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Monday, December 3, 2007

Don Imus Is Back On The Airwaves! Hooray!

According to ESPN:

Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired for a racist and sexist remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, introducing a new cast that included two black comedians.

During the show, Imus again apologized to the Rutgers basketball players and called the ensuing furor a "life-changing experience."

I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me.

-- Don Imus

"I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me," he said. "And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance."

Imus' lineup of guests featured two presidential hopefuls, Democrat Chris Dodd and Republican John McCain. As he did several times in the days after the episode, Imus condemned his controversial remark last spring and said he had learned his lesson.

"I didn't see any point in going on some sort of 'Larry King' tour to offer a bunch of lame excuses for making an essentially reprehensible remark about innocent people who did not deserve to be made fun of," he said Monday during his debut on WABC-AM.

Now, I never once listened to Don Imus before, so why am I so happy he is back on the air? Because he should have never been taken off the air to begin with. He made comments that were blown way out of proportion....and I think a lot of that has to do with who he was aiming the comments at. I mean, c'mon. Comedians make rude jokes about today's culture (whether its in politics, music, gender, etc...), but do you see any of them taking so much offense that they have to get the comedian who said it out of business? The comedian (who I don't even think is funny by the way) Frank Caliendo, for example, poked fun at Bill Clinton in one of the skits on his show. With the power Bill Clinton has, he could easily have Frank canned....but does he do it? NO, because its comedy and fun. Which leads me back to Rutgers. Those girls blew a semi-humorous comment out of proportion. The only difference between them and Bill Clinton is they don't have power. They needed power and it made them feel strong and pleased that they acquired the power to get a long-standing radio host off the air. In today's society, because of the melting pot we live in, everybody is so quick to take offense to the things other people say as an excuse to gain money and feel powerful. Therefore, there is a very thin line between joking and harassment, as was shown in the Don Imus case.

Woah, when did this blog make the shift from sports to issues of censorship? I'll try not to let it happen again.

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