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Friday, April 13. 2007

A Mess With Imus

Damn Microsoft

This really should be a screed about Microsoft, the company that makes the word processing program I’m typing away with at this very moment. Last week sometime all my Microsoft programs started giving me a user error and wouldn’t open; the same user error for Word, Excel, Power Point and Entourage. I called MS tech support. They were nice, I got right through, wasn’t on hold through the weekend — but they couldn’t correct the problem, nor could they tell me what the problem was or how the glitch occurred.

What the techie told me was to create an alias on my computer (a Macintosh G4) and use the programs in that alias and transfer all my files — over 30 gigs worth — from my primary user to this now second user. How do I go about doing that? Burn it all to CD’s and … it just gets ridiculous!

All my other software from other companies work just fine, it’s just the Microsoft programs that don’t work. So, instead of a lengthy harangue on Bill Gates and his company, maybe just a hearty “FUCK YOU” will do.

Yet here I am, in that secondary user, using MS Word to type out my blog of indecency. So, it’s a hollow “FUCK YOU” and maybe instead of capital letters, it should all be in small, and maybe even a “screw you” instead of the more vulgar “F” word I would like to use if I actually had the courage (and money) to ditch the MS software for one of Microsoft’s competitors.

Don Imus

Taking a stand on something is real easy when there’s nothing personally on the line. Take for instance the BIG news of the day: Don Imus has been fired. Fired from MSNBC and then his radio broadcasting company, CBS radio. Like me, Imus is out of work. Actually, I’m not out of work but I’m not getting paid for anything right now, so it’s essentially similar. Well, no, not really. He has millions of dollars to fall back on. I have … Eight dollars and 42 cents.

Here’s where the personal part of the Imus story comes in. There are a lot of people blaming the Reverands Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for the problem. Yes, it’s all their fault. Why? Well, they goaded Imus into making the remarks that got him fired, “… nappy-headed hos.” No, not really. The reason it’s Jackson and Sharpton’s fault is because they held Imus accountable for his words, publicly. If they hadn’t called Imus on his racist and sexist remarks then he would have got away with it, the incident wouldn’t have got so much publicity and we would have gone on as if nothing had ever happened and racism would still be as acceptable as it was the day before Imus uttered those words on radio and television.

There’s no question Don Imus is the one responsible for his latest woes; it was his radio/television program and his words at the center of this controversy — his producer also called the Rutgers basketball team “jigaboos,” but since his name (Bernard McQuirk) isn’t well known, that isn’t mentioned — yet Jackson and Sharpton are under fire for stirring up racism, as some call it, because they are on the news speaking out about the incident. Imus, by the way, told 60 Minutes in 1998 that McQuirk was hired to tell “nigger” jokes. Imus complained when he was asked about that on-air because he had confided that secret off the record.

Still, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton seem to be getting more abuse from the public than Imus; yes, Imus is getting castigated by on-air personalities, but the public, in a variety of Internet forums, are pasting Sharpton and Jackson for “stirring up” racism. What does it say about our society that the two highest profile individuals objecting to the racist and sexist remarks are getting the blame for the racism and sexism?

It almost makes me want to ask CBS and MSNBC to bring Imus back! If the public blames those who object to racism for the racism, what’s the difference? But, as one of the Rutgers players said, when she did a check on Imus’s program, she found that the radio show had a long history of racist and sexist remarks and this was the time for her to take a stand.

She isn’t the only person — her fellow teammates not the only group of individuals — to object to Imus and his remarks, many Americans have objected, many who do not get on to Internet forums and message boards, voiced their disgust at Imus and yes, many of those people didn’t listen to Imus, precisely because his “humor” was so low-brow, so disgusting, listening (or watching) wasn’t a pleasure — it was an insult.

The rubber met the road though, not so much with public opinion, but with money, the final arbiter in all things considered entertainment in this country; money, the real god of America: companies were pulling their advertising dollars from CBS and NBC and that was the linchpin that brought down the Imus legacy. CBS and NBC can use the public outcry to paint themselves as righteous organizations, and they’re doing it very well, but Imus has been doing his show this way since 1982. If they really were tuned into public opinion, Imus would have been fired long ago, at least when he admitted to 60 Minutes in 1998 the primary role of Bernard McQuirk.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

The broader question now is, what effect does this have on all the other news, or things that should be news. On the day that Imus made his career-ending error, the vice president once again reiterated on the Rush Limbaugh program that Saddam Hussein’s government was in cahoots with al Qa’ida for the September 11, 2001 attacks — on the very day the Department of Defense issued a report that Hussein and al Qa’ida never had any connection to one another.

Overtaken by the Imus news is this information from the White House: Thousands, maybe millions, of e-mails that might pertain to the firing of eight federal prosecutors were “lost” or destroyed. As many people have quipped, including Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, that stinks of the 18 missing minutes from the Richard Nixon White House tapes. The good Senator, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has subpoenaed those e-mails.

Alberto Gonzales isn’t completely incompetent — heck he may not even be incompetent at all, he may be criminally devious — the Attorney General cancelled his vacation plans to spend the weeks leading up to his April 17 appearance before Leahy’s committee to “practice” his testimony.

Kyra Phillips

His liaison between the Justice Department and the White House, Monica Goodling first, through her attorney, set a precedent when she invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than testify before any congressional committees, and then she resigned.

Much has occurred in the previous two weeks since my last blog; the president even trotted out this tortured explanation as to why we needed to send more troops to Iraq — and extend the tours of the troops already there — to protect them from harm. For their safety we have to have more troops in Iraq for longer tours.

Is anyone really surprised Iraqi insurgents so successfully infiltrated the “Green Zone” in Baghdad they were able to detonate a bomb in the cafeteria next to the hall where the Iraqi parliament convened? Kyra Phillips, news anchor for CNN looked visibly shaken when she gave her report from Baghdad right after the bombing. She had been right there when it happened, in the supposedly “safe” area of Baghdad.

The Skarlet Knights of Rutgers

But even that news is pushed aside for Don Imus, the radio jock’s story still dominating the news coverage. People are once again talking about a long-lasting effect with this story, how it will resonate for years and will finally bring up a dialogue about race in America. I doubt it. That was going to happen with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It didn’t. In a month Don Imus will be forgotten. At best, it continues this low-level mumbling about race in America, and the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage (and Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, et al.) will continue on, spewing their hate with the blessings of broadcasters and advertisers as long as people continue to listen to them without complaint.

Shannon Bobbitt of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers

And there will always be that cadre of people — white people primarily — who will blame Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton whenever an act or words of racism are exposed for what they are: remnants of an all-too-ingrained American legacy of bigotry and intolerance.

The saddest part of this national debacle? The improbable season of the Rutgers team making it to the NCAA Final Four — and then the championship game, losing to the powerhouse Tennessee Volunteers. Instead of congratulating the Lady Volunteers for their win, we’re talking about a twisted old man who slandered the women of a very good basketball team.

Posted by Tim Forkes in Media Madness at 12:51 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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