Imus Flap a Matter of Black, White and Green

USA Today

Could his offensive remarks bring down a multimillion-dollar media business?

By David Lieberman, Laura Petrecca and Gary Strauss

In her Hall of Fame career and 36 years on the sidelines, nothing could have prepared Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer for the scene she faced Tuesday.

After days of silence, one of the nation’s most prominent college basketball coaches, male or female, delivered an emotional defense of her players in response to a racist comment that radio talk show host Don Imus had made about them. Imus had called Stringer’s players “nappy-headed hos” after watching Rutgers lose to Tennessee last week in the NCAA championship game.

CBS, which syndicates Imus’ morning show to 70 radio stations, responded to nationwide criticism of Imus by suspending him for two weeks beginning Monday. That also will take him off MSNBC, which televises the radio broadcast.

So amid all the uproar over Imus’ remarks and the national discussion over race relations that they ignited, why wasn’t he fired?

Stringer and others think that has less to do with relations between blacks and whites than it does with another color.

“The color is green — if we can tolerate as a society what’s just taken place,” she said. “I don’t know how anyone could have heard this and not been offended.”

As one of the country’s most popular radio talk show hosts, Imus is the centerpiece of a multimillion-dollar business that would collapse without him.

To get a sense of its size: Advertisers spent $11.3 million last year on his show at just one station, New York’s WFAN, according to Nielsen. That accounted for nearly 24% of all the station’s ad sales.

Sponsors paid MSNBC an additional $8.4 million last year for spots on Imus’ show, according to TNS Media Intelligence. An average of 358,000 viewers tuned in to watch the show in the first quarter.

Adding to Imus’ special status is his popularity among the political and media elite. Elected officials such as Republican Sen. John McCain and journalists such as NBC’s Tim Russert regularly visit the quick-witted, cowboy-hat-wearing former DJ.

They enjoy jousting with the former Marine who successfully battled alcohol and cocaine addiction and runs a cattle ranch in New Mexico for kids with cancer.

“He’s a bigger player by association,” says Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which is about to conduct a poll to determine what the public thinks about the controversy. “It raises the profile of his mistakes.”

It’s hard to overestimate Imus’ significance to radio.

A member of the industry Hall of Fame, he’s also one of the most popular draws in the 6-to-9 a.m. ET period when people drive to work — one of the most popular times of the day for radio.

Radio stations need all the help they can get at a time when many listeners are switching to iPods and alternatives, including satellite radio.

Advertisers spent $21.7 billion on conventional radio last year, up just 1% compared with 2005, even though 2006 had the added benefit of political campaign ads.

Many stations also appreciate Imus’ loyalty to the medium. He didn’t jump to satellite radio, the way Howard Stern did. Trade magazine Talkers deemed Imus one of the medium’s all-time greats.

Sponsors pulling out

Now, however, there are signs of chinks in the industry that surrounds Imus — signs that at least some of the sponsors who have helped make Imus a media icon believe that it’s no longer worth being associated with him in the public mind.

Procter & Gamble pulled its advertising from MSNBC’s daytime rotation last week in response to Imus’ remark. Staples has pulled ads on MSNBC’s presentation of his show, at least for now.

And Bigelow Tea co-President Cindi Bigelow says, “This unfortunate incident has put our future sponsorship (of Imus’ show) in jeopardy.”

That might be just the beginning.

“If this continues to steamroll, I’d be hard-pressed to think of any client that would want to be near” Imus’ image on radio or TV, says Rich Russo, an ad buyer at JL Media.

“There’s nothing positive that could come from this. The first day he’s back on the air, he’ll have a ton of listeners and viewers, and people will write down the sponsor names. People will say, ‘How can you support this guy?’”

Imus also could have hurt his charity, the Imus Ranch in New Mexico. The Imus Ranch says it “provides the experience of the real American cowboy to children suffering from certain diseases or who have lost a sibling to such a disease.”

Products such as coffee, salsa and salad dressing are all sold under the Imus Ranch name, with all proceeds going to the charity. The ranch also has several corporate sponsors.

“Even the staunchest loyalist would actually have a problem reaching for that product right now,” Anne Bologna, president of ad agency Toy in New York.

‘Young ladies of class’

The Rutgers team’s news conference Tuesday didn’t help Imus’ cause by showing the victims of his remark — not the prominent politicians Imus usually skewers, but a group of young women whose only venture into the public arena was through playing college basketball.

“Let me put a human face to all of this,” Stringer said.

“I want you to see 10 young women who accomplished so much. They are young ladies of class and distinction. They are articulate. They are gifted. They are brilliant. They are God’s representatives in every sense of the word.”

Sophomore center Kia Vaughn, explaining why the team agreed with Imus’ request to a meeting, said that she would like Imus “to get to know us and see why (his joke) is so false. I’m someone’s child. It hurt a lot.”

Noting Rutgers’ rise to the national championship game, team captain Essence Carson summed up the impact of Imus’ comments this way:

“Mr. Imus has stolen a moment of pure grace from us.”

Stringer’s pastor, the Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries from First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. — who also often sees the team’s players at his services — said Imus “should be terminated permanently.”

‘Problems in the past’

There’s no indication that will happen — at least not yet.

NBC says Imus has vowed to clean up his behavior and that his future with the network depends on “his ability to live up to his word.” CBS did not returns calls requesting comment Tuesday.

Imus has acknowledged that his comment was “racist and abhorrent” and says he asked to meet privately with the Rutgers players and their parents to apologize.

Imus, 66, launched his career in 1968 in Sacramento but hit the big time after landing in New York in 1971. Listeners liked his blend of crudeness and satire and characters including The Right Rev. Dr. Billy Sol Hargis.

He began to focus more on politics after 1988, when he wrestled with his addictions. His show was nationally syndicated in 1993.

Critics say Imus’ status and earning power are irrelevant. He repeatedly has landed in hot water for cracking jokes at the expense of minorities, women and gays.

“He’s had problems in the past and has made apologies and commitments to stop,” says National Urban League President Marc Morial. “It’s disheartening to find he’s again said something racially insensitive. In my view, he should be off the air permanently.”

Money should play no role in the decision-making process, Morial and others say.

“I’m sure Imus generates a lot of revenue,” says Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. “But at some point, the major networks need to ask … how important are ratings vs. the goodwill and respect of these young women. … He’s got to go.”

He’ll return for sweeps

Activist group Media Matters for America agrees.

“A two-week suspension does not address the role they (CBS and MSNBC) have played in enabling his hate speech,” says spokesman Karl Frisch. “Equally concerning is that his return (to the airwaves) happens at the beginning of May sweeps. (MSNBC) could profit financially from this terrible incident.”

Sweeps is typically the period when each local station’s ratings are measured. Those measurements form the basis for advertising rates.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton has complained to the Federal Communications Commission about the Imus incident. The FCC declined to comment.

‘I’m not going to drop him’

Some people in the radio and television industry say Imus deserves another chance.

“I’m not going to drop him,” says Greater Media CEO Peter Smyth, who airs Imus on WTKK in Boston. “What he said is indefensible. But he apologized. If it happens again, then it’s plain and simple. It’s over.”

Some analysts wondered why Imus has drawn so much fire at a time when many stations broadcast rock and hip-hop songs that include racially and sexually charged lyrics.

“There have been more awful things said on the radio. For some reason, this just went to the top of the list,” says Erica Farber, publisher of trade magazine Radio & Records. “If we’re going to be in an environment where something like this is said, and you lose your career, it opens up a whole other dialogue,” Farber said. “Let’s talk about music lyrics.”

Indeed, some industry watchers say Imus could benefit from the episode if he manages to avoid the ax.

“All Imus has done is to be true to his image,” says Michael Harris of the trade magazine Talkers.

“This is his form of satire, comedy and radio entertainment. Having a white, 66-year-old male on a major radio station throwing out terminology struck the wrong chord in the African-American community over something they’ve been sensitive about for years,” Harris says.

“Ultimately, this will be good for him. This is America. We worship celebrity, whether it’s negative or positive.”

Contributing: Kelly Whiteside and Theresa Howard

April 11, 2007 | Filed Under Media Matters, News Mentions 

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