Lessons Learned From Imus

April 13, 2007

 

You can really judge a culture by its obsessions. Some Middle Eastern cultures are obsessed with killing Americans. Others are obsessed with killing themselves in order to kill Americans. Others are fixated on the daily lives of the royal family. Us? Well, we're obsessed with race. Anything to do with race gets 24-hour attention on the 24/7 news channels.

The Don Imus flap is just the latest example. His comments were below the belt, to be sure, and he should've paid a price for them, but did they warrant destroying his career? There are a couple of things that bug me about this, and not just because Imus was a stable mate of mine at Westwood One. The first thing that irks me is BSNBC and See-BS both waited until the crisis reached critical mass before firing Imus. Apparently, they didn't find anything objectionable the morning they heard the comments live on the air. It wasn't until Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton began raising such a stink that either network gave the comments a second thought. But something happened after Jesse and Al inserted themselves into the fray. Advertisers became squeamish and began to pull their money. That's when BSNBC and See-BS took the holier-than-thou approach and claimed to be shocked by Imus' comments. Shocked by Imus? He's been doing the same schtick for 30 years. How could they be shocked?

Had either network been completely honest, they would've admitted that it was the loss of ad dollars that drove them to can Imus, not some high-and-mighty ideal about “changing that culture” like Les Moonves from CBS claimed. I fault the sales team at BSNBC for selling such a skittish line-up of sponsors. Chrysler? Staples? The New York Stock Exchange? These don't sound like sponsors who welcome controversy or would be willing to weather the storm if one broke. Putting all your eggs in the basket of fair-weather sponsors is actually what killed the show. Advertisers on most talk shows know exactly what they're getting into and they're prepared to stick with them. They specifically buy these shows because they believe in what they're doing. By contrast, Imus' sponsors were Madison Avenue regulars who would just as soon sponsor Days of Our Lives as Imus.

But the long-lasting Imus effect will be quite detrimental to talk radio. Imus' bowing down to the self-proclaimed oracles of the black community and their subsequent spooking of his sponsors has emboldened the left to try their hand at bagging the really big fish of talk radio. An organization calling itself Media Matters has compiled a 6,000-word report on what they consider fireable offenses. They cite rants by talk show hosts in which one proclaims his belief that practicing homosexuality is wrong. Another says the ideal family is a married man and woman raising a child. These opinions are considered hateful and unforgivable to Media Matters , which is calling on radio corporations to fire these hosts. The only problem is, these hosts bring in big bucks. If they're gone, these corporations cease to exist.

So, it all comes down to sponsorships and ad dollars. It's not a first amendment issue. I don't have a constitutional right to have a talk radio show. Neither does Imus. It's a matter of who is going to buckle and who is going to stand his ground. Had Imus surrounded himself with true believers in his product, he'd still be on the air. Instead, he placed his stock in sycophant politicians and bootlicking news people who abandoned him in his darkest hour. It should be a lesson to us all.