What a surprise!
You CAN go too far in this country…
I was in a bad mood in last week's wrap up as I saw the WSJ moving into the Criminal Narrators Boosting Crude camp and I said then that, to find the motivation behind this nonsense we need to "just follow the money." This week THE MONEY gave us a real demonstration of it's power by removing a major US political broadcaster for saying the wrong thing.
I'm no Imus fan and I don't think what he said was in the least bit defensible but, for MSNBC (same umbrella as CNBC) to dump him the second a few sponsors pull their cash, only accomplishes putting a great big "Ethics for Sale" sign on the network. Had they suspended or fired him immediately, that would be different but this was purely a dollar driven decision. The man put out the pictured album years ago and, for goodness sake, he wears a cowboy hat in the studio, not exactly the outfit of choice at the Million Man March, and this was certainly not his first time making a racist comment.
Even his OFFICIAL MSNBC biography contains the the statement: "He has been a guest of Charlie Rose, David Letterman, and of particular note, Larry King, in shameless, mutual ass-kissing marathons." So suddenly we're shocked about words???
What Imus actually said, in context, is printed in this article. That happened on April 4th in the morning. The comment, which was cruel and demeaning to the Rutgers Women's Basketball team was picked up by they local papers and, the next morning (4/5) WNBC (same umbrella) said:
- 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."
The same day, MSNBC said:
- 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, the 6th, Imus apologized saying:
- 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."
That was good enough for a couple of his frequent guests, who said:
- John McCain: "He has apologized, he said that he's deeply sorry. I'm a great believer in redemption. Whether he needs to do more in order to satisfy the concerns of people like the members of that team, that's something that's between him and them. I've certainly made many mistakes in my life, and I've apologized, and most people have accepted that apology." Way to be in touch with popular consensus Mr. President!
- Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: "He's continued to have me on his show when I said stupid things. What Imus said was wrong, but he seems genuinely sorry. He's certainly not the first celebrity to put his foot in his mouth — and he won't be the last."
Imus's stations said they would monitor his content and various groups called for his dismissal. Al Sharpton had a rally on Saturday and on Sunday Bob Raissman of the Daily News nailed it with this statement:
- "The decision will have absolutely nothing to do with the moral compass of Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of the CBS Corporation. Imus' fate will be based on one, and only one, issue – money. Imus has already apologized profusely. Insiders say he realizes how depraved his comments were and is sincerely remorseful. Perhaps this is so. To the corporation, the state of Imus' mind is meaningless. So is his reaction. The suits are sweating out how others will react. Imus – more than most – knows how the media business, and how the people who run it, operate. He knows his business is populated by executives, Imus often refers to them as "phonies" or "weasels," who are loyal to only one thing – the bottom line. They will dump Imus in a second if this episode leads to companies – en masse – deciding to stop advertising on the "Imus in the Morning" show."
Well, yadda yadda yadda, he was "suspended" for 2 weeks, but when sponsors – led by AXP, Bigelow Tea, SPLS, PG and GM, started dropping him on Tuesday and on Thursday he was fired. You can read more and we can get into the politics of the thing but the overreaching reality is that THE SPONSORS control the content of even the most powerful networked shows. If a diversley sponsored and well-connected show like Imus can get tossed by the actions of a few corporations – what chance do you ever have of getting real news from a channel like CNBC (same umbrella) whose sponsors are overwhelmingly brokers and energy companies?
And we're not even discussing the myriad of things that are wrong with all media slowly but surely getting sucked into a very narrow, very oligopolistic group that vertically controls print, radio and television and, of course, is doing what it can to get a hold of the web as well.
Marshall McLuhan had a few things to say about this:
- Affluence creates poverty.
- All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.
- Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.
- Madison Avenue is a very powerful aggression against private consciousness. A demand that you yield your private consciousness to public manipulation.
- The modern Little Red Riding Hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objection to being eaten by the wolf.
Just something to think about when you are listening to information presented to you by less powerful media titans (like the weather girl/energy reporter on CNBC) or pretty much any sponsored web site (even this blog is subject to political pressure as I sometimes lose members over a stray Bush jab). To some extent – "Vote Your Pocketbook" is a very Democratic process but when your pockets are being picked by commodity companies and the brokerages who fund them – well you will get exactly the Democracy you pay for and so will they!
