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On the October 15 edition of Fox News Hannity s Eric Deggans assertion that former MSNBC host Don Imus is "returning to the air essentially without fully apologizing for what he actually did wrong," co-host Alan Colmes said that Imus "did apologize" and went on to say: "The team that he allegedly insulted -- I would say satirized -- they accepted his apology. Why can t you?" When Deggans asserted, "What he did wrong was build a 25- to 30-year broadcasting career on humor that s racist and that exaggerates stereotypes," Colmes responded, "Well, that s what satire is." Colmes and Deggans were discussing recent reports that Imus will be hired to host a nationally syndicated radio show on WABC in New York. As Media Matters for America documented at the time, on the April 4 edition of MSNBC s Imus in the Morning, Imus referred to the Rutgers University women s basketball team, which included eight African-American and two white players, as "nappy-headed hos" immediately after the show s executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "hard-core hos." Earlier in the Hannity s New York City chapter, said that Imus is "a bigot and a racist ... and a misogynist," Colmes asserted, "He s not a bigot and a racist," and added: "He s a satirist. He s doing humor. He s doing satire." Later, Deggans said, "This is about a 25- to 30-year history of cracking these kind of jokes," and claimed that Imus "admitted in an interview with 60 Minutes that he had a producer on his staff to make n-word jokes." Co-host Sean Hannity replied, "Yeah, but jokes. Jokes. You may not like the humor." Hannity then asked, "Should Chris Rock, who says far worse on a regular basis -- have you ever come out and demanded that he be taken off the air?" When Deggans noted that "Chris Rock is not a news and information person," Hannity said, "He s a comedian." From the October 15 edition of Fox News Hannity s your objection to putting him on the air? OSSORIO: It s not a decision I would have made. COLMES: Why not? OSSORIO: ABC, we ll see if it works out for them. COLMES: But why not? OSSORIO: Because, you know, he s had 30 years to be on the air. He s been a bigot and a racist -- COLMES: He s not a bigot and a racist. OSSORIO: -- and a misogynist. COLMES: He s a satirist. He s doing humor. He s doing satire. He takes pokes at everybody. OSSORIO: A lot of people don t find it humorous anymore. [...] COLMES: How long is the right amount of time? DEGGANS: He was basically off for a few months -- he was basically off for a few months. He negotiated a very lucrative end to his contract with CBS Radio, and now he s returning to the air essentially without fully apologizing for what he actually did wrong. COLMES: Well, first of all, he did apologize. He went on Al Sharpton s show and apologized. Al Sharpton accepts him back. Jesse Jackson accepts him back. The team that he allegedly insulted -- I would say "satirized" -- they accepted his apology. Why can t you? DEGGANS: I think Don Imus hasn t really apologized for what he s done wrong. What he did wrong was build a 25- to 30-year broadcasting career on humor that s racist and that exaggerates stereotypes. COLMES: Well, that s what satire is. But you call it racist -- DEGGANS: There s examples going back 15 years, 20 years, where he s called Gwen Ifill, who was then with The New York Times, a cleaning lady. He called another person of color who was an official a quota hire. He s called Howard Kurtz from Washington Post a "beanie-wearing, hook-nosed Jew." I mean, he s used the kind of humor that has been abandoned by other -- COLMES: He also goes after people from the South, on Oklahoma, Okies like he is. He goes after everybody. That s his act. Everybody knew that was his act. They knew that was his act when they hired him. It was in his contract. If they decided to act on letting him go because of those things, he ought to get a warning, which he didn t get, which is why he got a settlement. And, again, what about the free marketplace? You don t like that kind of humor, you don t find it humorous, don t tune out [sic]. Other people have the opportunity to hear what he s got to say if they choose to listen. If advertisers choose to support it, and if ratings will substantiate his appearance, what s wrong with that? [...] DEGGANS: That s the mistake that you re making, is that you re boiling this down to one comment. This is not about one comment. This is about a 25- to 30-year history of cracking these kind of jokes. HANNITY: You keep repeating it, but -- DEGGANS: He admitted in an interview with 60 Minutes that he had a producer on his staff to make n-word jokes. I mean, this is a longstanding-- HANNITY: Yeah, but jokes. Jokes. You may not like the humor. DEGGANS: This is a long standing history. HANNITY: Wait a minute. I was watching Chris Rock over the weekend. Should Chris Rock, who says far worse on a regular basis -- have you ever come out and demanded that he be taken off the air? DEGGANS: First of all, Chris Rock is not a news and information person. HANNITY: He s a comedian. DEGGANS: Secondly, there s a difference between when somebody is inside a group and they make a joke about that group and when somebody is outside of a group. If you look at "The Daily Show" and you watch Jon Stewart... HANNITY: Oh, so if you re inside -- OK. DEGGANS: ... he makes jokes about being a Jewish man that somebody who s not Jewish could not make. There s a difference. HANNITY: Eric, the person that Don Imus made most fun of was Don Imus. The next person he made the most fun of -- and even kiddingly called his wife a ho -- was his wife, his own family, the people on his own show. So it wasn t applying a double standard here, but I find it interesting that you re willing to give Chris Rock a pass.

On the September 18 edition of MSNBC s Hardball, during a discussion of a sexual-harassment lawsuit brought by a former New York Knicks executive against Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas and other defendants, conservative commentator and columnist Armstrong Williams asserted, "I think sometimes guys use it [the word "bitch"], like, let s say, for Isiah Thomas, if the woman did spurn his advances and if she found him offensive and did not give him the kind of attention that he s accustomed to getting from women, because he s supposed to be the celebrated athlete and not president of the New York Knicks, then he referred to her as a B, because he did not get her way. Still, he s implying here she s a tough broad." Host Chris Matthews set up the discussion, which also included National Action Network President Rev. Al Sharpton, by stating, "A female executive from the New York Knicks basketball team has accused coach Isiah Thomas of harassment. In a videotaped statement, Thomas admitted to calling the executive -- and here s a bad word -- bitch. " Matthews then aired a segment of a videotaped deposition in which Thomas testified: "A white man calling a black female that, it s on with me, too. I m not tolerating that. I m not accepting that. So, if it s going down that road, with a black female and a white male saying that to her, well, that s a problem for me, and I m sorry to say. I do make a distinction." Williams later asserted that "using the B-word or the son of a B, something I would not use, to me has never been offensive, because you use it in so many different contexts." From the September 18 edition of MSNBC s Hardball with Chris Matthews: MATTHEWS: A female executive from the New York Knicks basketball team has accused coach Isiah Thomas of harassment. In a videotaped statement, Thomas admitted to calling the executive -- and here s a bad word -- "bitch." Here s his side of the story. THOMAS [video clip]: A white man calling a black female that, it s on with me, too. I m not tolerating that. I m not accepting that. So, if it s going down that road, with a black female and a white male saying that to her, well, that s a problem for me, and I m sorry to say. I do make a distinction. MATTHEWS: Makes a distinction. [...] WILLIAMS: You ll have that opportunity. Listen, Reverend Sharpton and I, anybody with common sense, would agree on the double standard. If Isiah Thomas is basing his position on the race of an individual. I think where I differ with Reverend Sharpton is the fact of whether or not the B-word is offensive. I hear guys refer to women oftentimes, "That s my B." They smile about it. They don t find it offensive. I hear other women accuse other women of being B s. Some women see that as being tough and can do brass knuckles with the boys, and they re just as bad as the boys. In my culture, where I grew up, using the B-word or the son of a B, something I would not use, to me has never been offensive, because you use it in so many different contexts. I think sometimes guys use it, like, let s say, for Isiah Thomas, if the woman did spurn his advances and if she found him offensive and did not give him the kind of attention that he s accustomed to getting from women, because he s supposed to be the celebrated athlete and not president of the New York Knicks, then he referred to her as a B, because he did not get her way. Still, he s implying here she s a tough broad.

During the 6 a.m. ET and 8 a.m. ET hours of the July 18 edition of MSNBC s Morning Joe, commentator John Ridley said he was "curious" about syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak s July 15 assertion during a panel discussion on NBC s Meet the Press that, as Media Matters for America documented, "Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don t see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before. " During the 6 a.m. ET hour of the show, Ridley -- who wrote about Novak s comments in a July 17 post on the Huffington Post blog -- quoted Novak s statement and said: "I m actually curious. I hope that Mr. Novak will clarify this." Ridley continued: "So are the Republicans hopeful for change? Or are they hopeful that when you have a black or a woman running on the Democratic ticket, a majority of Americans will go, Nah. I ain t voting for that. " Novak was scheduled to appear during the 8 a.m. ET hour of the show. During the 8 a.m. ET hour, before the interview with Novak, Ridley again quoted Novak s statement and said: "And so I was curious, just hopefully he could elaborate, what he means by hope." Ridley then stated, "By the way, if he is talking about a Wilder effect, here, referencing [former Virginia] Governor Doug Wilder [D], I don t necessarily disagree with that." The "Wilder effect" refers to the theory that African American candidates sometimes do better in pre-election polling than they do in the actual election because some voters tell pollsters that they will vote for the African American candidate but choose a white candidate instead on Election Day. After mentioning the Wilder effect, Ridley then asked: "[I]s he saying that the Republicans only hope come November is hoping that there is some latent bigotry in America who -- that wouldn t vote for a man of color or a woman for president?" As Media Matters noted, neither Meet the Press host Tim Russert nor any of Novak s fellow panelists, Bloomberg News Washington managing editor Al Hunt, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum -- all of whom are, like Novak, white men -- commented on or challenged Novak s assertion. As Media Matters has also documented, a breakdown of the guests on Meet the Press from 2005 to 2006 shows that 76 percent of the guests on the program were white men. During the interview -- which, according to Scarborough, occurred later in the broadcast than expected due to "some mix-up" -- Novak was not asked about his comments on Meet the Press. Scarborough did state, however, that Novak would return at 7:30 a.m. ET on the July 19 edition of MSNBC s Morning Joe to continue the conversation. From the 6 a.m. ET hour of the July 18 edition of MSNBC s Morning Joe: SCARBOROUGH: So John Ridley has a -- your Huffington Post. RIDLEY: On Huffington. SCARBOROUGH: And you ve written this column saying that the only thing the Republicans have going for them, according to Bob Novak, are that they re white. RIDLEY: Well, it was interesting. They had the roundtable discussion with Tim Russert on Meet the Press. Everybody was, you know, galvanized by the [Sen. Jim] Webb [D-VA]-[Sen. Lindsey] Graham [R-SC] cage fight. But there was something that he said. Republicans, right now, as you probably know, are a little pessimistic. I think you had something interesting yesterday that 21 percent of the people -- they still don t know who they re gonna vote for. SCARBOROUGH: Unknown is leading on the Republican side. RIDLEY: Unknown leads the pack for the Republicans. SCARBOROUGH: So what s the Republicans hope? RIDLEY: Well, as -- and I want to -- I m actually curious. I hope that Mr. Novak will clarify this, but he was talking about, that this year -- and this is a quote from him -- "the Democrats will either have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before, and it gives the Republicans hope." So are the Republicans hopeful for change? Or are they hopeful that when you have a black or a woman running on the Democratic ticket, a majority of Americans will go, "Nah. I ain t voting for that." SCARBOROUGH: Well, I think it s the latter. I really do. I think a lot of people will stop and think -- I think it s a little different with Hillary because Hillary s been around for a long time. She has her sort of own identity. Barack Obama, though, I think for a lot of people out there that, again, have not followed these candidates as much as anybody else are thinking: "Hey, he s that young black guy that s really energetic and exciting." And so it s going to be very interesting. From the 8 a.m. ET hour of the July 18 edition of MSNBC s Morning Joe: SCARBOROUGH: Now, you had concerns with Bob Novak -- who s supposed to be calling in -- about Novak and what he said this weekend on Meet the Press. RIDLEY: Well, more curiosity because I don t -- SCARBOROUGH: And this, by the way, this is on the top of Huffington Post right now. RIDLEY: Yeah. This is Huffington Post. I wrote about it. Look, it was a heck of a show on Meet the Press on Sunday. Something happened -- SCARBOROUGH: Oh. Great show. RIDLEY: Yeah. You had the Webb-Graham cage match. But at the roundtable, Tim Russert was talking to some other individuals about how the Republican Party is disenfranchised at this point. They re not raising money, they don t know who they want their front-runner to be. And Mr. Novak said something regarding the Democrats that -- and this is a quote -- "This is a year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, do things the country has never done before, and it gives the Republicans hope." And so I was curious, just hopefully he could elaborate, what he means by hope. And, by the way, if he is talking about a Wilder effect here, referencing Governor Doug Wilder, I don t necessarily disagree with that. But is he saying that the Republicans only hope come November is hoping that there is some latent bigotry in America who -- that wouldn t vote for a man of color or a woman for president? SCARBOROUGH: Well, I think it s -- I think it is obviously something that s never been done before. So -- MIKA BRZEZINSKI [news anchor]: And the question is, are the times right, is the historic moment here? RIDLEY: It is, but the bigger question for me is, is that what he s saying the Republicans -- that s what they re running on? They can t run on the war, they can t run on national security, they can t run on family values. SCARBOROUGH: You know what they can run on? RIDLEY: What can they run on? SCARBOROUGH: They can run on the fact that they ve got a president that, every time he opens his mouth, makes history. You see, [late-night talk show host David] Letterman has these things -- great moments in presidential speeches. RIDLEY: Yeah. SCARBOROUGH: Had another one last night. [...] SCARBOROUGH: All right, hey, Bob, we ve got to go because we, unfortunately, we had some mix-up -- NOVAK: Sorry, but I look forward to talking to you tomorrow. SCARBOROUGH: I ll see you tomorrow morning at 7:30. NOVAK: Terrific. Thank you, Joe.

During a panel discussion of the 2008 presidential election on the July 15 edition of NBC s Meet the Press, syndicated columnist Robert Novak asserted: "Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don t see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before. And it gives the Republicans hope." Neither host Tim Russert nor any of Novak s fellow panelists, Bloomberg News Washington managing editor Al Hunt, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and Democratic strategist Bob Shrum -- all of whom are, like Novak, white men -- commented on or challenged Novak s assertion. As Media Matters for America documented, the four Sunday-morning talk programs on the broadcast networks, Meet the Press, ABC s This Week, CBS Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co. s Fox News Sunday, feature guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male. A breakdown of the guests on Meet the Press from 2005 to 2006 shows that 76 percent of the guests on the program were white men. From the July 15 edition of NBC s Meet the Press: RUSSERT: Bob Novak, there also seems to be a rather subtle message -- subliminal, nonetheless real, in the [Sen.] Barack Obama [D-IL] message, and that is, it s time to turn the page. Twenty-eight years of two families controlling the presidency. NOVAK: Absolutely. And that is something that everybody talks about. And, you know, talk about nostalgia -- it s hard for a lot of these people to believe this, but there s not that much nostalgia for Bill Clinton. I just find people who aren t Democratic professional politicians, who are -- you know, are sorry that they ve had eight years of Republicans, they don t really yearn for Bill Clinton. But the thing -- RUSSERT: But he does -- he s very popular in all the polls. NOVAK: A lot of people don t want him back, though, for a third term. And I think it s very dangerous to call this a third term of Bill Clinton. There s one other thing: the morale of the Republicans -- RUSSERT: Who s done that? Who s called it the third term? NOVAK: Me. [laughter] SHRUM: It s dangerous, and that s why he s doing it. RUSSERT: Nice try, Novak. NOVAK: There s a -- RUSSERT: Consider the source. NOVAK: Republicans are very pessimistic about 2008. When you talk to them off the record, they don t see how they can win this thing. And then they think for a minute, and only the Democratic Party, with everything in their favor, would say that, "OK, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country has never done before." And it gives the Republicans hope. HUNT: You know, I have a different take. I don t think the Bill Clinton thing is that big a deal at this time. I think if you look at these two front-runners, and you look at over the last six months, and they both have probably exceeded expectations. Go back to January 15. If you said, "Six months from now, Hillary Clinton will have minimized her Iraq problem, she will have raised over 50 million dollars, she would have done better than probably anyone in the joint forums, she would be cleaning up with political endorsements," you would say, "It s all over. She s won."

On the June 12 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh criticized as "pure sexism" recent statements by Dan Rather regarding the CBS Evening News, in which Rather said that CBS was "try[ing] to bring the Today show ethos to the Evening News and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience." After airing this portion of Rather s response, Limbaugh said, "Now, when I saw this last night -- I was talking about this -- I said this is -- that s sexism. Dan Blather [sic], this is pure sexism -- dumb it down and tart it up." However, in the past, Limbaugh himself has complained about the number of women working in journalism and their adverse effect on the news media. During a June 11 interview on MSNBC s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough asked Rather about CBS purported decision to "soften the news," to which Rather responded: "I want to make very clear that I have nothing against [Evening News anchor] Katie Couric at all. She s a very nice person, and I have a lot of friends at CBS News. However, it was clear at the time -- and I think it s become even clearer -- that the mistake was to try to bring the Today show ethos to the Evening News and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience." On his May 8 broadcast, Limbaugh discussed "the fact that newsrooms -- local and national newsrooms in television -- have been overrun with women" and lamented this so-called " chickification of the news": LIMBAUGH: [T]here s no denying that women have become more prevalent in editor-producer positions. And it -- we ve call it the "chickification" of the news here. And one of the things that results from the chickification of the news is we have to have dialogue. We just have to have dialogue. We re going to have -- we re going to have dialogue. To hell with whether anything being discussed is properly built, is true, or any of this. And it s all about feeling good about ourselves. By the way, one -- and yes, we have to have closure after the dialogue. We must have closure. During the same broadcast, Limbaugh went on to complain about the "feminization of America," describing men as having "linguini spines" and women as "pretty much taking over." Limbaugh then returned to women s effect on the news media: LIMBAUGH: The chickification of the news is nothing more than you admit to me that men and women are different. Women look at things different. They have different interests, and they now have more positions of prominence in the news business than they used to have. On the June 4 broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh mocked an article by Associated Press staff writer David Bauder that addressed Couric s tenure as Evening News anchor. In the article, Bauder reported that Linda Mason, the standards chief for CBS news division, had "speculated" that Couric s ratings have languished because "a tradition-bound audience was reluctant to get the day s news from a woman." Referring to the article, Limbaugh said: LIMBAUGH: Do you know why Katie s ratings are the lowest that CBS has ever had in the evening? Do you know why? No, no. Nothing to do with her. It s not that she s not good at it. Well, it s something to do with her, but it s something she can t control. It s sexism, folks. It s pure bigotry. You people in the audience just will not watch a woman do the news. You just won t do it. It s your fault! That s the -- I mean, I could read the whole story to you here, but that pretty much sums it up. You people are a bunch of bigots. You d rather watch a bunch of doddering old men, saliva dripping down the corners of their mouths than you would watch a babe or a woman do the news. And, of course, what s absurd about this is that the chickification of the news in this country from local to national newsrooms and networks has been accomplished. They re all over the place. They re producing. They re reporting. They re anchoring. We ve got anchorettes. We ve got info babes. They re all over cable news. In fact, most of them are blonde. Where does this supply come from? There s an endless supply of them out there. One blonde goes, another blonde comes in. They re all over the place out there, and it hasn t hurt the cable network people at all in terms of the news. From the June 11 edition of MSNBC s Morning Joe: SCARBOROUGH: You know, Dan, the thing that Chris Licht [executive producer of MSNBC s Scarborough Country] was talking about -- maybe you read in the Times, or I don t know where you read it -- but there was, seemed to me, this terrible miscalculation by Rome Hartman and a couple of CBS News execs that they were going to soften up the news, and that way they could expand their viewership. Yeah, I would think that if I m sitting down at 6:30 to get the news, to see what s happened in the day, I don t want fluff stories. Do you think that s one of the problems that Katie Couric s had coming in -- that maybe they tried to re-brand the Evening News in a way that Americans just didn t want to accept? RATHER: Well, I totally agree with you, Joe. That -- I want to make very clear that I have nothing against Katie Couric at all. She s a very nice person, and I have a lot of friends at CBS News. However, it was clear at the time -- and I think it s become even clearer -- that the mistake was to try to bring the Today show ethos to the Evening News and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience. And I just don t think people at 6:30 or 7 o clock at night, or even 5:30 in the Central Time Zone or 6 o clock when it s seen, that that s what they want. This is the continuation of a trend that we ve talked about before, Joe and Mika [Brzezinski] and John [Ridley], and that is the combination of what I call the corporatizing of the news, has led to the trivializing the news. From the May 8 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks The Rush Limbaugh Show: LIMBAUGH: And finally, before we go to break, from the BBC -- well, actually this is Daily Mail in the U.K. The BBC has been ruined by women producing terrible programs, according to Sir Patrick Moore. He s an astronomer. He s 84. He said the corporation needed to revert to the golden days when the news was presented by men with impeccable English. We ve talked about on this program before the subject of the fact that newsrooms -- local and national newsrooms in television -- have been overrun with women. And here s what he says. "He was asked if television had got better or worse. He says, Much worse. The trouble is the BBC is now run by women, and it shows -- soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays. You wouldn t have had that in the golden days. Asked about female newsreaders, he said, There was one day in 2005 when BBC News went on strike. Then we had the headlines read by a man talking the Queen s English, reading the news impeccably. Oh, for the good old days. " That s a generational thing going on here, obviously, the man is 84 years old. And, you know, everybody that age looks back and thinks that the golden age was the era in which they lived. He may have a point here, but there s no denying that women have become more prevalent in editor-producer positions. And it -- we ve call it the "chickification" of the news here. And one of the things that results from the chickification of the news is we have to have dialogue. We just have to have dialogue. We re going to have -- we re going to have dialogue. To hell with whether anything being discussed is properly built, is true, or any of this. And it s all about feeling good about ourselves. By the way, one -- and yes, we have to have closure after the dialogue. We must have closure. [...] LIMBAUGH: OK. What do I mean by the feminization of America? CALLER: Right. LIMBAUGH: What I mean by the feminization of America is that feminist doctrine of the modern era, which has its roots in the late 60s and early 70s, has cowed men. Men now have linguini spines, and women and the way they think and do things, pretty much taking over, or is making inroads in a lot places, particularly in education, all the way up to higher education. CALLER: OK. Well, and it -- LIMBAUGH: Lookit. There -- would you agree with me that men and women are different? CALLER: Absolutely. LIMBAUGH: All right. Well, that s all -- women are what they are and who they are, and men used to be who they are --or were. But, you know, men [sigh] -- trapped. I mean, men -- they ll do anything to get where they want to go. The promised land, if you know what I mean. So, there s been this -- there has [chuckling] -- CALLER: [laughing] LIMBAUGH: There s just been a general decline of masculine culture, masculinity, and when it shows up, it s lampooned and made fun of, and it s called brute force and so forth. The chickification of the news is nothing more than you admit to me that men and women are different. Women look at things different. They have different interests, and they now have more positions of prominence in the news business than they used to have. CALLER: So, I guess what I m trying to say, though, is that like -- to de -- emasculate a man isn t the same as feminizing him. Like, I don t think that the lack of masculinity is femininity. So, it s -- to me, like, when you re saying that, you re kind of saying, like -- to be a woman is to be linguini-spined. LIMBAUGH: To be a woman is to be -- what? CALLER: Linguini-spined. When you say that feminization -- LIMBAUGH: No! No, no, no, no. Men are linguini-spined when they become like women, but women are not linguini -- this -- you re opening a big can of worms here, because I actually think that in many cases, women have stronger constitutions than men, and this proves it. CALLER: [laughing] What proves it? Me? LIMBAUGH: No, no, no. Not you. The fact that men are capitulating all over the place. From the June 12 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show: LIMBAUGH: You ve got to hear these next two sound bites, folks. They are of Dan Blather [sic], formerly of the CBS Evening News. Yesterday, he was on MSNBC with Joe Scarborough, who was working in the morning. And Scarborough said there was this terrible miscalculation by Rome Hartman -- a producer over at CBS Evening News. And a couple CBS news execs said they were going to soften up the news, and that way they could expand their viewership, get more women in there. Do you think that s one of the problems Katie Couric s had coming in, that maybe they tried to re-brand the evening news in a way that Americans just don t want to accept? [begin audio clip] RATHER: Well, I totally agree with you, Joe. That -- I want to make very clear that I have nothing against Katie Couric at all. She s a very nice person, and I have a lot of friends at CBS News. However, it was clear at the time -- and I think it s become even clearer -- that the mistake was to try to bring the Today show ethos to the Evening News and to dumb it down, tart it up, in hopes of attracting a younger audience. [end audio clip] LIMBAUGH: Yeah, this is a clever technique, folks. I myself have used this technique. I love Katie Couric! Oh, I love CBS -- I ve got friends at CBS News. A lot of respect for what goes on over there. And then you slam them. Tarting up the news. Dumbing it down and tarting up the news. The Today show ethos. Now, when I saw this last night -- I was talking about this -- I said this is -- that s sexism. Dan Blather [sic], this is pure sexism -- dumb it down and tart it up. So we went back today. Here s a montage of Dan Rather on the air on election night November 2000. This is a montage of Dan Rather s coverage. And let s listen to dumbing it down and tarting it up. From the June 4 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show: LIMBAUGH: All right, perhaps the funniest news story out there today comes from our old buddy David Bauder at the Associated Press. And it explores the reasons why Katie Couric s ratings are in the toilet. By the way, still no response from CBS News to my magnanimous offer to sit for an interview on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric to jump-start those ratings. Still no response. Offer stands. Don t expect to hear back from them. Do you know why Katie s ratings are the lowest that CBS has ever had in the evening? Do you know why? No, no. Nothing to do with her. It s not that she s not good at it. Well, it s something to do with her, but it s something she can t control. It s sexism, folks. It s pure bigotry. You people in the audience just will not watch a woman do the news. You just won t do it. It s your fault! That s the -- I mean, I could read the whole story to you here, but that pretty much sums it up. You people are a bunch of bigots. You d rather watch a bunch of doddering old men, saliva dripping down the corners of their mouths than you would watch a babe or a woman do the news. And, of course, what s absurd about this is that the chickification of the news in this country from local to national newsrooms and networks has been accomplished. They re all over the place. They re producing. They re reporting. They re anchoring. We ve got anchorettes. We ve got info babes. They re all over cable news. In fact, most of them are blonde. Where does this supply come from? There s an endless supply of them out there. One blonde goes, another blonde comes in. They re all over the place out there, and it hasn t hurt the cable network people at all in terms of the news.

On the June 6 edition of MSNBC s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann honored Lee Rodgers, co-host of KSFO s The Lee Rodgers s Countdown with Keith Olbermann: OLBERMANN: First, time for Countdown s latest list of nominees for Worst Person in the World: the bronze to Lee Rodgers, best known as the flunky for the infamous San Francisco right-wing water carrier Melanie Morgan. You want to know who the far right is next throwing under the bus? Simply identify whom Mr. Rodgers was talking about when he said, quote, "the woman has morphed into Madeleine Halfbright, and in those spike-heeled boots of hers, she looks like the hostess at an S&M parlor." Correct: Condoleezza Rice -- a right-wing host is trashing a right-wing secretary of State.

On the June 5 broadcast of San Francisco radio station KSFO s The Lee Rodgers s "spike-heeled boots" make her look "like the hostess at an S s The Lee Rodgers t even think about it. BABBIN: Yeah, please. RODGERS: The woman has morphed into Madeline Halfbright and in those spike-heeled boots of hers, she looks like the hostess at an S t -- no. BABBIN: No, it s -- it s not even any of those things. The fact is she has kind of morphed into "Madeline the short" and the fact is that the best thing that we could do was -- would be to put pretty much everybody, other than a couple of my favorites, on the shelf out of the Bush administration. I keep telling you, the only way to win guys, Rumsfeld/Bolton in 08.

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck appeared on the May 14 edition of CNN s American Morning to discuss the dismissal of radio host Don Imus and New York shock jocks JV and Elvis and claimed that there is a "leftist witch hunt" against shock jocks. But in discussing the issue with Beck, host Kiran Chetry introduced Beck simply as a "syndicated talk show host," and not as the host of a nightly program on CNN Headline News. Chetry also ignored Beck s own history of inflammatory remarks -- including a remark he made on the May 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show: "I wouldn t vote for Joe Lieberman at this time because of the complications it would add in this country or on the planet right now because of the way the Middle East would use it. That s not saying the same thing as I wouldn t vote for a Jew for president." On American Morning, Beck attributed the "leftist witch hunt" to the failure to "get the Fairness Doctrine out," saying, "so what they re trying to do is to shut people down." During the segment, Beck argued that anger over a controversial phone call aired by XM Satellite Radio hosts Opie and Anthony -- in which a homeless man discussed raping first lady Laura Bush, Queen Elizabeth II and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- largely stemmed from "special interest groups," as "the left ... is trying to shut people down": BECK: This is where we have been so for so long, and this is really -- this is really not about much other than a lot of special interest groups. There is -- there is a real feeling, I think, on the left -- they couldn t get the Fairness Doctrine out, and so what they re trying to do is to shut people down. If you look at the people that are on the shock radio list, you will see that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- and I am on that list. Gee, I don t know the last time that I was doing sex calls. This smacks of a leftist witch hunt in many ways. But later in the segment, Beck also suggested that "it seems to be OK" for "people [to] market in graphic, graphic sex," but not to make ethnic jokes: BECK: [W]hy are we discussing ethnic groups as if it s the only thing? Shock jock -- hang on -- CHETRY: Because this is what got two people fired, this is what -- that s why, Glenn, because -- [crosstalk] BECK: I don t mean to be crass, but we are talking about people who market in graphic, graphic sex, and that seems to be OK. In fact, Beck himself has a history of controversial comments: On the March 15 broadcast of his radio show, The Glenn Beck Program, Beck said: "Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there s something about her vocal range." He went on to say, "There s something about her voice that just drives me -- it s not what she says, it s how she says it," adding, "She is like the stereotypical -- excuse the expression, but this is the way to -- she s the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?" Beck subsequently qualified his statement: "I never said that Hillary Clinton was a bitch. I said she sounded like one." On the March 21 broadcast of his radio show, Beck called Rosie O Donnell, co-host of ABC s The View, a "fat witch," claimed that O Donnell has "blubber ... just pouring out of her eyes," and asked, "Do you know how many oil lamps we could keep burning just on Rosie O Donnell fat?" On the March 23 edition of his radio show, Beck said, "I m a little ashamed" for calling O Donnell "a fat witch" -- then added, "But she s so fat." On the February 28 edition of CNN Headline News Glenn Beck, while discussing racy photos of American Idol contestant Antonella Barba, Beck asked his female guest: "I ve got some time and a camera. Why don t you stop by?" On the November 14, 2006, edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck said to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim ever elected to Congress: "OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. ... With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, Let s cut and run. And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies. " On the August 9, 2006, edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck aired a segment mocking the names of several missing Egyptian students in which the announcer said that one "may or may not be accompanied by his camel." The segment showed pictures of crowds and pointed to random, unidentifiable people as the missing Egyptians. It ended with a reading of the students names in quick succession followed by the announcer pretending to gag as he struggled to pronounce them. On the January 10, 2006, broadcast of his radio show, Beck called anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan "a pretty big prostitute," later amending, at the behest of his executive producer, Steve "Stu" Burguiere, that "tragedy pimp" would be "the most accurate description." To discuss the issue, CNN paired Beck with comedian Paul Rodriguez, who said he didn t think there was "a left or right conspiracy" concerning racism and sexism on radio. From the May 14 edition of CNN s American Morning: CHETRY: Well, CBS Radio firing a pair of suspended radio shock jocks for a prank phone call they made making fun of workers at a Chinese restaurant. The New York duo made their comments just a day after Don Imus meltdown a month ago. The initial airing of the call in "The Doghouse with JV and Elvis" went unnoticed, then a re-airing of the segment after Imus firing prompted an outcry from Asian-American groups. So, with these latest firings and the Imus fallout, could this actually be the beginning of the end of the shock jocks? Joining us now from here in New York, syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck. Good to see you, Glenn. BECK: Hi, how are you? CHETRY: Also Las Vegas comedian, Paul -- in Las Vegas, you re not just a Las Vegas comedian, of course -- Paul Rodriguez. Thanks for being with us. RODRIGUEZ: Good morning. CHETRY: So Glenn, let me ask you about this because you ve talked about political correctness as the classic great idea gone wrong. But where do we draw the line? BECK: Well, I think the individual needs to draw the line. This is a capitalist society. Everybody talks about corporate responsibility and CBS, what they are they doing to stop this? What is the average person doing? These companies would not put this kind material on the air if it wasn t selling. This is a -- this is a choice that the American people that are making every single day. It s not just in New York City or Los Angeles, this happens all across the country. You need to take personal responsibility, and if you don t like it, turn it off. CHETRY: All right, well, here s -- but the question is, in the days of YouTube and in the days of 24-hour cable, all this stuff get talked about again, recycled. For example, The Opie and Anthony Show, this past week -- they apologized for this, but they had a segment where they laughed as a homeless man fantasized of raping our secretary of state and first lady. Is that where we should be when it comes to radio? BECK: No, but this is where we have gone. This is where we have been so for so long, and this is really -- this is really not about -- much other than a lot of special interest groups. There is -- there is a real feeling, I think, on the left -- they couldn t get the Fairness Doctrine out, and so what they re trying to do is to shut people down. If you look at the people that are on the shock radio list, you will see that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- and I am on that list. Gee, I don t know the last time that I was doing sex calls. This smacks of a leftist witch hunt in many ways. [...] RODRIGUEZ: You can t have a shock jock without shock. I mean, this is their trade. I mean, it started with people who aspired to the heights of Imus and of [Howard] Stern. You have to shock -- in a sense, you and I and CNN, we re doing these relatively obscure jocks a favor because we re discussing, we re talking. I think it was all premeditated. I don t know -- more so I don t agree so much. I don t know if there is a left or a right conspiracy. I think that the marketplace -- though I do agree with Beck. The marketplace itself, it has its own repercussions. CHETRY: So, Paul, are you watching things that you re saying now? Do you change what you re going to be doing in your bits because of the intense scrutiny that seems to be happening lately? RODRIGUEZ: Not really; it isn t my trade. I mean, I talk about the condition of being Mexican-American. If somebody else talks about that and he could make a -- I believe that the only offensive joke is a joke that s not funny. If you can find a way to say these things -- BECK: Are you telling me that you ve never told a joke that wasn t funny? I mean, that s the problem. When you start saying it s not -- if it s funny, it s not offensive -- RODRIGUEZ: In the privacy of our own homes, Mr. Beck. In the privacy of our own homes -- obviously, these ideas and these thoughts don t come out of thin air. They came from somewhere. We can t get like -- you and I, you can t get on the air and be all pious about it and point our fingers and say this. People -- look, America is a society -- BECK: I m not being pious about this at all -- RODRIGUEZ: Well, you re blaming the left, you re blaming the right. CHETRY: No, I think you guys are agreeing more than you think. I think Paul is making a joke: The only offensive one is one that is not funny, but Glenn, do you watch what you say? RODRIGUEZ: And that one wasn t funny. BECK: I will tell you, do I watch it? No. The line keeps moving. What is politically acceptable today is not tomorrow and, again, this is all about -- this is all about special interest groups. RODRIGUEZ: The unique thing about this is that America is -- has this problem. You know, other societies that have other groups -- I was reading in an article where Norway had taken in some people from the Sudan, and now they re starting to -- their comedians are starting do jokes like that. No country in the world has the amount of ethnic groups that America does. Now this -- CHETRY: True. RODRIGUEZ: -- this could be something that s uplifting to us, but there s always going to be -- see, comedy, the very essence of a punch line, has to have a victim. BECK: Why -- why are we -- why are we discussing ethnic groups as if it s the only thing? Shock jock -- hang on -- CHETRY: Because this is what got two people fired, this is what -- That s why, Glenn, because -- [crosstalk] BECK: I don t mean to be crass, but we are talking about people who market in graphic, graphic sex, and that seems to be OK. But if you say -- RODRIGUEZ: Also, you know -- a lot of [unintelligible] jokes, I mean, that s not racist. CHETRY: All right, well, we re out of time, both of you. This is a really interesting discussion, and I m glad you both joined us today. RODRIGUEZ: America still needs to have this discussion as a town meeting. This thing is -- CHETRY: We will, but our show ends in eight minutes, so we gotta go. RODRIGUEZ: I know, I m sorry. CHETRY: But thanks to both of you for being with me today. RODRIGUEZ: I appreciate it.

On April 12, during a report on the controversy sparked by Don Imus remarks about the Rutgers University women s basketball team, ABC s World News aired comments by Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, in which he said: "Over the years, Imus made fun of blacks, Jews, gays, politicians. He called them lying weasels. This was part of his charm." Kurtz s quote aired shortly after CBS Radio announced it would discontinue broadcasting Imus in the Morning. Despite Imus propensity for incendiary remarks, Kurtz has previously been a guest on the Imus program, a fact he acknowledged in his April 12 Washington Post column. Kurtz wrote: "Journalists like me who have gone on Imus s show have done so because we enjoyed the opportunity to talk about politics and media without the stuffiness of so many other programs. And it s probably true that too many of us looked the other way when he went over the line with some of his cruder comedy bits." Yet, as Fairness s sexist, homophobic, and politically incorrect routines echo what many journalists joke about in private." As Media Matters for America documented, Imus has a long record of bigoted remarks. He has previously described CBS Radio s "Jewish management" as "money-grubbing bastards." On the March 6 edition of the program, executive producer Bernard McGuirk said that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) was "trying to sound black in front of a black audience" when she gave a speech in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march. He further stated: "Bitch is gonna be wearing cornrows." From the April 12 edition of ABC s World News with Charles Gibson: KURTZ: The pressure on CBS -- just as it had been with NBC -- from this national eruption over Imus racial remark simply proved to be too great. He became the symbol, the poster boy, for all of the anger in the country about radio hosts and television hosts who go too far and, in the end, he couldn t survive. DAVID MUIR (World News Saturday anchor): Imus and his radio show had a long history of off-color remarks. Just last year, he called his own bosses "the Jewish management," and he used other words to describe them, as well. KURTZ: Over the years, Imus made fun of blacks, Jews, gays, politicians. He called them lying weasels. This was part of his charm. But when he went too far, he became his own worst enemy.

On the April 12 edition of Fox News The O Reilly Factor, guest host and Fox News analyst Michelle Malkin discussed with black talk-show host Opio Sokoni the decisions by MSNBC and CBS Radio to cancel their broadcasts of Imus in the Morning after host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Malkin accused the media and civil rights leaders of a "[d]ouble standard" and asked whether Imus remark wasn t "a drop in the ocean compared to the filth on music and radio and hip-hop stations every day." After Sokoni said that those making money from hip-hop music are "[w]hite people that you coddle to in almost all your articles," Malkin responded: "Oh, geez. Here we go with the blame whitey again. Blame whitey." Malkin added: "Whose mouths are the words coming out of? So, Snoop Dogg doesn t bear any responsibility for spreading this filth? And Young Jeezy, and Crime Mob and all these people, they don t bear responsibility? It s all whitey s fault?" Earlier in the segment, Malkin mocked the comments of one of the Rutgers players who said Imus remarks "scarred [her] for life." Malkin stated: "Please. Scarred for life is what the innocent Duke lacrosse players are." In the same segment, Malkin noted that Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson had led protests against Imus and asked: "When was the last time Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson looked at the top of the Billboard hot rap tracks charts? Just look at it this week. Every single one of the top six songs has the N-word, the H-word, the B-word. When was the last time that Al Sharpton said anything about it? Was it two or three or four years ago?" In fact, Sharpton has frequently called for a crackdown on vulgar language in the music industry, specifically rap music. For instance, while giving a eulogy at the December 30, 2006, funeral for James Brown, Sharpton emphasized his last conversation with Brown, in which Brown told him "to fight to lift the standards back." From the eulogy: SHARPTON: It was the last conversation we had. He said to me, "Reverend," he said, "I ve been watching you on the news. I want you to keep fighting for justice. But I want you to tell people to love one another. I want you to fight to lift the standards back." He said, "What happened to us that we are now celebrating from being down? What happened we went from saying I m black and I m proud to calling each other niggers and hos and bitches?" He said, "I sung people up and now they re singing people down, and we need to change the music." Sharpton made a similar argument in his own words on the November 3, 2006, edition of CNN Headline News Glenn Beck: SHARPTON: Well, let me say this. And again, now Jay-Z I think has done a lot of good things. But those that use the "N" word, if they re black, white, whatever, are wrong. And a lot of us have used it in private. It s wrong. To pass it down to our children is wrong. We cannot, in any way, try and romanticize or sanitize a word that is absolutely racist. From the April 12 edition of Fox News The O Reilly Factor: MALKIN: In the "Impact" segment tonight: the lowdown on the ho-down. That s the subject of tonight s "Talking Points Memo." I don t feel sorry for Don Imus, but Al Sharpton and the race hustlers make me sick. Thanks to Imus big mouth, racial hype, hysteria, and hip-hop hypocrites are running wild. And selective tolerance of hate-mongering continues. The Rutgers women s basketball team didn t deserve to be disrespected. No woman deserves that. But the milking of this story is getting ridiculous. One of the athletes claims she was scarred for life by Imus comments. Please. Scarred for life is what the innocent Duke lacrosse players are. Every racial vulture out there wants to feed on the Imus corpse. These exploiters have no shame. [...] MALKIN: Double standard. Come on. Look at what you listen to on the radio every single day. You know, what Imus said, isn t it a drop in the ocean compared to the filth on music and radio and hip-hop stations every day in this country? SOKONI: No, it s not. As a matter of fact, there are people in the hip-hop community all over the place that are outraged by a lot of the misogynistic and violent lyrics that -- that are portrayed. There s a balance campaign that is led by the Zulu Nation that you never hear about, because it s not newsworthy. But there s a difference between an artist and someone who has presidential candidates on their show. You know, and, again, you guys continue to repeat the lie that the black community and people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not outraged and they don t fight against it. They fight against this every single day. As a matter of fact -- MALKIN: When was the last time Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson looked at the top of the Billboard hot rap tracks charts? Just look at it this week. Every single one of the top six songs has the N-word, the H-word, the B-word. When was the last time that Al Sharpton said anything about it? Was it two or three or four years ago? Yes. SOKONI: No, not two, three, four years ago. As a matter of fact -- [crosstalk] MALKIN: Really? I didn t hear him. I haven t heard him complaining about "This Is Why I m Hot." [...] MALKIN: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Let me ask the question. Why has there been so much tolerance for the stuff that is on the charts right now? These songs have been on the charts for the last nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 years. There s Snoop Dogg. Guess what? You know what his defense was and his attack on Imus was? That it s OK for rappers like him to use the word "ho" because it s coming from his mind and his soul. Do you agree with that? SOKONI: No, it s not OK, although, as an artist, you know, he can make that point, where Don Imus can t make that point. MALKIN: Wait. Wait. Hold on. You have said -- you have said this several times now. Because it s art, it s OK to demean and insult women, to treat them like meat, to parade them on their videos half-naked? That s OK, because it s their art, because it s their culture? That kind of moral equivalence is why this stuff is so prevalent right now. SOKONI: It s not OK. MALKIN: And it s not something that -- you can t tune it out. You can t just turn off the radio. It s everywhere. SOKONI: Michelle, it s not OK. And people are fighting against it, like I say. You can argue that it s OK, as an artist, but it s not OK. Again, you know, Reverend Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, they don t own the top 10. You know who makes money off of those -- those top 10 songs? White people that you coddle to in almost all your articles. That is who makes the money. MALKIN: Oh, geez. Here we go with the "blame whitey" again. Blame whitey. What about the -- what about who is coming in -- [crosstalk] SOKONI: Who is making the most money off -- who makes the most money, Michelle? MALKIN: Yes. [crosstalk] SOKONI: Michelle, who makes the most money? MALKIN: Where are the words coming -- [crosstalk] SOKONI: Who makes the most money off these shows? MALKIN: Whose mouths are the words coming out of? So, Snoop Dogg doesn t bear any responsibility for spreading this filth? And Young Jeezy, and Crime Mob and all these people, they don t bear responsibility? It s all whitey s fault? SOKONI: They don t make more money than [Jimmy] Iovine, Tommy Mottola, and Sumner Redstone. They don t make more money than whitey, as you would say. They don t make more money than them. MALKIN: Oh, give me a break.

On the April 12 edition of Fox News Your World, while discussing the controversy surrounding radio host Don Imus recent remarks, host Neil Cavuto asked rapper M-1, one half of the group Dead Prez, "[A] ho is a ho, right?" Cavuto added: "So, if Imus uses the expression and then you use the expression, you ve both said ho. " He later said, "So, there s nothing wrong with Imus saying it, right?" On the April 4 edition of Imus in the Morning, which was then produced by CBS Radio and simulcast on MSNBC, Imus referred to the Rutgers University women s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Cavuto also called Imus remark "an errant comment" and "a badly phrased comment." However, as Media Matters for America has noted, Imus comment was part of a pattern of racial smears on Imus in the Morning. From the April 12 edition of Fox News Your World with Neil Cavuto: CAVUTO: M-1, I know that this is not your parent company, but NBC Universal owns Interscope Records, which has, under its employ, a lot of rap artists who routinely say stuff like you ve just said and worse. And, NBC is OK with that, not OK with Don Imus making an errant comment. Do you find that, just as an artist, hypocritical? M-1: No, I don t find it hypocritical mainly because of our relationship to the system -- our relationship with our oppressor. Once again, with personal responsibility taken at hand here, we re talking about rappers who are coerced to say things other than what the reality of our community is and Mr. Imus, who obviously has said sentiments that come from his personal beliefs. I think you are comparing apples and oranges here even when you bring the rap community into the question. And once -- CAVUTO: No, you know, M-1, I don t think I am. I mean, a ho is a ho, right? So, if Imus uses the expression and then you use the expression, you ve both said "ho." M-1: Well, no, I don t -- CAVUTO: Well, you ve both said it. So, now, you re saying -- M-1: No, I don t use "ho." CAVUTO: All right, so -- M-1: I don t say "ho." And that s my point exactly. And even the word "ho" existed way before 1976, when rap began. "Ho" is a relationship between the pimp and the pimper, the pimpee, if it may. And so -- CAVUTO: So, there s nothing wrong with Imus saying it, right? M-1: Well, of course -- CAVUTO: And there s nothing wrong then with rappers -- unlike yourself -- saying it, right? M-1: Well, of course there s something wrong with both of those relationships. However, what governs that relationship is the historical relationship of oppression between black people and our white oppressors in this country, and that s not a racist statement, that s the reality that we live in. CAVUTO: But Don Imus wasn t oppressing you or anyone else. He made a mistaken -- maybe a badly phrased comment. He s lost a job on the air as a result of it. You can continue to make pretty, you know, outlandish comments for art, whatever you want to call it. It just doesn t seem right. Does it seem right to you?

On the April 12 edition of MSNBC News Live, MSNBC political analyst Craig Crawford said that he had appeared on the Imus in the Morning program "nearly 70 [times] in the last three years" and asserted: "[I]f more people had listened to the whole context of this man s show, they would see a broader picture." On the April 4 edition of Imus in the Morning, Imus referred to the Rutgers University women s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" after executive producer Bernard McGuirk called the team "hard-core hos." As Media Matters for America documented, Imus remark was part of a long history of racial slurs made on the show by him, his guests, and regular contributors. On April 11, NBC News announced that it was dropping MSNBC s simulcast of Imus in the Morning in the wake of the controversy. Then on April 12, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves announced that CBS -- which owns both the radio station that broadcast Imus program and Westwood One, which syndicated the program -- had fired Imus and would cease broadcasting his radio show. Speaking generally, Crawford acknowledged that Imus program would often "get into some of these trouble spots," and added of the specific incident: "[I]t wasn t a case of hateful speech. I didn t think it was out of malice. I think they were trying to be shocking, trying to be goofy. It was silly." Crawford further stated that he "tuned ... out" the derogatory aspects of the show: "[I]n the segments I was in, we never got into any of the trouble areas that he obviously had. And I was aware some of that other stuff was going on. I actually tuned a lot of it out and maybe got numb to it." From the 3 p.m. hour of the April 12 edition of MSNBC News Live: MIKA BRZEZINSKI (anchor): Imus has been rude and crude for years. And why did it feel OK to appear on his show? Was his behavior just accepted up until now? CRAWFORD: Well, for me personally, Mika, I enjoyed talking to the man. I got up at 6, sometimes 5:30, 4:30, 3:30 on the West Coast -- BRZEZINSKI : Wow. CRAWFORD: -- to talk to him in the morning many times, nearly 70 in the last three years because I enjoyed talking to the man. He s an iconoclast who -- we talked about all kinds of things, usually a lot of personal stuff. The last time I was on, we talked for about 10 minutes about my electric razor, but we also talked about serious things. And in the segments I was in, we never got into any of the trouble areas that he obviously had. And I was aware some of that other stuff was going on. I actually tuned a lot of it out and maybe got numb to it, but I think there will be a hole right here on MSNBC and here in Washington with his absence because he was able to bring a dialogue, a discussion about issues and newsmakers, got things out of them. He was a great interviewer. I would say on balance the things I liked about the man -- I just overlooked the things that did make me a little nervous. BRZEZINSKI : And that s what I wonder about, Craig, because a lot of people did. A lot of people got a lot of airtime on his show. They sold books. Maybe even you did. CRAWFORD: I did. BRZEZINSKI : Did it make you feel uncomfortable when you knew about those trouble spots? You maybe heard some of the things he said to people? CRAWFORD: Well, I have the view, Mika, that you know, when -- in the comedy context, the skits they would do, and a lot of the other -- in the sports commentaries, where they also would get into some of these trouble spots, that it wasn t a case of hateful speech. I didn t think it was out of malice. I think they were trying to be shocking, trying to be goofy. It was silly. It was sophomoric, a lot of it. And entertaining to a lot of people. I got to tell you, I would travel around the country, and, yes, I did sell a lot of books thanks to Imus. And I met a lot of Imus fans around the country doing book signings and speeches so on. And many of them I would talk to would say, "You know, I sort of wish they wouldn t do that other stuff." BRZEZINSKI : Yeah. CRAWFORD: Some of his biggest fans would say that. But there was a core entertainment value and information that came out of that show that kept people coming back. BRZEZINSKI : Well, let me ask you this, though, Craig. Let s just try and be as transparent as we can. NBC put him on the air. You appeared on the show along with many others. Is there, I don t know, a bit of hypocrisy here? Why is it so surprising and shocking now that Imus is rude and insulting to all sorts of people? CRAWFORD: I don t think it -- well, here s how I m seeing this week, Mika, is a lot of the people who are so -- so critical didn t actually listen to the show. I mean, even the captain of the basketball team at Rutgers said she hadn t listened to the show. I mean, and I really believe that had more people -- if more people had listened to the whole context of this man s show, they would see a broader picture. BRZEZINSKI : Fair enough. Craig Crawford, thank you very much.

On April 12, following MSNBC s announcement the previous day that it would no longer air simulcasts of the Imus in the Morning radio show, CBS -- which owns both the show s home radio station and the show s syndicator, Westwood One -- announced it would cease broadcasting Imus in the Morning due to host Don Imus s description of the members of the Rutgers University women s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." In announcing the decision to fire Imus, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves, stated: "From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women s Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent." Moonves added: "Those who have spoken with us the last few days represent people of goodwill from all segments of our society -- all races, economic groups, men and women alike." Media Matters for America has prepared the following timeline documenting events from Imus slur of the Rutgers team on April 4 to MSNBC s announcement on April 11: Wednesday, April 4 On Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus referred to the Scarlet Knights, the Rutgers University women s basketball team -- which is made up of eight African-American and two white players -- as "nappy-headed hos" after executive producer Bernard McGuirk called the team "hard-core hos." Media Matters for America noted Imus comments at the time.The New York Times later noted that "Imus s remarks were picked up ... by the Media Matters for America site," and Salon.com s Jonathan Miller similarly credited Media Matters for posting video of Imus comments. In an article about MSNBC s decision to drop the show, the Los Angeles Times identified Media Matters as "the liberal media watchdog group that first spotlighted Imus remark last week." USA Today also reported that Media Matters "originally called attention to Imus remarks." Thursday, April 5 Addressing his "nappy-headed hos" comment, Imus asserted, "I don t understand what the problem is, really," and referred to the remark as "some idiot comment meant to be amusing," as noted in Miller s April 10 Salon article.WNBC.com, the NBC affiliate in New York, reported Imus April 5 comments in an article the same day, which quoted a Rutgers spokesperson saying, "We agree with Mr. Imus that this was, in his own words, an idiot comment. We are very proud of the success of the Rutgers women s basketball team. Coach [C. Vivian] Stringer and the Rutgers players are outstanding ambassadors for this great institution."MSNBC released a statement that asserted, "While simulcast by MSNBC, Imus in the Morning is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio." It added, "As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments." The statement was noted in an article published at 3:26 p.m. ET on NBC10.com, the website for the NBC affiliate that serves the Philadelphia area. Friday, April 6 Imus apologized on Imus in the Morning, asserting, "Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning referring to the Rutgers women s basketball team," and adding, "It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, so, and we re sorry." Media Matters noted Imus apology at the time.The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) released a statement calling Imus apology "too little too late." NABJ "appreciates the swift action from NBC and its cable channel MSNBC in condemning his remarks, and now hopes the network will continue to do the right thing and separate itself permanently from the incendiary host."According to an Associated Press report, "NABJ President Bryan Monroe asked Thursday if Imus had lost his mind and called for the veteran radio host s dismissal." In an additional statement on the NABJ website, Monroe expanded on his call for Imus dismissal: "Those comments were beyond offensive. Imus needs to be fired. Today." In the statement, the NABJ also called on "journalists of all colors to boycott his show until he acknowledges and apologizes for his damaging remarks." The AP report also noted several other statements condemning Imus: WFAN: "We are disappointed by Imus actions earlier this week which we find completely inappropriate. We fully agree that a sincere apology was called for and will continue to monitor the program s content going forward."Statement of NCAA president Myles Brand and Rutgers president Richard McCormick: "The NCAA and Rutgers University are offended by the insults on MSNBC s Don Imus program toward the 10 young women on the Rutgers basketball team. ... It is unconscionable that anyone would use the airways to utter such disregard for the dignity of human beings who have accomplished much and deserve great credit."Statement by Stringer: "To serve as a joke of Mr. Imus in such an insensitive manner creates a wedge and makes light of the efforts of these classy individuals, both as women and as women of color. It is unfortunate Mr. Imus sought to tarnish Rutgers spirit and success. Should we not, as adults, send a message of encouragement to young people to aspire to the highest levels as my team did this season?" Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Phil Sheridan and New York Daily News columnist Filip Bondy wrote columns condemning Imus remarks. Bondy stated: "Imus should be fired for it today -- actually, yesterday -- just as the National Association of Black Journalists demands." The Web entries of those columns are dated April 7, but the Nexis database shows their publication dates as April 6. Saturday, April 7 In a rally at the National Action Network (NAN) headquarters in New York City, Rev. Al Sharpton called for Imus to be fired.In a column titled "Sorry Excuses: MSNBC s Form Apology," Washington Post columnist Lisa de Moraes wrote: "MSNBC, meanwhile, continued to say in a statement it wanted folks to know that while simulcast by MSNBC, "Imus in the Morning" is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. MSNBC also wanted to make sure you know that as Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC, adding, finally: We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments. " De Moraes added: "This is not the first time MSNBC has had to apologize for comments made by Imus on its air, not by a mile. Which explains why various organizations were pretty dismissive of yesterday s apologies. Media watchdog group Media Matters of [sic] America noted the comments are just the latest in a long history of racial slurs made on the show by Imus, his guests, and regular contributors. "New York Times reporter David Carr noted, "Imus s remarks were picked up on the Web, in this case by the Media Matters for America site (mediamatters.org). And by Friday, both his radio and television outlets were getting out 10-foot poles." Sunday, April 8 In another Daily News column, "CBS call on Don hinges on dollars not sense," sports columnist Bob Raissman argued that "Imus fate will be based on one, and only one, issue -- money." Noting that CBS Radio syndicates Imus in the Morning to stations across the United States, Raissman claimed "there is no way [Leslie] Moonves [president and CEO of the CBS Corp.] will cut off the flow of Imus cash -- even if he is repulsed by his radio star s warped comments." But, Raissman added, "They will dump Imus in a second if this episode leads to companies -- en masse -- deciding to to [sic] stop advertising on the Imus in the Morning show."The National Organization for Women (NOW) sent out an "Action Alert" that originally asked readers to send a letter to WFAN, CBS, and MSBC. After MSNBC and CBS Radio announced a two-week suspension for Imus, the "Action Alert" stated: "Two Weeks is Not Enough." NOW promoted the alert with a link saying "It s Time to Dump Don." Monday, April 9 New York Times reporter David Carr previewed Imus April 9 show, and said that Imus "fills a demand for serious discussion on contemporary radio so that the journalists and politicians pushing an agenda or a book don t have to get in line behind the strippers at Howard Stern s show. So who is left to hold Mr. Imus accountable?"Imus said that he "learned" from this incident that "you can t make fun of everybody because some people don t deserve it."Newsweek editor Howard Fineman told Imus: "[I]t s a different time, Imus ... it s different than it was even a few years ago, politically," and added that "some of the stuff that you used to do, you probably can t do anymore." Fineman continued, "I mean, just looking specifically at the African-American situation. I mean, hello, [Sen.] Barack Obama s [D-IL] got twice the number of contributors as anybody else in the race," and added, "[T]hings have changed. And the kind of -- some of the kind of humor that you used to do you can t do anymore. And that s just the way it is." Fineman also said, "[A]s David Carr said in The New York Times this morning, sometimes you go over the line so far you can t even see the line. And that s what happened in this case."Former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant introduced himself to Imus by stating: "Good morning, Mr. Imus, and solidarity forever, by the way."On the radio show Democracy Now! Rev. Al Sharpton said, "I m calling for Imus to be fired." On the same program, NOW-New Jersey President Maretta Short said NOW was "asking for people to go to our website and take action by sending messages to" WFAN, CBS Radio, and MSNBC, adding: "I think that it s important to say, about these apologies that Imus is supposed to make, there s certain things you can t apologize for."Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march of "about 50 protesters Monday outside NBC offices in Chicago," according to the Associated Press.Media Matters called on members of the media to question MSNBC s apparent double standard -- quickly firing host Michael Savage for anti-gay hate speech in 2003 while failing to punish Imus for years of inflammatory commentary.On Fox News The Live Desk, Marvin Kalb, lecturer in public policy at Harvard University s Kennedy School of Government and a senior fellow at the school s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, noted Imus charity work and said Imus could make "an even larger statement about himself, his own value system, if he simply resigned."Imus appeared on the Rev. Al Sharpton Show with NABJ president Bryan Monroe.Rutgers University President Richard L. McCormick wrote that Imus "shocking comments last week were despicable and deeply hurtful to our students, our coach, and their families. ... We will continue to speak out and to make clear that the university will not tolerate such uncivil, irresponsible, and offensive behavior."NAACP chairman Julian Bond said in a statement, "It is past time [Imus ] employers took him off the air."The Washington Times reported that "Hall of Famer Cal Ripken [ Jr.] canceled an appearance on Don Imus radio and television program scheduled for later this week because of comments the talk show host made about Rutgers women s basketball team."On CNN s The Situation Room, Sharpton said about Imus: "[W]e want him fired."NBC News and CBS Radio both announced they would suspend Imus for two weeks, beginning April 16.Reporting on Imus suspension, the CBS Evening News and ABC s World News described Imus as "outrageous," "provocative," and "inflammatory," but did not note that Imus in the Morning has a history of racial slurs.In response to the announcement of Imus suspension, Media Matters released a statement in which Media Matters spokesman Karl Frisch said: "This appears to be nothing more than an effort by NBC News and CBS Radio to make the controversy go away. They must take responsibility for continuing to air Don Imus after years of similarly bigoted language."Media Matters senior fellow Paul Waldman appeared on MSNBC s Scarborough Country to discuss Imus comments. Tuesday, April 10 NABJ s Monroe goes to New York to meet with executives of CBS and NBC.At a press conference, members of the Rutgers women s basketball team criticized Imus, but said they would meet with him and hear his apology. Later that evening, on Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes said that agreeing to do so had been "one huge mistake," and that the team had "acted like victims."Imus, discussing the two-week suspension on his radio show, said that "there s a lot of stuff that we can do, but at some point, I stop playing." Imus added that he doesn t "deserve to be fired" but that he "should be punished." He ended the segment by saying, "I m not whining, because I don t feel as bad as those kids feel, and I ve said that several times. But, I m not going to play forever."In contrast with the contrition he purported to express the day before, Imus asserted on his own show and on NBC s Today that the phrase "nappy-headed hos" "originated in the black community." Specifically, he stated, during a discussion -- simulcast on MSNBC -- with Today co-host Matt Lauer and Rev. Al Sharpton that "I may be a white man, but I know that ... young black women all through that society are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected ... by their own black men and that they are called that name." Sharpton objected to Imus point regarding the origin of the phrase, saying, "We have said that we are against the degrading that is done even by blacks. ... Wherever he says this originated from does not give him the right to use it." After the discussion concluded, Imus claimed on his program that Sharpton had misrepresented his remarks. Imus asserted that he did not say that he "should be cut slack because these young women are disparaged and demeaned and disrespected by young black men and others in their own community," but he also did not explain the significance of his repeated assertion that "nappy-headed hos" "originated in the black community."USA Today ran two articles on the controversy. The first, on page 1D, summarized the previous days developments. The article also reported several opinions on the controversy s future direction, including that of Media Matters: Critics also are targeting Imus high-profile guests, including presidential candidates and network anchors. "To the extent that Imus pattern of offensive speech is being discussed in the media now, it could put pressure on the authors, pundits, politicians and journalists who go on his show regularly to either publicly distance themselves from his behavior or risk being seen as having legitimized it," says Karl Frisch of Media Matters for America, which first publicized Imus remarks last week. The second USA Today article, on page 3D, reported that Imus "finds himself on a new playing field" in the controversy, because of "watchdogs, aided by the Internet, [who] are shifting the boundaries for radio and television personalities." The article cited Boston University journalism professor Tobe Berkovitz, who was quoted as saying that " Before the Internet and the blogs, if the mainstream media didn t call you accountable, the tree fell in the forest and no one heard it." Media Matters was also quoted in the piece.In a New York Times op-ed, PBS host Gwen Ifill wrote how, in 1993, when she was covering the White House for the Times, Imus reportedly said, "Isn t The Times wonderful ... It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House." Ifill wrote that she didn t find out what Imus had said until a New York Daily News columnist reported it five years later, when she was working for NBC News as a Capitol Hill correspondent. She also wrote: "Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus s program? That s for them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don t know any black journalists who will."Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) issued a statement: "Mr. Imus public apology is not enough. I am calling for the immediate termination of Mr. Imus and his executive producer Bernard McGuirk. Additionally, I urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to mandate sensitivity training and a zero tolerance towards racist, sexist, anti-religious, and other discriminatory commentaries."Staples and Bigelow Tea announced that they would no longer advertise on Imus program.On MSNBC s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann reported that Procter s Imus simulcast. Olbermann also reported that "the media buying agency Carrot USA says some of its clients have asked for their commercials to be pulled from the Imus program, though it would not identify those clients." Bloomberg reported that "Procter s entire daytime rotation last week to prevent spots from rotating onto Imus s show."On April 10, following the Rutgers women s basketball team s press conference, the Feminist Majority Foundation sent an email to its members, asking them to "join feminists everywhere by expressing your outrage to CBS radio and MSNBC television over Imus s comments, and demanding that he be fired." The letter from Feminist Majority president Eleanor Smeal declared: "As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Title IX this year, such behavior against women athletes and their accomplishments cannot be tolerated. As women s sports continue to grow in popularity, and young women enjoy opportunities that the women s movement fought so hard to win, this kind of backlash is threatening to our rights as well as hurtful."* Wednesday, April 11 The New York Times reported that General Motors had "stopped its [Imus] radio ads (though it still broadcasts TV commercials with the simulcast)" before Imus remarks about the Rutgers basketball team. But The Wall Street Journal reported on April 11 that General Motors, "which has historically advertised on both the Imus radio show and MSNBC broadcast, has no plans to make any changes at this point, according to a spokeswoman."Later in the day, another New York Times article reported that "General Motors and American Express said today that they, too, will pull their advertisements from his program."Reuters reported that GlaxoSmithKline and Ditech.com would also pull their advertising. Ditech.com is owned by GMAC, in which General Motors holds a minority stake.Reuters also reported that Sprint Nextel Corp. said on April 11 that it was pulling its ads from the show.Advertising Age reported that PetMed Express had dropped its Imus in the Morning advertising.CBC member Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) said, "I feel the apology and subsequent suspension of Mr. Imus is insufficient in resolving this matter. Mr. Imus has a history of making offensive remarks on the air and I am calling for the immediate termination of Mr. Imus and his executive producer Bernard McGuirk."The AP reported that "Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., said Wednesday he hoped the broadcasting company would ... fir[e] radio talk-show host Don Imus."MSNBC announced its cancellation of Imus in the Morning simulcast. CBS officials stated that CBS Radio "will continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely."In an April 11 posting on Time magazine s Swampland weblog, Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox announced she wouldn t "be going on Imus anymore." In a subsequent posting on April 12, Cox further explained her position, stating that she "did the show almost solely to earn my media-elite merit badge." Cox explained that initially, after having been "invited inside the circle," she "was thrilled to be there," but soon "found" herself "succumbing to the clubhouse mentality that Imus both inspires and cultivates." She added: "I m embarrassed to admit that it took Imus saying something so devastatingly crass to make me realize that there just was no reason beyond ego to play along." Cox concluded: "My giving up the show, I acknowledge, is too little and too late. I doubt that I ll be missed. It s depressingly easy to find female journalists who will tolerate or ignore bigotry if it means getting into the boys club someday." * * This entry was added as part of an update, after the item s original posting.

Reporting on the suspension of MSNBC s Don Imus, the April 9 broadcasts of the CBS Evening News and ABC s World News described Imus as "outrageous," "provocative," and "inflammatory," but did not note that Imus in the Morning has a history of racial slurs. On the CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric asserted that Imus has "made a career out of saying the outrageous" and that he "admits he went too far when he made racially charged remarks about a woman s college basketball team." The report that followed, by CBS correspondent Richard Schlesinger, asserted that Imus has "said outrageous things before, about people like Hillary Clinton, who was referred to as an old bag. " Similarly, a report on World News by correspondent Dan Harris quoted University of Southern California professor Todd Boyd asserting that Imus "has a history of provocative, inflammatory comment." However, as Media Matters for America has documented, Imus remarks are part of a history of not just "outrageous," but racially offensive comments. For instance, Imus told the Mexican-American governor of New Mexico, "besa mi culo," or "kiss my ass," and executive producer Bernard McGuirk suggested that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) would pander to African-Americans by wearing "cornrows and gold teeth." Additionally, as noted in an article in the July 12, 2000, edition of The Village Voice, Imus has referred to former Defense Secretary William Cohen as "the Mandingo," and his African-American wife "a ho." As The Boston Globe noted in a March 27, 2004, article, " Mandingo is also the title of a 1975 movie in which a black male slave is paired intimately with a white female slave master." That article reported that frequent Imus guest Mike Barnicle had apologized for similarly using the term on his own radio show to refer to Cohen s wife, Janet Langhart. The Village Voice article described other racially charged insults that Imus has made about specific individuals: The muckraker Philip Nobile has been tracking Imus s racist rap in a series for the webzine tompaine.com. When you take this patter out of laff-riot context, it s strikingly similar to the drollery of David Duke. Imus and his buds have called O.J. s lead attorney "chicken wing Johnny Cochran," Sammy Davis Jr. "a one-eyed lawn jockey," Patrick Ewing "Mighty Joe Young," Defense Secretary William Cohen "the Mandingo," and his black wife "a ho." In an appearance on the April 9 edition of CNN s The Situation Room, Cohen noted that "at one point when we married -- they played Jungle Fever " on Imus in the Morning and that Langhart "was referred to as brown sugar " on the program. A May 26, 2000, article in The Washington Post reported that "sometime around 1995, when the New York Times hired black journalist Gwen Ifill to cover the White House, Imus reportedly said: Isn t the Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House. " The article stated that Imus "doesn t deny the Ifill comment, but says he can t find a record of it," and added, "Whether he said it or not, Imus apologized to Ifill on the air after he was criticized." On the April 10 edition of Imus in the Morning, Imus asserted, "I never said anything about Gwen Ifill. This was a comedy routine where we make up the news which we ve been doing since 1968 on the radio." Later in the program, Imus said "it was intended to reflect the absurd philosophy we perceived of, I guess it was the Reagan administration -- not that we thought the Reagan administration was a bunch of racists, that s not the point." On the April 9 edition of the program, Imus said that "I did not say that, and obviously there are ways to check that. I didn t say that." By contrast, the report on the April 9 broadcast of NBC s Nightly News noted that Imus in the Morning "has come under fire before" and that in 2000, Imus pledged to Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page that he would "stop using racially insensitive language." That report also quoted Page asserting that Imus "keeps saying racist things." From the April 9 edition of ABC s World News with Charles Gibson: HARRIS: Imus interviews leading politicians and journalists. He did so before the comment and has done so since. [Rev.] Al Sharpton says Imus is mainstreaming racism and should be fired. [begin video clip] HARRIS: For you, this is not so much about Don Imus, this is about everybody else and what can be said in public? SHARPTON: That is exactly right. This has nothing to do with Don Imus. It has everything to do with federally regulated airwaves, radio and television, and what advertisers will subsidize and pay for. BOYD: I don t think he s gonna lose his job. No. He s too profitable to too many people for a comment like this to derail him, particularly when you have someone who has a history of provocative, inflammatory comment. [end video clip] HARRIS: He may not lose his job, but tonight, there is this: NBC is now saying it will suspend its simulcast of the Imus in the Morning show for two weeks. They simulcast it on MSNBC. CBS, which syndicates the show, has criticized his comments, but Charlie, as of yet, there is no talk of canceling the show. GIBSON: ABC s Dan Harris, reporting tonight. From the April 9 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric: COURIC: Hello, everyone. The limits of what you can say and what you should say on radio and television are once again the subject of a national debate tonight, a debate involving race and taste. Don Imus, who s made a career out of saying the outrageous, admits he went too far when he made racially charged remarks about a woman s college basketball team. Imus works for CBS. His national radio program is simulcast on cable by MSNBC. Amid calls for his firing, Imus went on the Reverend Al Sharpton s radio show today to apologize and explain himself. We have two reports tonight, beginning with Richard Schlesinger. And a word of caution -- you may find some of the language offensive. SCHLESINGER: Don Imus has always had the reputation as the thinking man s shock jock, a smart aleck who s actually smart. IMUS [video clip]: Please stop it. Stop talking. Go home. SCHLESINGER: But this time, the edgy talk-show host might have gone over the edge with his remarks about members of the Rutgers women s basketball team, who made it to the NCAA finals. [begin audio clip] IMUS: That s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and -- McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos. IMUS: That s some nappy-headed hos there. I m gonna tell you that now -- [end audio clip] SCHLESINGER: That exchange could end Don Imus career. He has spent days apologizing for it. [...] SCHLESINGER: This is a show that has said outrageous things before, about people like Hillary Clinton, who was referred to as "an old bag." But Imus said repeatedly the Rutgers players did not deserve his ridicule. From the April 9 edition of NBC s Nightly News with Brian Williams: ELLIS: Imus has been praised for his work with several charitable organizations, including his ranch for kids with cancer. But his show has come under fire before. That led to Imus publicly pledging to columnist Clarence Page in 2000 to stop using racially insensitive language. PAGE: What do you say to somebody who you don t think is a racist and yet keeps saying racist things? That s what we re seeing with Don Imus right now. ELLIS: But he s not just a shock jock. Over the years, Don Imus program has become a major stop for politicians and journalists, leading some to wonder if that will change. BOB STEELE (Poynter Institute): For a journalist to be part of that shtick is irresponsible and unethical.

While acknowledging that it was not "OK" for him to refer to the Rutgers University women s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos," Don Imus asserted on the April 10 edition of his show, MSNBC s Imus in the Morning, and on NBC s Today show that the phrase "originated in the black community." Specifically, he stated: "I may be a white man, but I know that ... young black women all through that society are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected ... by their own black men and that they are called that name." Those comments -- and his assertion, during the same show, that "there s a lot of stuff that we can do, but at some point, I stop playing" -- stand in contrast with the contrition he purported to express the day before. On the April 9 edition of the show, Imus acknowledged that his comments were especially objectionable because he mocked a specific group of young women who he said didn t "deserve it." Imus has a long history of ad hominem slurs that target race, ethnicity, and sex. On the April 9 edition of his program, Imus said that he "learned" from this incident that "you can t make fun of everybody because some people don t deserve it." Nonetheless, Imus brought up the purported origin of the term "hos" on the April 10 edition of Imus and during an April 10 discussion -- simulcast on MSNBC -- with Today co-host Matt Lauer and Rev. Al Sharpton. On Today, Sharpton objected to Imus point regarding the origin of the phrase, saying, "We have said that we are against the degrading that is done even by blacks. ... Wherever he says this originated from does not give him the right to use it." After the discussion concluded, Imus claimed on his program that Sharpton had misrepresented his remarks. Imus asserted that he did not say that he "should be cut slack because these young women are disparaged and demeaned and disrespected by young black men and others in their own community," but he also did not explain the significance of his repeated assertion that "nappy-headed hos" "originated in the black community." On April 10, the Associated Press noted Imus remarks on Today and reported that he had "tried to shift some of the focus from himself." As Media Matters for America noted, on April 9, NBC News and CBS Radio both announced they will suspend Imus for two weeks, beginning April 16. From the April 9 edition of MSNBC s Imus in the Morning: IMUS: Does that mean that it s OK for me to say what I said about these Rutgers women? I hope you don t think that because I don t think that. So, I m going to go talk to these women, if they ll let me, and tell them what I ve just told you. And what have I learned from this? Because Reverend DeForest Soaries [senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens] said, "I want you to tell me what you ve learned." Here s what I ve learned: That you can t make fun of everybody because some people don t deserve it and because the climate on this program has been what it s been for 30 years doesn t mean that it has to be that way for the next five years or whatever. Because that has to change so -- and I understand that. From the April 10 edition of Imus in the Morning: IMUS: But I have some good ideas, and they may work and they may not. I think they will work, so -- except -- by the way, though, I was just talking about [WFAN operations director Mark] Chernoff, who I ve talked about for years, so -- CHARLES McCORD: Oh, I -- well aware. IMUS: Because this phrase that I used didn t originate -- it originated in the black community. That didn t give me a right to use it, but that s where it originated. McCORD: Absolutely: IMUS: Well, who calls who that and why? Now, we need to know that. I need to know that. The white people, all of them kind of -- there are many African-Americans by the way who listen to the program, many. From the April 10 edition of NBC s Today: SHARPTON: I will certainly call on them this morning -- presidential candidates as well as politicians. They should not go on his show, but I hope that we will not have a show for them to go back on. LAUER: Let me bring Don Imus back in on this. Don, first of all, you said you re going to meet -- you would like to meet with the Rutgers University players. What exactly would you say to them? IMUS: Well, we made extraordinary efforts both over the air and officially through members of the religious community in New Jersey and the academic community at Rutgers and through -- privately -- through people who know people who are trying to see if these young women will allow me to come out and apologize to them. And I am going to apologize to them and ask them for their forgiveness. I don t expect that, and I don t think they have any obligation to either forgive me or to accept my apology, but I have a responsibility to -- and I think it s important. And everybody can say that context is not important, but in every aspect of our lives, it is. And I want these young women to know that I didn t say this out of anger, and that I didn t say this out of meanness, and I didn t -- I didn t turn my microphone on and say, "This is what I think of the young women of Rutgers," and believe me, I know that that phrase didn t originate in the white community. That phrase originated in the black community, and I -- I m not stupid. I may be a white man, but I know that these young women and young black women all through that society are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected by the -- by their own black men and that they are called that name, and I know that the -- and that doesn t give me, obviously, any right to say it, but it doesn t give them any right to say it. LAUER: Don -- we made a -- SHARPTON: Well, I -- LAUER: -- well, let me just say, we kind of agreed here that we wouldn t make this a debate back and forth, Don, but would you mind if I allowed Reverend Sharpton to comment on that because he s sitting -- IMUS: I talked to Reverend Sharpton yesterday for two hours, Matt, and I told [NBC News senior Vice President] Phil Griffin [who oversees Today] and everybody else, that I didn t intend to -- [...] IMUS: I told Phil, I told everybody else that I had no intention of debating him on his program, if he didn t have the same kind of courage that I had. Now, I walked into that studio by myself. [...] SHARPTON: Two things: One is that is not about courage to appear on his show. I could not tell people to don t watch him, don t listen to him, don t appear, and then go myself. I m not in the business of creating an audience for him. And I said if he wanted to meet in public, he could come to my show. He opted to do that. But the second point: We have said that we are against the degrading that is done even by blacks. I have led protests on shows on that and will continue to do that, but that does not excuse him. Wherever he says this originated from does not give him the right to use it. We should fight all that use it. From the April 10 edition of Imus in the Morning: LAUER: I know we re simulcast on MSNBC, so thanks for your airtime as well. IMUS: You re welcome. LAUER: All right, and -- [end video clip] IMUS: Twenty minutes after the hour here on the Imus in the Morning program on the radio around the country and on MSNBC, so -- well, I didn t say that. I mean, you know -- see, that s the problem. That s not what I said -- that I should be cut slack because these young women are disparaged and demeaned and disrespected by young black men and others in their own community. That s not what I said. So -- and what did Matt do? Let him get by with it, which is what I told Phil Griffin, and these other people. I said, you know, "Don t, Matt" -- I said, "Well, the reason I m not going to go on there and debate Al Sharpton and Matt Lauer is because Matt is by -- for whatever reason, is going to be on Reverend Sharpton s side, just whether he is or not."

On the April 9 edition of ABC s World News with Charles Gibson, correspondent Dan Harris, reporting on Don Imus April 4 comments on MSNBC s Imus in the Morning referring to the Rutgers University women s basketball team as "nappy-headed hos," noted that "Imus interview[ed] politicians and journalists" both before and since his comments but did not mention that World News anchor Charles Gibson has appeared on Imus radio program himself. Rather, footage of NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, host of NBC s Meet the Press, and a graphic from Imus in the Morning that pictured Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant and Newsweek s Evan Thomas and Howard Fineman appeared on-screen while Harris reported on the prominence of Imus guests. While Russert did, in fact, appear on the April 6, March 16, and March 7 editions of Imus in the Morning, Gibson was also a guest on the program s March 27 and February 15 editions. From the April 9 edition of ABC s World News with Charles Gibson: HARRIS: Imus interviews leading politicians and journalists. He did so before the comment and has done so since. Al Sharpton says Imus is mainstreaming racism and should be fired. [begin video clip] HARRIS: For you, this is not so much about Don Imus, this is about everybody else and what can be said in public? REV. AL SHARPTON: That is exactly right. This has nothing to do with Don Imus. It has everything to do with federally regulated airwaves, radio and television, and what advertisers will subsidize and pay for. TODD BOYD (University of Southern California professor)): I don t think he s gonna lose his job. No. He s too profitable to too many people for a comment like this to derail him, particularly when you have someone who has a history of provocative, inflammatory comment. [end video clip] HARRIS: He may not lose his job, but tonight, there is this: NBC is now saying it will suspend its simulcast of the Imus in the Morning show for two weeks. They simulcast it on MSNBC. CBS, which syndicates the show, has criticized his comments, but Charlie, as of yet, there is no talk of canceling the show. GIBSON: ABC s Dan Harris, reporting tonight.

On the April 10 edition of MSNBC s Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus, discussing the decision by MSNBC and CBS Radio to suspend the broadcast of his program for two weeks beginning April 16 in light of the controversy surrounding comments he made about the Rutgers University women s basketball team, said that "there s a lot of stuff that we can do, but at some point, I stop playing." Imus added that he doesn t "deserve to be fired" but that he "should be punished." He ended the segment by saying, "I m not whining, because I don t feel as bad as those kids feel, and I ve said that several times. But, I m not going to play forever." Media Matters for America noted Imus April 4 comments -- in which he called the Rutgers women s basketball team "nappy-headed hos" -- at the time, as well as his subsequent apology two days later. However, as Media Matters noted at the time of Imus apology, his remarks about the Rutgers team are just the latest in a long history of racial slurs -- not merely generic remarks, but smears of particular individuals -- by him, his guests, and regular contributors on the show. From the April 10 edition of MSNBC s Imus in the Morning: IMUS: And I m going to go talk with the women at Rutgers if I can. And then I m going to serve my suspension, and then I will come back and we will make this a better program, and we will make me a better person so that while I say I m a good person, I did say that -- and it s irrelevant whether or not I was trying to be funny. I mean, where did I think that was all right to make fun of --? So, and there s a lot of stuff that we can do, but at some point, I stop playing. So I don t deserve to be fired. And I am not going to be fired without consequences. So, I should be punished and I m being punished and not insignificantly, by the way. I m not whining, because I don t feel as bad as those kids feel, and I ve said that several times. But, I m not going to play forever.