Comments on: The Key to the Imus Situation

by: Dr. Steven Taylor

Mon, 16 Apr 2024 02:00:15 +0000

In re: Ifill and Imus, I noted this the other day:

Ifill also recounts her own encounter with Imus and his “humor.” Some years ago she apparently did not return Imus’ calls when she was covering the Clinton White House for the NYT and so Imus decided to attack. His comment about Ifill:

“Isn’t The Times wonderful,” Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the radio. “It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.”

by: B. Minich

Mon, 16 Apr 2024 01:44:45 +0000

Oh, didn’t Imus insult Ifill at some point? Seems like she’s vindicated, and understandably a bit upset that this didn’t happen much sooner.

by: B. Minich, PI

Sun, 15 Apr 2024 23:19:41 +0000

Yeah, I meant ignored the awful stuff Imus said in a way that they usually don’t. For example, most media outlets really don’t care for Howard Stern that much. You can tell this when they cover him - they basically remind everyone he’s a shock jock. Imus, on the other hand, never got that treatment.

Although in both cases, no one seems to get mad about what these guys say, at least until they cross a line that we arbitrarily draw as a culture. (Heck, we’re not consistent in where we draw it either.)

by: Dr. Steven Taylor

Sun, 15 Apr 2024 21:38:59 +0000

I agree with you basic assessment, perhaps I misunderstood either your response to B or his comment.

by: Ratoe

Sun, 15 Apr 2024 21:32:52 +0000

ok, sorry. I took your post to mean that ONLY Washington and media elites habitually paid attention to him.

It was only when more “mass” outlets–i.e. sports talk–started to deal with him that Imus became an “issue.”

It seems the distinction is in ignoring him vs. ignoring his statements. The elite obsessed over him to the extent that they ignored his statements.

by: Dr. Steven Taylor

Sun, 15 Apr 2024 21:22:03 +0000

I think he means (and I meant as well) that the elite media were in the habit of ignoring his more outlandish comments. They either ignored them or pretended not to hear them.

by: Ratoe

Sun, 15 Apr 2024 21:14:39 +0000

As you said, the elite media was in the habit of ignoring him…

Actually this is exact opposite of what Steven is saying.

by: B. Minich, PI

Sun, 15 Apr 2024 20:28:55 +0000

I wonder if the sports media coverage was why Imus ended up going down. As you said, the elite media was in the habit of ignoring him, but the sports media isn’t. They could care less about Imus - he means nothing to them, so they talked about it. Thus, as ESPN was talking about it, making a big enough stink that ABC/NBC/etc felt stupid for ommitting it, the storm grew.

I’m pretty sure I first saw this on ESPN.com.