer for it.
Wait until Sharpton and Jackson decide your favorite preacher is offensive or your favorite comedian is insulting. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend.
I hope it works out that the contract is upheld that way. Imus gets paid and Moonves gets a black eye for not allowing for the contract clause.
—ditto—
Take ‘em down, I-man!
He should have never been fired in the first place because he was hired to be that person. Anyone who listens to his show knows he is a comedian in the same vein as Don Rickles, that insult type of humor. Granted that kind of humor is not for everyone, but See BS should have at least have been more wise to what he was all about, been more prepared to defend him and defend themselves when someone got insulted otherwise they should have never hired him.
Put it this way (in an extreme way)...Imagine they hired Andrew Dice Clay and signed a $40 million dollar contract. You just know they would know exactly what they were getting into with that guy, and they would be absolute fools if they weren`t prepared for the backlash.
So why weren`t they prepared with Imus? It`s just one more example of the idiots running things at See BS. They weren`t prepared, they left themselves open to destruction, just like they weren`t prepared for the extreme liberal bias of Dan Rather and the extremely over-rated Katie Couric. Now they find themselves once again screwed and probably liable for $40 million. What I want to know is who owns stock in this company? They should just burn their money, it would probably get the same result. See BS is run by the biggest morons going.
UNHORSED JOCKEY Behind the Fall of Imus, A Digital Brush Fire
It was the Soro's backed Media Matters that set conditions so the story would not fade and it worked. The peculiar thing is that they Label Imus a Conservative which he certainly is not.
Nappy headed?
Nappy headed?....Nappy Headed Ho(st)?
I hope he prevails, I hope he's on again soon.
Did his side kicks just re-sign for five years too ?
Lots of lawyers and money soon.
TRy Bill Bennett’s Morning in America. (Bennettmornings.com for stations). You risk actually learning something to elevate your life rather than wallowing with the Imustrash.
TRy Bill Bennett’s Morning in America. (Bennettmornings.com for stations). You risk actually learning something to elevate your life rather than wallowing with the Imustrash.
Imus?Sharpton?
A pox on BOTH their houses.
A liberal cat fight.Without the”cats”
Would you take 15 million to go away when you have a slam dunk to get 40?
You must not have lived in The South.Till recently,all cleaning ladies were black.
Or,should I say,the correct term is “cleaning women”,according to a good old gal from Texas who chewed my mom out when I was a young boy for saying”cleaning lady”
“Marie”,said this Southern Belle,”you NEVER call a colored woman a LADY”
I NEVER will forget how hateful Mrs.H sounded that day.
ping
When they came for Imus, I said nothing.
When they came for JV and Elvis, I said nothing.
When they come for Opie and Anthony ....
When they come for Savage....
When they come for Larry Elder ....
When they come for Hannity ....
When they come for Rush ....
When they come for Fox News ....
Just saying there is a dramatic slippery slope here.... When does it become important to defend free speech on the radio or tv?
You presume too much about me, you exhibit a trait of the ignorant, your advice is worth just what I paid for it.
I hope Imus wins, and I don't even like him!
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That was a HUGE mistake apologizing to Sharpton, especially when Imus kept calling him “Mr. Sharpton”. A guy who isn`t a racist apologizing to a true racist, if that doesn`t beat all. My God, his groveling was pathetic.
I think the brain of Imus is shot because even someone as stupid as me would have immediately gone on the attack, saying this kind of humor is no different from the humor of Don Rickles and those types. Then I would have said something akin to “I`ll apologize to Al Sharpton when Al Sharpton apologizes to the owners of Freddys fashion mart, Steven Pagones, Yankel Rosenbaum, the Duke lacrose players, and the victims of Loan max”...Then I would have invited the womens basketball team on my radio and basically told them to chill the hell out. If they can`t take a little ribbing, then they are in for one hell of a shock when they graduate and enter into the real world. If they can`t take the hits then they shouldn`t even consider entering the ring.
I’d be rooting for him more if he hadn’t crawled onto the Sharpton show and groveled.
I think Imus groveling is more a case of genuine contrition
than fear for his job. Imus was mistaken to think that Sharpton would do anything except use it to his advantage. It was the wrong place to make his case.
Read my tag
Granted that is some murky wording with miles of room for (mis)interpretation, but this lawyer seems to be confusing a civil case against a private corporation with an FCC action. Last I heard, the FCC wasn't even involved. It's about whether CBS (which was set to keep Imus on after a 2-week suspension until they caved into Al Sharpton's temper tantrum) violated Imus's contract not out of fear of the feds, but because they didn't want to take on Sharpton and his whining flock of sheep.
I've never been a fan of Imus, but if this case isn't cut & dry I don't know what is. I hope he gets every cent, and donates it to the charity of his choice (or goes into business manufacturing muzzles for the hypocritical crybabies on the left).
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