TOMPAINE.COM IMUS WATCH III: BIGOT IN THE MORNING? YOU DECIDE
Week of April 10-14th.
Philip Nobile is the editor of Judgment at the Smithsonian, which
printed the banned Smithsonian script on the 50th anniversary
of the Bombs of August in 1995.
Editor's Note: TomPaine.com continues its coverage of radio host Don Imus. On February 24, 2000, when he was being criticized for making allegedly racist comments on his radio show, Imus told Jeff Greenfield on CNN's "Larry King Show": "Has there been racially offensive stuff on the air? Yes. Do we make a practice of it? No." We wanted to find out for ourselves if Imus was right. So we asked Philip Nobile to monitor the show. Click here to see an index to our Imus coverage. Nobile is back with a third week of Imus coverage. At what point does this behavior become pattern? You decide:
PARTICIPANTS
Don Imus [host]
Bernard McGuirk [producer]
Denise Austin [guest]
Patrick McEnroe [sports]
Dick Cavett [guest]
Joseph Aboud [guest]
Bo Dietl [movie reviewer]
RIDICULE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
Imus: Channel Two, they need people like Warner [Wolf], not because Warner works with us... McGuirk: That mulatto chick's not bad either on Channel Two, Dana Tyler.
********
Imus: One time Denise [Austin] was on and I was trying to make fun of her, pretending she didn't know anything about politics...She lives next door to George Schulz, right?
Austin: No, it was William, ah...
Imus: Rehnquist.
Austin: Cohen. No.
Imus: William Cohen, the Mandingo deal [referring to Cohen's African American wife, Janet Langhart].
Austin: No, it was William Perry, the secretary of defense before Cohen came in.
********
McEnroe: Maybe more important was Ewing's [goaltending] part in Larry Johnson's three-point shot with twenty-one seconds left which put the Knicks up by two. Here is Ewing being interviewed on TNT after the game.
Patrick Ewing: I don't know know what happened. I'm so happy with the win that I don't even remember.
McGuirk: The lying thug...[imitating Ewing] I don't know.
Imus: That will be fine...
McEnroe: The shot was going to go in anyway, by the way.
Imus: Except for that weasel, [Knick's announcer Mike] Breen.
McEnroe: [imitating Breen] Oh, let's see it from another angle. I can't tell.
Imus: That was outrageous.
McGuirk: He's like the boy-toy of the Knicks locker room. [laughter]
HOMOPHOBIC REMARKS
Imus: We have better newsgeeks [at MSNBC].
McGuirk: Not like the dyke-y broads on CNN.
Cavett: When I was in high school tennis was for fairies.
Imus: It still is.
********
Voice imitating Walter Cronkite: ...Mr. [Rick] Kaplan unbelievably has stayed overnight at the White House again...This time around after listening to Mr. Clinton knock'em dead at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner, Kaplan went to the home of the leader of the free world where he bedded down in the Queen's Room, appropriately it seems to me, while his twenty-one year-old daughter slept in the Lincoln Bedroom.
********
Imus: These baseball players [on the Mets] are twenty-five. To blame a trip to Japan, suck it up, get over it, get a real job...
Aboud: It's a tough trip though...
Imus: What are you nuts?
McGuirk: Aboud was over there catching. [laughter]
Imus: That will be fine.
Aboud: Thanks, Bernie...
Imus: You [McEnroe] and Aboud stay out of this.
McGuirk: Butt out, but not literally.
********
Imus: [Rao's Restaurant owner] is a good looking guy.
Dietl: What have you got, homo tendencies?
********
Imus: However, if they have these two gay people and they love each other, that is better than having two people abusing each other. Half of the marriages in this country end in divorce anyway. Heterosexual marriages. And the incidence of domestic abuse in this country are [sic] epidemic. So I don't know whether these homos are beatin' up each other, [laughter] but you don't...
McGuirk: That's called sex.
Imus: ...If they love each other -- I don't want them kissing in front of me [laughter] -- but if they want to do that we should let them. We should leave them alone.
McGuirk: And stop shoving it down our throats.
Imus: And stop being mean to them. It's just ridiculous. It's just not morally right. It's bad karma for you.
McGuirk: So you're for state-sanctioned gay marriage?
Imus: Absolutely. If that's what it has to be. I'm not against my money going for that. I would rather it didn't. But given the choice.
McGuirk: It sounds like you may be gay yourself. [laughter]
McCord: You sound pretty passionate I-man.
Imus: No I'm not. What difference does it make? I'm not, but what difference does it make?
McGuirk: I-man bending over backward for gays. [laughter]
Imus: That's why I don't want to sound like I'm on a soapbox. I don't really care, except I do care. I don't want to see people suffer. I have to be honest about it. But I also don't want this to be some agenda. That's not our purpose. Our purpose here is to make fun of people.
McGuirk: I-man might have taken a ride down that Hershey highway.
Imus: Shut up, you moron. [laughter]
RIDICULE OF NATIVE AMERICANS
Imus: The guy from F Troop, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
RIDICULE OF THE DISABLED
Voice of Ringo Starr: I didn't write 'Yesterday.' So I actually have to work for a living. I can't afford to run around the world with me pogo stick girlfriend [amputee Heather Mills] like Paul. [Played twice].
Editor's Note: "Imus in the Morning" is broadcast on the radio by Infinity Broadcasting, a division of CBS, and telecast by MSNBC, a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft.
Published: May 16 2000
