Posted on 05/13/2005 8:27:00 PM PDT by woofie
The Don of talk-show radio was raving mad. The Wall Street Journal had just published a front-page story on March 24 that questioned the finances of the Imus Ranch in New Mexico for sick children. No one messes with the I-Man. So he mauled the messenger, Robert Frank.
"He is a dishonest reporter," Imus told the masses who listen to him on his "Imus In The Morning" syndicated radio program and watch him on the MSNBC simulcast. "He did a hatchet job." Then, for good measure, he called Frank's wife "a pig."
Imus' audience knew exactly what to do. They'd heard his rant-a-thons before. They rushed to their computers and telephones to vent at the staff reporter. Frank received dozens of telephone calls and e-mails, some of them threatening and others that impugned his integrity, his writing, and his newspaper.
The Wall Street Journal may move the market, but Imus moves the masses. His frenzied followers believe what he tells them, for Imus is their truth. The Journal is part of the lying mainstream media.
It didn't matter that the WSJ story noted that it costs the ranch $27,000 for each 10-day camp stay, far more than similar charity camps spend. "Does it cost too much per kid?" Imus asked the newspaper. "Maybe it does. I would spend $2.6 million or $1.8 million, if I thought it could change kids' lives." Imus has donated $1 million of his own money to the ranch.
The Journal also reported that Imus might have to reimburse the IRS for his personal use of the ranch. He broadcasts his show during the summer from a studio there. He and his wife, Deirdre Coleman Imus (both of whom are unpaid members of the Imus Ranch Inc. board of directors) also use the mansion there for vacations.
The WSJ article was the second major investigation of the ranch. The first, on Feb. 10, 2003 by Thomas J. Cole of The Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal, raised some of the same financial issues the WSJ report did.
Cole told me how Imus, during his show, made a pre-emptive rant against the Albuquerque Journal a full 18 months before the story was published. "He called us petty, negative, and since we were making it personal, he would go after our publisher [Thompson H. Lang]," he recalled.
But Imus, for reasons that he never aired, didn't say anything after the story was finally published. Cole says he's glad the WSJ followed it up: "They did a great job of laying out the accounting issues."
New Mexico reporters have absorbed a series of Imus' attacks since he and his wife started building the ranch there seven years ago. In the summer of 1998 he raged on the air against Karen Peterson, then a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican, after she reported that Imus used state workers to tear down some buildings on public land he'd leased. Imus called her "a skank" and a "troll," gave out her office telephone number over the air, and suggested his listeners follow his lead in making her life miserable.
Peterson thought the "troll" comments were funny: "We formed a club called The Trolls for women who covered the capital." But she was stunned by the hundreds of e-mails and phone calls that followed from Imus Nation. "It was vicious," said Peterson, now a reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. "People said I hated cancer kids, that they hoped I got AIDS. I was blown away by his ability to incite a mob."
Three years later Imus also went after Wren Propp, another Journal reporter, after she disclosed that Imus had fired Jane Smith — an interior decorator for the ranch who alleged she'd been shortchanged in a contract dispute.
"I don't listen to him, but my mother does, and she called to tell me that his insults meant I was doing something right," Propp said with a laugh.
There is no question that the Imus ranch has provided hundreds of severely ill children with a summer experience that brought sunshine into their troubled lives. And he has every right to bark back at the media watchdogs who criticize his handling of the ranch. But he has an obligation to do more than scream at them. His personal attacks against anyone who dares to question how he spends the millions in his care may make people wonder whether he has something to hide.
Howard Houghton, city editor of the New Mexican, gave his analysis of Imus: "He seems like a thin-skinned guy who enjoys flexing his muscles. He thinks he can intimidate newspapers, but it won't work." He notes that when his paper runs stories critical of certain people, "We don't give out phone numbers and tell people to call them up."
Maybe not everyone, but he never had anything interesting or thought-provoking to say. WKNR fired him after their ratings started to drop.
The NY State AG looked into things and decided there was no there there. Just because you don't like the guy is not a reason to sic the feds on him. That's the way Clinton worked.
As I remember, ole Contessa went public with a swipe that got into the NYP before he countered.
I stopped listening to Imus after he endorsed John Kerry.
What a loser.
Gee, I didn't know the NY state AG was synonomus with the IRS....I must have missed the merger.
Have a nice day, sa.
MSNBC is the PUNK network! Imus, Keith Obermeyer (?), Matthews, Reagan, even Scarborugh lately...all PUNKS!
Thank you for the best laugh of the day.
The above is a classic oxymoron. Normal people don't marry Howard Stern.
I laugh when people think that they or anyone else would be swayed by who Imus endorses for prez.
That was about ratings.
BTW, who got the most sought after interview with Dick and Lynn on Inauguration Day?
While Imus doesn't require my defense, what the article conveniently neglects to say is that:
1] This is a full time "working" cattle ranch which must be maintained during the nine months of the off season as well.
2] The camp is for severly ill children with cancer, S.I.D.S., etc. and must maintain (during the season) a full time staff of nurses and doctors.
3] Kids are flown in from around the world, unlike other camps who recruit only locally.
Fair is fair and this B.S. article speaks for itself
The Journal also reported that Imus might have to reimburse the IRS for his personal use of the ranch. He broadcasts his show during the summer from a studio there. He and his wife, Deirdre Coleman Imus (both of whom are unpaid members of the Imus Ranch Inc. board of directors) also use the mansion there for vacations.
Don and Deidre Imus as responsible Executive Director's of the ranch must be in attendance during the time that the ranch is hosting children. There is no mansion at the ranch (only a bunkhouse) and they don't vacation there but rather, at their second home in Connecticut.
Further, the ranch passed a routine inquiry by Eliot Spitzer, New York State Attorney General, and absolutely no wrongdoing was noted.
The WSJ article was pure B.S. from beginning to end and I don't blame Imus for getting pissed and going on the offensive!
Sorry, but quoting a "routine" inquiry by a Socialist tool like Eliot Spitzer (who also happens to be running for Governor of NY and will likely needs Imus' good graces come election-time) isn't exactly a roaring exoneraton of the Imuses.
Nice to see Bernard McGuirk posting on FR, though....
Oh, and calling someone a "skank" on the radio airwaves isn't exactly a professional response to criticism, either.
While I believe that you are correct in asserting that Spitzer will be running in the next gubernatorial election, he is also a proven foe of corporate corruption and is hardly a socialist tool.
Please recall that Imus supported Kerry for president so that his endorsement of any office holder hardly guarantees success, and Spitzer will probably win on his own merits, endorsement or no.
The facts and just the facts more than exonerate Imus. If the WSJ had them on their side (which clearly they don't), you can bet that they would have written a follow up article.
As a point in fact, they never attended the ranch to gather facts and instead relied on second and third hand hearsay information for their fabrications.
He'd agree with you. Still, he's the best entertainment (I should say he and the people around him) for a morning person like me. Every once in a while I flip through F&F or Local News or one of the other MSM morning shows and I honestly don't know how people can watch that crap. They're all the same. Goofy and Giddy.
To each his or her own. For me, Imus is an icon.
Punk Network......That about says it all. To think I wasted years watching Imus. A few people are still defending him, but I predict he's cut his own throat with his hateful talk. His interviews went downhill when he allowed his liberal guests to drone on and on. It's only a matter of time.
He belongs on E tv with Stern. They're both rejects of society.
I think your demographic is wrong. I haven't seen any stats but my guess is that his audience is upper middle class men between 25 and 50. I'll look about the net and see if anything comes up.
"The Imus audience on WRBZ continues to grow, year after year! Imus scored a 37% growth of Men 25-54 in morning drive (Spring 2003 Arbitron vs. Spring 2002 Arbitron)."
They go on to note the following items using Scarborough October ’02 - September ‘03 and Arbitron Spring 2003, Spring 2002 as sources-
- 44% of Imus listeners were the principle decision maker in the purchase/lease of last new vehicle.
- 26% of Imus listeners have a Household Income 100k+.
- 54% are college grads or hold a post-grad degree
I have found an article from the NY Post (April 2005) noting that his ratings have dropped recently- IMUS' DARK HOUR. this article does not mention the demographic Imus attracts, but does note "Imus frequently boasts — correctly — that his show is a big reason WFAN ranks among the nation's top-billing radio stations. As long as that keeps up, his job is secure."
Not that any of this really matters. I was just curious about his true demographic and had some time to kill.
Thanks. Color me surprised.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3036713/
Monday on Imus:
6:29 - Jonathan Alter
7:29 - Howard Fineman
8:29 - Congressman Harold Ford, Jr.
AFLAC...PAID
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