Imus, Autism, and America

[chefmike]

Imus, Autism, and America
David Kirby

Imus is gone, but not everyone is cheering. Thousands of parents of autistic children around the country are reeling at the loss of the one true friend they had in the mainstream media. For them, the silencing of Imus could not have come at a worse time.

Of course the messy-headed host said a reprehensible thing, and some form of punishment was not only imperative, but desirable.

Comeuppance, almost always, is a good thing.

Many enemies of racist and sexist trash talk wanted Don Imus gone, and they got their wish. If you are reading this blog, you may count yourself among them (though it's not clear if the Rutgers basketball players who accepted Imus' apology shared in this sentiment).

But consider, for a moment, who is cheering right alongside you. Certainly everyone who thinks the war in Iraq is going swimmingly, and deserves our full support, is happy to see the end of Imus - and that goes for the Vice President on down.

The bureaucrats who let Walter Reed's Building 18 degenerate into a moldy mess of neglect can't be too unhappy, and the last five supporters of Alberto Gonzales left in the country must be ecstatic.

And, of course, if anyone is happy to see Don's downfall, they are also in the fine company of Eli Lilly, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and other big Pharma firms who loathed Don Imus for suggesting that mercury in vaccines -- maybe and only maybe - might be contributing to the growing crisis of childhood autism in the United States.

Feel better? Politics may make for strange bedfellows, but shock-jocking, apparently, yields allies that are downright bizarre.

Don Imus was one of the very few members of the mainstream media to speak out about autism on anything even resembling a regular basis. And he was the ONLY one brave enough (or stupid enough) to take on Big Pharma, the CDC and virtually the entire US Senate over the issue of mercury, vaccines and neuro-developmental disorders.

But now he is gone, and no one is left to speak up for all these damaged kids, and the frazzled parents who believe that mercury played a key role in their children's illness.

Here are some of the things that Don Imus will NOT be covering in the coming weeks. And don't count on the mainstream media to fill in the blanks:

On April 17, the Senate's health committee will hold hearings on how to spend federal dollars allocated by the Combating Autism Act - a bill that might not have passed without the unrelenting support of Imus and his wife Deirdre.

The hearing was scheduled without any input from autism organizations that support the mercury hypothesis, nor will these groups be allowed to testify. Imus would have gone ballistic over that injustice. But now he is gone, and he can't.

Just two days later, the Institute of Medicine will convene a two-day workshop on devising research protocols into environmental factors of autism, including mercury and vaccines. It is doubtful that the media will give it much thought, let alone coverage. Imus would have covered it intensely. But now he is gone, and he can't.

And of course, in June, the Federal "vaccine court" will hold a three-week hearing on whether mercury in shots and/or the MMR vaccine can cause autism and similar problems in some children.

There is a good chance that the proceedings will not be open to the press or the public. In other words, the vaccine trial of the century - one that could settle one of the most important controversies affecting our next generation -- will not be televised.

Imus would have been all over this story like, he used to say, a dog on a bone. But now he is gone, and he can't.

Of course, I am totally biased. I support research into a possible mercury-autism link. And Don Imus had me on his show three times to discuss it. The first time I appeared, in April, 2005, my book on the subject went from a 5-digit ranking on Amazon to a one-digit ranking, in the time it took me to drive home from MSNBC to Brooklyn.

But this is not about book sales. It is about getting to the bottom of a profound and poignant mystery: Why are so many American kids so damn sick? Sadly, not nearly enough Americans really care about the answer to that question.

Don Imus cares, but now he is gone.

Those three nasty words heard round the world may well end a career that began before the Rutgers Women's Basketball team was even born. Soon, these remarkable women may get married and give birth to kids of their own. If they live in New Jersey and give birth to a son, they can count on a one-in-60 chance that he will develop autism, according to the CDC.

Don Imus would have been the first to invite them on his show to talk about it. But now he is gone.

So, as we mark the demise of a foul-mouthed old man who showed an ugly, racist side to his complex personality, just remember who is also raising a glass.

Maybe mercury is linked to autism, and maybe it is not. But until we find out, go ahead and buy that Lilly stock you've had your eye on. With Imus out of the picture, your investment is safer.

Oh, and happy Autism Awareness Month.

[Quinn]

Cool post, Chef. I have a feeling Imus will be back within a year. If listener response to his last fund raiser is any indication, it's a virtual certainty. Polling data has noticeably swung in his favor over the last few days as well.

-Quinn

[chefmike]

Indeed, Quinn. And like him or not, I thought that the piece did a good job of showing some of the differences between Don Imus and a piece-of-shit like Rush Limbaugh.

[ezed]

I've been listening to Imus since god knows when. I can pinpoint the time frame. It was when Imus did the morning and a new dj took the 10 to 2 slot.The new dj's catch phrase was "Fascinating, simply fascinating."
Neither had a supporting cast like they do now. The new dj was Howard, the future king of all media in his own mind. Howard took down Imus some years later due to Imus's substance abuse.

But with Imus, he could crack the same wise ass comment to one person, and you would know there was no malice and then to another person and you know it was a slam. With Howard, you won't know till the knife hit you in the back. There was no malice in his comment regarding the girls from Rutgers. It was a play on words to go to commercial. If you can find it, the tape shows he utter "ohoh" immediately after he said it as it faded out.

Imus is a great guy! He has a good heart. We will miss him but if history is a teacher, it won't be for long.

[guyone]

Before this thread rewrites the history of the stated event, it was the bolshies themselves who took him out. So don't go blaming Bush & Co. for this one. It was the bolshivik Revisonists Adolph Sharpton and Jackass Jerkoff.

Now play fair boys.

[ezed]

Before this thread rewrites the history of the stated event, it was the bolshies themselves who took him out. So don't go blaming Bush & Co. for this one. It was the bolshivik Revisonists Adolph Sharpton and Jackass Jerkoff.

Now play fair boys.

Sharpton and Jackson are not bolshivik's, they're nappy headed hoes. Get your labels straight.

[guyone]

LOL!

[chefmike]

Now play fair boys.

We are playing fair.

As opposed to yourself, who continues to insist on playing stupid... :roll:

[chefmike]

Imus won't go quietly

The talk show host has hired a top First Amendment lawyer, and an unusual clause in his contract could give him a $40 million payday, writes Fortune's Tim Arango.
By Tim Arango, Fortune writer
May 2 2007: 12:48 PM EDT


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.

Bo Dietl, a private investigator and author who is a long-time Imus confidante and was a regular guest on the show, has been making the rounds of the cable talk shows defending his friend and had this to say to Fortune: "I just heard that there is a contract in place, and that he can't be fired without a warning."

Will Imus put a dent in CBS' stock?

Imus has hired Martin Garbus, a New York-based attorney at the law firm Davis & Gilbert who is widely recognized as one of the country's most able First Amendment lawyers. Time Magazine, for one, has called him "legendary, one of the best trial lawyers in the country." He's successfully represented the comedian Lenny Bruce against criminal charges on First Amendment grounds, and the writer Robert Sam Anson in a lawsuit filed by Walt Disney trying to halt the publication of a book critical of the media giant.

But in Imus' case, his free speech rights are tempered by the fact that he said what he said on the public airwaves - which are subject to Federal Communications Commission regulations about what is appropriate content.

"[Garbus is] a First Amendment lawyer who's argued many important cases," said Washington, D.C.-based attorney Lynne Bernabei, who has often represented plaintiffs in employment disputes. "I'm sure they're trying to make this a First Amendment case. But the airwaves are heavily regulated by the FCC.

"In my mind there is a big difference between someone who is under contract and is under FCC regulations and someone who speaks out in town hall. This is someone in a heavily regulated industry and who used the public airwaves."

Bernabei also said that any contract stipulations that allow for provocative content on Imus' show are probably balanced by "something in the contract about appropriate content."

She said, "I'm sure CBS has something about conduct - that he can't use profanity and has to abide by FCC regulations."

So under this argument, the case could turn on whether Imus' comments - which referred to members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" - meets the definition of profanity under FCC guidelines. The FCC, on its Web site, defines profanity as "including language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance."

In some people's minds, CBS (Charts, Fortune 500) would have a slam dunk in making that case. Then there would be the matter of whether or not Imus ever quietly received warnings for previous offensive racial remarks. And there were several, including once referring to the New York Times African-American sports columnist Bill Rhoden as a "quota hire" and PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, who is black, as a "cleaning lady."

Meanwhile, Imus plans to retreat to his ranch in New Mexico for the summer before deciding whether to make another go of it on the radio. Many have speculated he could wind up in the unregulated world of satellite radio, but Dietl, his close friend, thinks he'll be back on terrestrial radio. "He's going to take off the summer, but I think he'll be back and stronger than ever," he said.

[Quinn]

I would love to see CBS take a sizable financial hit as just desserts for caving into Sharpton and co. Serves CBS right.

-Quinn

[trish]

guyone asserts,
it was the bolshies themselves who took him out. So don't go blaming Bush & Co. for this one. It was the bolshivik Revisonists Adolph Sharpton and Jackass Jerkoff.


yet by his own research into the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (which i post below), Sharpton et. al. are not bolshies. afterall, they never posted to Hung Angels. From now on, neo...lest you contradict yourself...you can only label as bolshevik, those who post on HA...and at that, only those who demonstrably "belong" to the extremist wing of the Democratic Party. And then only if you can demonstrate their post is drivel. Now be good, and play according to YOUR rules.

[guyone]

Alright. Maoists!

[chefmike]

Imus producer: Sharpton a 'race-baiter'


NEW YORK - Don Imus' former producer on Friday called Rev. Al Sharpton a "race-baiter" who was looking for attention when he led a campaign to fire the radio host, while Sharpton said Imus and his producer got what they deserved for making a racist, sexist remark on the air.

Bernard McGuirk and Sharpton appeared together for a combative debate on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" show. The producer was fired last month for his part in an exchange on the "Imus in the Morning" program in which the members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team were called "nappy-headed hos."

MSNBC took Imus' show off the air on April 11 and CBS fired him from his syndicated radio program a day later for the slur. McGuirk, a 20-year producer and on-air jester for the show that originated on WFAN-AM in New York, called the team "hardcore hos" in the April 4 exchange with Imus. Sharpton held protests and lobbied both networks to fire Imus.

McGuirk called Sharpton a "crude ... opportunist, a race-baiter" who campaigned against Imus to help his own career and raise his profile.

While McGuirk acknowledged that "these words did hurt these girls," he added, "until you, Reverend Al, got involved, they probably never would have heard of it. They would have probably never, quote unquote, got scarred for life until you got involved for your own self-serving interests."

Sharpton said he wasn't looking for more attention — "if you have any recollection at all, I had been in the papers all year," he said. He said Imus and McGuirk may have apologized for the remark, but "forgiveness is not the point. The question is the penalty."

"Consumers have the right to say to advertisers, are your standards going to be where people are attacked based on your gender and race?" Sharpton said.

McGuirk countered that Sharpton "terrorized these spineless, thumbsucking executives" into taking Imus off the air. In an earlier appearance on "Hannity & Colmes," he said the executives "were in a fetal position under their desks sucking their thumbs on their BlackBerrys, trying to coordinate their response."

Sharpton responded: "What he is saying is we want to apologize and we want to decide what the penalty is." He said that most people wanted Imus fired, including a minister who arranged Imus' meeting with the Rutgers team, and many NBC employees.

"Is Al Roker one of these guys hiding under the desk with a BlackBerry?" Sharpton asked.

McGuirk said that Imus "made one small mistake. He ran a red light" and shouldn't have been fired.

He asked Sharpton. "Who elected you the PC police chief? Who elected you to anything?"

Imus has not spoken publicly since his dismissal, but his lawyer has said he intends to sue CBS for $120 million, and said that the network encouraged irreverent, off-color comments on the program.

[Quinn]

People Against Censorship is holding a rally starting today at noon, in Union Square, here in NYC. It's against the special interests that have aligned themselves against Don Imus, JV & Elvis, Opie & Anthony, and other radio personalities. A couple of friends and I are going.

Protesting for a good cause combined with the inevitable bar crawl that will follow afterward sounds like a can't miss opportunity.

-Quinn

[chefmike]

That sounds like a fun Saturday, hoist one for me!

[chefmike]

Stop the Presses: Al Sharpton's a Hatemongering Hypocrite
John Ridley

File this one under the heading THINGS WE ALREADY KNOW, right next to "water is wet" and "sunshine is warm." Al Sharpton is a hypocrite. And a hatemongering one at that.

When we were last visited by - or rather forced to endure - Reverend Al, he was once again snatching up the scepter of media-anointed spokesman for All Things Black.

It was the heady days of the Affair Imus. The women of the Rutgers B-ball team had the kink of their hair and the level of their sexuality called into question by the I-Man. Al, as Al is wont to do, took it upon himself to act without invitation and speak for those who were perfectly capable of speaking for themselves (for those keeping score, that's hypocrisy number one).

Toward the tail end of that TV news cycle whipped storm, when it was pointed out to Al that a variation of Imus's rant could be heard with an exponent in heavy rotation within a certain variety of rap music, Al promised to go at the extreme ends of the music business with the same camera-whoring zeal with which he attacked Imus.

On the 12th it will have been a month since Imus was dropped by CBS.

Though I make a point of closely following the news, I was apparently otherwise occupied during the ten minutes Al was flogging his big Anti-misogyny in Music Campaign.

Or so I thought.

As it turns out, it was Al who was otherwise occupied. Rather than take on misogyny, the man who decried there was no place in the culture for hateful language...well, he went out and fresh-brewed some hate talk of his own.

During a debate held Monday at the New York Public Library with atheist author Christopher Hitchens, Al assessed Mormon Mitt Romney's presidential bid thusly: "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation."

"Those who really believe in God."

Lemme be real clear about something. There are no tears shed in the Ridley household over the loss of Don Imus from waves of either radio or TV. However, "nappy headed 'hos" sounds nearly genteel in the echo chamber of Al's religious fanaticism.

But his faith-based bashing is only part one in Al's (current) hypocrisy double header. Al said something hurtful and bigoted, and the way to man up to his mistake is merely to apologize.

But to man up to something, ya gotta be a man.

From Al there was no apology. Only spin.

See, Al - according to Al - wasn't really talking about Romney when he used the phrase "the one Mormon running for office." Al was actually contrasting himself with Christopher Hitchens.

Interesting.

I spoke with Chris Hitchens when I was co-hosting the MSNBC morning news today (in Imus's old slot, I sweetly say). Though Hitchens could be confused for many things, as a devout atheist a Mormon ain't one of them.

Having dangled an excuse so ludicrous in an attempt to give himself cover, it was clearly time for a mea culpa from the Rev.

From Al there was no apology. Only more spin.

Version 2.0 of "what I meant to say" straight from Al: "What I said was that we would defeat him (Romney), meaning as a Republican."

Hmm. 'Cause, you didn't say Republican. You said Mormon. Mormon's what you said, and Mormon and Republican aren't trippingly close linguistically.

So, Al, you know; having tried twice to excuse the inexcusable, there is always, finally, a good old fashioned "my bad" to be given. Say, "I'm sorry," and be done with it.

For the record, what I won't be doing right now: holding my breath. My lung capacity could in no way preserve enough air to wait for an apology that must take its place in line behind the apology due from the Tawana Brawley affair. And from the "I regret" having said "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." And even that's back of the line from offering sorrow for referring to Jews as "diamond merchants."

More seriously, there are seven dead who still wait for an apology over Freddie's Fashion Mart and "white interlopers."

But you know what, Al? Forget it. Don't bother with any justifications. After the umpteenth cocktail of hate and hypocrisy you've served up, I would say to you exactly as you said to Don Imus: "What is any possible reason you could feel that this kind of statement could be just forgiven and overlooked?"

[chefmike]

Al Sharpton on the Return of Imus

Don Imus is back—and Rev. Al Sharpton is surprisingly okay with that.

Imus buddy Bo Dietl dropped heavy hints on a radio show over the weekend that the aging shock jock will be back at WFAN no later than September. That would mean a mere five months of wandering in the wilderness for the I-Man, who was fired in April by CBS Radio and MSNBC after calling female college basketball players "nappy-headed hos."

Sharpton, of course, played no small part in Imus's downfall, even inviting the man onto his radio show to apologize to viewers only to declare his apology inadequate. Yet the Rev. tells Radar he would not oppose Imus's return this fall.

"My position is that we never called for him to be permanently barred from being on the air," he says. "We'll see when he comes back, and if he comes back, what are the boundaries and what is the understanding. We'll be monitoring the situation, but we wanted him to pay for being a repeat abuser, and he paid. We never said we didn't want him to make a living."

As for the claim that Imus is seeking a black comedian to "take the sting out" of his racial humor, Sharpton says, "A sidekick is not cover. What he needs to give him cover is his own conscience and whether he'll live up to the apology he gave those Rutgers girls."

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/07/al-sharpton-on-the-return-of-imus.php

[ezed]

He is going to be back, hopefully he can get Bernie back from Finneran's show in Boston, Charles is still on the fan. I'd say the most likely black comedien would be Patrice O'Neil of Opie and Anthony and Hannity & Combs. Will see. Stay tune.

[chefmike]

Patrice would be a great addition to the show, he used to crack me up when he appeared on Colin Quinn's show on CC.

[Quinn]

Patrice is one of my favorite comedians and probably my favorite regular on O&A. He occasionally does his own show, on Saturday nights, on XM 202 (O&A station). It’s hysterical and worth a listen.

-Quinn