Don Imus

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Don Imus

• By Dan Emont

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Brief Bio

• Born on July 23, 1940 in California
• In 1969 he began working for a small radio
  station in Stockton, California called KJOY
• He caught the attention of WNBC in 1971 and moved
  to New York City to work for the radio station
• He was very popular and successful due to his
  crude humor
• Even though he boosted ratings, Imus was fired in
  1977 for missing over 100 days of work during the
  past year.
• He had been abusing alcohol and cocaine as well
  as committed a number of unprofessional acts

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More Bio

• Imus was reinstated to WNBC in 1979 after his
  behavior had improved
• He hosted his own show Imus in the Morning until
  April 4th, 2007 when he made his notorious
  comments.
• We will now watch these comments on YouTube.

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The Comments

• http//youtube.com/watch?vaaGnu0l8shsmoderelate
  dsearch
• http//youtube.com/watch?vjknRJnuTCn8

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Firing

• CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie
  Moonves stated
• "From the outset, I believe all of us have been
  deeply upset and repulsed 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. There has been much discussion
  of the effect language like this has on our young
  people, particularly young women of color trying
  to make their way in this society. That
  consideration has weighed most heavily on our
  minds as we made our decision."
• -It so happened that Imus was fired the same day
  that a number of important advertisers dropped
  their ads from the network

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Already Guilty

• Imus had already said a number of inappropriate
  remarks in the past
• Imus and his cohorts referred to African-American
  sports columnist Bill Rhoden as a "New York Times
  quota hire"
• In 1993, Imus referred to PBS anchor Gwen Ifill
  as a "cleaning lady."
• Imus has also repeatedly referred to Arabs as
  "ragheads."
• On his December 15, 2004, show, Imus referred to
  publishers Simon Schuster as "thieving Jews",
  and later in the show issued a mock apology,
  saying the phrase was "redundant". In October
  1998 he described media critic Howard Kurtz as
  "that boner-nosed . . . beanie-wearing little
  Jew boy".
• Imus' routines were full of homophobic epithets,
  including "faggot", "lesbo", and various terms
  for gay sex.
• Imus has also made fun of Irish, Roman Catholics,
  Italians, and other assorted peoples

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Now that Imus has left broadcasting, how will he
be remembered in the future?