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 ...
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).
I was born and have lived in the south all of my life and the above statement is an absolute lie. In fact, till recently, most are white male janitors who are part time farmers or part time janitors. Not sure which probably both. A lot of black men as well. Most black cleaning ladies are the motel maids, but a lot of white ones as well. Now both are mostly hispanic of both sex's.
You haven't been reading. The contract specifically referances FCC violations as a breech of contract. That directly involves FCC regulations.
OH,you include JANITORS?Thats not who I was speaking of.I am refering to all the black women who did”day work”in the large houses of the more prosperous white people.
Now I will grant you that you may have had different observations than I did but my “experience” was in Athens,Georgia and New Orleans from 1970-1977.I stand on that statement.
Yet even growing up in California in the Fifties,every family I knew who had a housecleaner was black.
With the Hispanic influx,that certainly has changed!
Those were housemaid's and made a lot more money than someone who cleans up an office, which is where the term cleaning lady comes from. My small experiance in the south with the very rich is that the maid's were attractive (as were all the servants)and usually white. However, most of the lower rich and upper middle class had mostly black maids, though my mom had both black and white maids at differant times, two black and one white I think.
Yes dear, I’ve been reading (although granted I haven’t seen the contract). You clearly misunderstood the point of my post, which is that CBS (and I’ll add MSNBC as well) did not terminate Imus because he violated FCC regulations (or any other aspect of his contract). Even if he did so, that was not the reason for his firing. His employers pulled the plug because of pressure not from the FCC, but from hypocritical, hate-mongering racists Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, as well as the wussified corporate sponsors who caved into their hissy fits. We know this because one or both companies announced immediately after the firestorm broke that in light of his apology, a two-week suspension would suffice.
Well,I guess it all depended on class and geography then.Thats the problem with these sorts of anecdotal threads.Judging on’e’s “truth”from srtictly individual insights can be often misleading.
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