Can we talk about Imus like adults?

Of course you do.

Would you be saying the same thing if Nifong railroaded 3 black basketball players that were accused of raping a white woman? And he did it to pander to the white community to win their votes for re-election?

 

I said I was done with this thread, but I have to mention this ... The Rutgers women's basketball team will be on Oprah today.
This is getting out of hand.

 

Valid comparison. And you might also mention this distinction: the Duke lacrosse players had to endure nearly a year of much of the world buying the accuser's story and believing they really were evil rapists, and had to watch themselves get unjustly vilified and destroyed in many quarters of the court of public opinion, not knowing if the truth would ever come out, and their association with the case likely will still leave a negative stigma attached to their names for life.

Conversely, after Imus' one dumbshit comment on an irrelevant radio show, the entire world IMMEDIATELY and uniformly leapt to the Rutgers' players defense, heaped sympathy and praise upon them, and condemned Imus in the harshest terms possible. The only one left with lasting damage and severe scars in this "scandal" is Imus himself, whereas in the Duke case it was the falsely accused players.

 

Did anyone catch the Duke X men on Ophrah yesterday ?

 

A scandal of that nature is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson's ultimate wet dream, who knows how much self-promotion and shaking down they could squeeze out of something like that. Somewhat analogous to the scandal Sharpton tried to falsely manufacture in the Tawanna Brawley case, lord knows how excited he'd get if he ever got the real thing to run with.

 

Sharpton was sued and lost in the Brawley case. Not a dime has been paid to Pergones.

 

Nobody's defending Nifong but if you think the kind of tactics he used in this case started with him, or that the contempt for the rights of the accused and due process that he demonstrated in this case that is general in this society and that he tapped into for his own personal gain began with this case, you're fooling yourself. His mistake was in picking defendants who had the wherewithal to hire really good legal help and the influence to get the NYT and NBC -- among others -- to pick up their case. They were lucky and Nifong's roadkill.
However, this is the way prosecutors in this country have been encouraged to act ever since the law 'n order frenzies in the 1960's. This is the way they have been encouraged to act since the drug frenzies of the mid-1980's. Every time you make the argument, for example, that "Go ahead and tap my phone, I've got nothing to hide," or, "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you care if they search you?", you make a Mike Nifong not only possible, but inevitable.

And this and the Imus incident remain an apple and an orange, although if Imus's career path follows that of Mike Nifong, I'll be happy.

 

You're a black woman playing a sport that badly needs publicity.

Oprah calls.

You're supposed to say NO ???

I really don't understand why some of you are bound and determined to make the Rutgers women the bad guys in this.

And why would somebody who calls himself "Big Buckin" be averse to a little opportunism in the Land of Opportunity. I guess you're the only one allowed to make the bucks??

 

Luggie -
Don't you understand?
Their role now is to sit there in noble silence so we can all feel good about ourselves until the next bigot spouts off on the airwaves.

 

No, they're not the bad guys. I'm not saying that (feel free to find where I have said that). But spouting off about how great of a season they had for 30 fuckin minutes wasn't needed. A presser, fine. But 30 fuckin minutes of a rant ... NO!
And yes, just because Oprah calls doesn't mean you have to jump. It's going to be 60 minutes of how difficult it is to live in this world as a black women. Blacks want to stop the racism, stop making everything about race.

 

Like a column I read this morning asked, if this were two African-Americans on their own talk show, would there have been a peep?

I agree it's offensive at worst, lacking in common sense and decorum at best. But let's talk about the multiple standards of usage here: 1) Imus' situation; 2) if blacks said it about blacks (there were also white girls on that team); 3) most any primetime television show where the excuse comes back at you, "If you don't like what we do, don't watch." 4) Howard Stern's culture.

 

Oprah should have called Pokey and the LSU players to come on show.