The Imus Lynch Party [Pat Buchanan]

Received via Email | April 13, 2007 | Pat Buchanan

[jdm]

Are we really a better country because, after he was publicly whipped for 10 days as the worst kind of racist, with whom no decent person could associate, he was thrown off the air?

Cards on the table.

This writer works for MSNBC, has been on the Imus show scores of times, watches Imus every morning, and likes the show, the music and the guys: the I-Man, Bernie, Charles and Tom Bowman.

And Imus is among the best interviewers in our business. Not only does he read and follow the news closely, he listens and probes as well as any interviewer in America. Because he is a comic, people mistake how good a questioner he is.

Is "Imus in the Morning" outrageous? Over the top at times? Are things said every week, if not every day, where you say, "He's going too far"? Yeah. But outrageousness is part of the show, whether the skits are of "Teddy Kennedy," "Reverend Falwell," "Mayor Nagin" or "The Cardinal."

And when Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "tattooed ... nappy-headed ho's," he went over the top. The women deserved an apology. There was no cause, no call to use those terms. As Ann Coulter said, they were not fair game.

But Imus did apologize, again and again and again.

And lest we forget, these are athletes in their prime, the same age as young women in Iraq. They are not 5-year-old girls, and they are capable of brushing off an ignorant comment by a talk-show host who does not know them, or anything about them.

Who, after all, believed the slur was true? No one.

Compare, if you will, what was done to them – a single nasty insult – to the savage slanders for weeks on end of the Duke lacrosse team and the three players accused by a lying stripper of having gang-raped her at a frat party.

Duke faculty and talking heads took that occasion to vent their venom toward all white "jocks" on college campuses. Where are the demands for apologies from the talk-show hosts, guests, Duke faculty members and smear artists, all of whom bought into the lies about those Duke kids – because the lies comported with their hateful view of America?

And hate is what this is all about.

While the remarks of Imus and Bernie about the Rutgers women were indefensible, they were more unthinking and stupid than vicious and malicious. But malice is the right word to describe the howls for their show to be canceled and them to be driven from the airwaves – by phonies who endlessly prattle about the First Amendment.

The hypocrisy here was too thick to cut with a chainsaw.

What was the term the I-Man used? It was "ho's," slang for whores, a term employed ad infinitum et ad nauseam by rap and hip-hop "artists." It is a term out of the African-American community. Yet, if any of a hundred rap singers has lost his contract or been driven from the airwaves for using it, maybe someone can tell me about it.

If the word "ho's" is a filthy insult to decent black women, and it is, why are hip-hop artists and rap singers who use it incessantly not pariahs in the black community? Why would black politicians hobnob with them? Why are there no boycotts of the advertisers of the radio stations that play their degrading music?

Answer: The issue here is not the word Imus used. The issue is who Imus is – a white man, who used a term about black women only black folks are permitted to use with impunity and immunity.

Whatever Imus' sins, no one deserves to have Al Sharpton – hero of the Tawana Brawley hoax, resolute defender of the fake rape charge against half a dozen innocent guys, which ruined lives – sit in moral judgment upon them.

"It is our feeling that this is only the beginning. We must have a broad discussion on what is permitted and not permitted in terms of the airwaves," says Sharpton. It says something about America that someone with Al's track record can claim the role of national censor.

Who is next? And why do we take it?

I did a bad thing, but I am not a bad person, says Imus. Indeed, whoever used his microphone to do more good for more people – be they the cancer kids of Imus Ranch, the families of Iraq war dead now more justly compensated because of the I-Man or the cause of a cure for autism?

"We know of no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodic fits of morality," said Lord Macaulay. Unfortunately, Macauley never saw the likes of the Revs. Sharpton and Jackson.

Imus threw himself on the mercy of the court of elite opinion – and that court, pandering to the mob, lynched him. Yet, for all his sins, he was a better man than the lot of them rejoicing at the foot of the cottonwood tree.

[TigersEye]

Pat lynched himself with his anti-semitic rants. He wrote one a couple of years ago that made me want to puke. It says volumes about MSNBC that they employ him along with Imus and putrid scum like Keith Olberman. Regardless of political spectrum they seem to like the scum of the scum.

[Springman]

Ping.

[DeerfieldObserver]

If Pat Bucahanan is for Imus, then I must be against Imus.

Thanks for clarifying things, Pat.

[DeerfieldObserver]

In radio, it doesn’t matter how many listeners you have. The only thing that matters is how many sponsors you have.

And Imus lost them all.

[hinckley buzzard]

Much ado about nothing. Howard Cosell was bigger in sports than Imus was in radio talk, but one day he watched a speedy Black running back race down the sidelines and exclaimed "Look at that little monkey run!" End of career. Nothing new here.

[Gator113]

It seems easier and much more fair,

to simply hate everyone and go on from there.

[Springman]

Pat is right of some things, wrong on others. IMHO, he’s right on this on.

BTW, welcome to FR.

[nathanbedford]

Here is another perspective on selective victimhood as a political/financial tool:

We all have our favorite sages. Official Washington has Don Imus. Or at least that surly vulgarian was the commentariat's favorite sage until those two gifted hucksters, Sharpton & Jackson, saw in Imus's bleak humor another opportunity to engaud their resumes. Now he is a whimpering bundle of apologies, his First Amendment rights having been jettisoned almost instantaneously along with his he-man demeanor.

R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr. has provided us with an interesting insight here and one which is instructive apart from his original meaning. Why was Imus official Washington's "favorite sage?" After all, as I said in another post, he was an equal opportunity traducer, he slandered Protestants with caricatures of Reverend Falwell, and Catholics with caricatures of Cardinal Egan. He routinely slapped homosexuals. And women, not excluding his own wife, were target for the roughest sort of gaucheries of the kind that would appalled Maureen Dowd.

But he got away with it. It was only tripped up when he did the same thing to African-Americans. Why was he not bulletproof in this area?

Part of the game on the Imus program was for men -and even women-to appear, take their licks and show that they were one of the boys because they were good sports. Even better, give as good as you got, and you became a repeat guest. So Imus successfully exported the model of the locker room to the airwaves and it worked. He's worth multimillions and he show has become a required stop for all wannabes.

It also worked because the wannabes were using Imus for the exposure, the credibility, and the laying on of hands, which said that this wannabe is of the sort we could trust, he (or she) was one of us. So it was worth it to take a little flak, endure a little humiliation, show that you were one of the boys, and you will have endured the passing out ceremony and became one of the fraternity brothers because you showed you could take the hazing.

Now enter the reverends Sharpton and Jackson who are running a different game. They are professional victims. Having achieved this exalted status, which opens the way to extortion, the two reverends make damn good livings and wield lots of power. These two cannot appear before Imus and cheerfully accept a locker room drubbing because of their blackness because to do so would trivialize their victimhood and undermine their whole reason for being.

The liberal establishment and a Democrat party which, at least until the Iraq war began to go sour, has no coherent philosophy and is, in general, bankrupt of policies which appeal to the majority of Americans. Nevertheless, they always had one fallback position: The left could always play the race card, it could and would race bait. The last refuge for scoundrels on the left is to take refuge in race.

Here again, to play Imus' game is to undermine the very foundation of the castle keep of liberalism.

[OldArmy52]

While I view at least half of everyone as idiots and/or knaves, here’s the image of blacks that blacks communicate to the world:

(1) Watts riots.
(2) Rodney King riots.
(3) In Wash D.C. the black mayor (M.B. was it?) was corrupt enough to manage to get himself put in jail. Yet, upon release, he was voted back in by the black populace.
(4) That blacks vote about 90% for Dems, almost in lockstep.
(5) That in Africa today, there is not one modern democracy or otherwise non-corrupt government in any black run country.

I truly wish it was a case of blacks behaving so well, living their lives, governing as to make all the other races look bad by comparison.

But reality is reality, to any who can face it objectively.

[rbmillerjr]

Harold Ford apparently was scheduled to call in and didn’t. He didn’t even have the balz to call and inform the show...three different times the Imus show mentioned they were waiting for him.

Now you know who your friends are Imus. Anybody who calls the President a war criminal deserves your treatment though since you decided to cut your teeth with the hate America crowd.

[Darkwolf377]

Come on, Pat, say what you REALLY wanna say...

It was DA JOOOOOS!

[don-o]

I like Pat.

[W-Girl]

Bravo for .....Pat !!

Of all the “regulars” who appeared on Imus, Pat is the ONLY ONE who came to the defense of Imus !! Which tells me Pat has more “boys” than all of them put together !!

Where is Russert ?? Fineman ?? Rich ?? ....and the “big boy” list goes on and on !! Looks like all the “big boys” have no “boys” after all ......never seen such COWARDS !!

Of all the BOOKS Imus sold for these cowards ....only Pat had the courage to tell it with such truth !!

Yes, Imus said something bad for which he apologized but he never deserved the “lynching” he got !!

Pat is the MAN OF THE HOUR !!

[nativist]

Who's them

If the word "ho's" is a filthy insult to decent black women, and it is, why are hip-hop artists and rap singers who use it incessantly not pariahs in the black community? Why would black politicians hobnob with them?

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

The left is energized by their victory. Having destroyed one man they will move on to the next, with their ultimate goal being the silencing of all voices from the right in time for the big election of 2008.
They will lower the bar for their hypocritical outrage, so that now Rush, Hannity and Savage will be subject to greater scrutiny. If they don’t hear anything racist/sexist/homophobe, they will use a quotation, or just make something up.

[gitmogrunt]

Freepers heaping praise on Buchanan?

Hell must have froze over....or the new battle cry..Remember the Imus!

[jazzlite]

...”So... Pat Buchanan is right again, as usual. Why does everyone hate him?...

Probably because he is right so often.

[nativist]

Its one thing to tangle with Imus who is a moderate/liberal who thought the libs at msnbc were his friends. Its another thing to take on Rush who probably has thousands of hours of audio on Sharpton and Jackson and would not hesitate but would cherish the opportunity to fight with them. Not only that but Rush probably makes ABC enough money they can carry 5 other talk radio hosts.

Remember, the Barak the Magic Negro is a parody involving words written in the LA Times and spoken by Sharpton.

Rush and HAnnity would kick Sharpton and Jackson ass, not grovel. When it comes to those 2 its about money anyway. Rush and Hannity would never pony up. This I-man thing is also probably an effort by Sharpton to throw a stick in the spokes of the Obama campaign and boost Hillary. Jackson is just trying to keep Sharpton from getting all the payout.

One more thing, Keith Olberman better watch his back. His rating suck and Jackson and Sharpton are making comments on how there are no blacks on MSNBC with their own show.

[Non-Sequitur]

And when Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "tattooed ... nappy-headed ho's," he went over the top. The women deserved an apology. There was no cause, no call to use those terms. As Ann Coulter said, they were not fair game.

I suspect Coulter's just jealous that Imus got off the line first.

Regardless, Buchanan is right in at least one respect. The comment was over the top. The women of Rutgers did absolutely nothing to be insulted in that manner. And words should have consequences. I'm not losing sleep over Imus because I truly feel he got what he deserved. I freely admit that there are others out there who have said and done worse, who have taken a position of moral high ground in this that they in no way deserve, and who in a completely fair world would be canned themselves for things they've done. I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen, but that doesn't change the fact that Imus was wrong. His apologies were lame and insincere, and were only offered after everything blew up and were a attempt to keep his job. He dug his own grave and then jumped into it. He has nobody to blame for this but himself. And the airwaves are a little better off this morning because he isn't on them anymore.

[commonguymd]

The left is energized by their victory. Having destroyed one man they will move on to the next,

Liberals are so dumb though. They took out the most successful left leaning show ever. Where will Dowd, Gregory, Kerry, Ford, Altman, Matthews and the rest of the ilk run to in the morning to spew their nonsense? The left is cheering the race hustlers for taking away their free speech. Dopes.

Will they go after Rush and Hannity? Doubtful. They have all tried. You see, Imus was used up - his useful idiot role was complete. He has been neutered, but it wasn't just the race-baiters that led to his demise. It was the people that took him to the dance long ago. Those that Imus forgot about as he tried to be one of the beautiful people. As his success dwindled to about 60 stations from a peak of 200, he was econmically disposible. Imus destroyed himself by asking for Cheney and Rumsfeld to be hanged, by backing Kerry in the last election, and by crapping all over the swift boat for truth folks.

Imus said something stupid when the money was shrinking. The people that he ran to in wanting to be a part of the liberal elite threw him overboard. Gregory tells Jackson he is sorry for ever coming on the show, Ford never calls and asks for Imus to be fired, MAtthews and Russert are nowhere to be found. Liberals are gutless, liberals are liars, and liberals are dumb.