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Furor over Imus puts heat on other US broadcasters
The Guardian UK ^ | April 12 | staff

Posted on 04/12/2007 12:53:01 PM PDT by rface

...Cynthia McKinney, "looks like a ghetto slut."......Barack Obama is a "halfrican American." ....."Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."...The comments by Boortz, Limbaugh and Beck were confirmed by the watchdog group Media Matters, which said the same public outcry that forced Imus off MSNBC and forced CBS Corp. to suspend his radio show for two weeks ought to be applied to others and that politicians did not deserve "racist, homophobic, sexist ridicule.".........

U.S. radio host Neal Boortz last year said, Cynthia McKinney, "looks like a ghetto slut."

Rush Limbaugh, in January called Barack Obama, whose father was from Kenya and his white mother is from Kansas, a "halfrican American."

And CNN host Glenn Beck, during an interview with Muslim congressman Keith Ellison, said, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."

The comments by Boortz, Limbaugh and Beck were confirmed by the watchdog group Media Matters, which said the same public outcry that forced Imus off MSNBC and forced CBS Corp. to suspend his radio show for two weeks ought to be applied to others.

"It's the media's responsibility to hold these people accountable," said Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters.

All three men remain in their jobs, and Boortz was among a group of conservative radio hosts who met U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House last September.

Paul Levinson, chairman of the Department of Communications and Media Studies at New York's Fordham University, said Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were "already identified as crackpots" while Imus was more influential with the mainstream.

"Once someone is identified as beyond the pale, which is how Coulter and Limbaugh are identified, nobody ever takes anything they say all that seriously," Levinson said.

(Excerpt) Read more at sport.guardian.co.uk ...


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To: Wallace T.
Regional businesses can also be boycotted. The regional auto dealership is Ford? A full Ford boycott could be organized. But, that is really a sidebar to my point; Get real. When was the last time there was a national boycott of anything organized by anyone other than gay rights activists? Americans of both political stripes are too disinterested to do this. I think the article, which note, is from foreign press, has a lot of merit. The personal attacks have lead to a general breakdown of manners and political discourse. And that goes for the left as well as the right (Franken's attack on Limbaugh, for example, or the media's general attacks on Laura Schlesinger). I think this is, frankly, just lazy. It is easier to state that Laura Schlesinger had her tubes tied, had an affair, had premarital sex, had a dicey relationship with her mother, etc., etc. than to challenge the ideas she puts forward. Similarly, it is easier to attack Barack Obama's middle name and his supposed lack of "black credentials" than to put forth a reasoned response to his ideas. Both sides of the political spectrum are guilty of this lack of intellectual energy. And America is the poorer for it, as the paucity of great ideas from either side of the political spectrum proves.
61 posted on 04/12/2007 1:58:23 PM PDT by instantgratification
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To: wilco200

This is intentional.

I wonder if this is Sidney Blumenthal’s work. Remember they pushed to silence rush with a sham drug case. Now they are trying to create a ghetto for conservative commentary.

I would like to see a side by side of CNN with rush in terms of audience. I bet rush’s DAILY audience is bigger than all of CNN’s daily audience.


62 posted on 04/12/2007 2:02:34 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: longtermmemmory

The article never stated people aren’t making money from this. It just set out the issue.


63 posted on 04/12/2007 2:02:47 PM PDT by instantgratification
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To: traditional1
"More "hate speech" occurs on the floor of the House and Senate than any radio station I know of....

You are exactly right.

64 posted on 04/12/2007 2:04:50 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: Reaganesque

Without Beck CNN will fail. Imus just ensured MsNBC will fail. A host of others need their conservatives to survive. If they can them, then those stations will fail.


65 posted on 04/12/2007 2:08:56 PM PDT by Domicile of Doom (Life is a series of waiting lines)
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To: rface

The past few days have been like watching one of those Serengeti wildlife shows.

The lame zebra attracts the attention of the lions/hyenas/hunting dogs. The pack makes a few attacks before separating the lame zebra from the herd, and killing it.

Predation in action. The grievance industry are predators, pure and simple.


66 posted on 04/12/2007 2:11:51 PM PDT by denydenydeny ("We have always been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France"--Wellington)
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To: rface

Why does any sane person give a rats a$$ what that leftwing (The Guardian) has to say? (ò¿ó)


67 posted on 04/12/2007 2:13:14 PM PDT by Dandydoodley (Fred Thompson Duncan Hunter 08 (ô¿ô))
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To: bfree
"What is problem with turning the dial if people don’t like what they see or hear?"

Good point. But if you are offended you have as much right to say you are offended as the person does to say something offensive. The irony is that people say and do offensive things then get mad when they get the response they wanted in the first place. If you are going to say something you know is offensive you should have the integrity to take it on the chin when people hit back. You asked for it. Furthermore you often don't know if something is going to offend you until you hear it. Once you do, you have a right perfect right to say how offensive it is.

68 posted on 04/12/2007 2:16:02 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: Erik Latranyi

“Falsehoods”? Okay, name one.


69 posted on 04/12/2007 2:31:29 PM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Hound of the Baskervilles

I just don’t care if people are offended. You don’t have a right not to be offended. I bet very few of the “offended” even listen to the show. This is just a beginning for the censorship to come by the far left.
The liberal mantra—Free speech for me, but not for thee”

If this offends you and your sensitivities-well, I just don’t care.


70 posted on 04/12/2007 2:32:11 PM PDT by bfree (liberalism is the enemy of freedom!!!)
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To: driftless2

I do not dismiss your post as I believe it has lot of truth in it.

However, to lack simple common sense and say the things he said, it seems to me that if you don’t have a little voice in back of your head that says “racism alert”, then you are in-fact unable to see that you have horrible and racist opinion.

There is nothing wrong with those girls and they represent best in the society and most girls can benefit from their example (tattoos or no tattoos).

To view them in the light he did is disgusting, shameful and in my opinion racist.


71 posted on 04/12/2007 2:42:21 PM PDT by The_Republican (So Dark The Con of Man)
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To: Reaganesque

The left wants all non-network non left newpaper outlets converted to all easy listening muzak all the time.

big brother loves you.


72 posted on 04/12/2007 2:44:21 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: rface

It doesn’t really help to call people names, but all three cases sited were about public elected officials, who have long been the targets of good-natured and not-so-good-natured humor.

Imus attacked some college girls, slandering them for no reason. It’s different. Plus, “halfrican american” isn’t really a slur, and asking a politician if they are working for the enemy is a legitimate, if somewhat brash, question.

BTW, Glen Beck did not actually ask that question, he was explaining to Ellison the angst he had at interviewing him. He explicitly stated that he knew Ellison wasn’t working for the enemy.


73 posted on 04/12/2007 2:44:27 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: steve8714

Imus looked at a team of black women playing a team of white women, and what he thought of was to call the black women whores, and the white women “better looking”.

Why did Imus think that black women were “jigaboos” and the white women “wannabees”? It certainly sounds like he’s got a thing about women of color.


74 posted on 04/12/2007 2:48:14 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: bfree

“I just don’t care if people are offended. You don’t have a right not to be offended. “

I never said that I had a right to not be offended. I said that if you go around not caring who you offend there social will be consequences.

I see chronically not caring who you offend just because you have a right to offend as a mental health issue. In that case the governement has no right to get involded but some voluntary therapy might be in order.


75 posted on 04/12/2007 3:09:14 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: instantgratification

it is easier to attack Barack Obama’s middle name and his supposed lack of “black credentials” than to put forth a reasoned response to his ideas

What ideas?


76 posted on 04/12/2007 3:16:14 PM PDT by saganite (Billions and billions and billions----and that's just the NASA budget!)
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To: bfree
I said, "I see chronically not caring who you offend just because you have a right to offend as a mental health issue. In that case the governement has no right to get involded but some voluntary therapy might be in order."

I might add: Similarly, continuously tuning into a radio show that offends you might also be a mental health issue. Free speech has consequences, don't whine when you get burned.

77 posted on 04/12/2007 3:18:13 PM PDT by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewis)
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To: Hound of the Baskervilles

Did you think your moronic reply was worth pushing the button TWICE.
You are really are a pathetic fool.


78 posted on 04/12/2007 3:29:04 PM PDT by bfree (liberalism is the enemy of freedom!!!)
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To: instantgratification
Similarly, it is easier to attack Barack Obama's middle name and his supposed lack of "black credentials" than to put forth a reasoned response to his ideas

He's an empty suit with no ideas, at least not in the Senate and not so far on the campaign trail. Other than being on the leftist Letterman show.

79 posted on 04/12/2007 3:32:06 PM PDT by bfree (liberalism is the enemy of freedom!!!)
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To: Liberty Valance

remember Rob Bartlett and Bartletts (him and his lady singers) while Clinton was being impeached. He sang.............I’mmmmmmmmmmmmm just gonna lie...chicka chicka boom.with the girls harmonizing...it was priceless


80 posted on 04/12/2007 3:36:30 PM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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