Let me offer something that's been missing from the debate so far: the perspective of someone who watched Imus for only three years between 2003-2006...unencumbered by his long history as a shock jock.
My conclusion may astound you: in the grand scheme of the universe, Don Imus is a force for good. His absence would impoverish the public discourse. I'll tell you why on the flip.
Imus has evolved into a shrewd political observer willing to hold the powerful accountable. The racism and dirty jokes are residual elements of a previous self that he was too slow to ditch. Unlike Howard Stern, Imus has tried to outgrow his dark side: adolescent testing of limits. But he has not succeeded.
I've always thought of the Imus show as Shakepearean: low comedy for the rabble, high brow stuff for the better angels of our nature. (Or maybe NPR -- interrupted by fart jokes.)
I think the critics who say the politicians and pundits who appear on the show are "enabling" Imus's racism miss the point.
I don't believe Imus is a racist. But he does sometimes say racist things for their shock value. That was never acceptable. And in the YouTube/Blogosphere era, he can't get away with it any longer. Imus's initial attempt to slough off the criticism failed big time. And rightly so. The man has groveled at the feet of Al Sharpton. He has been publicly humiliated.
So the question now is: how is the cause of racial harmony best served? By firing
Imus? Or by having him continue the show after his suspension?
I vote for life, not death. Jeff Greenfield hit the nail on the head this morning. Imus has to realize that certain things are off limits. So Imus should continue with his passion, insults and schoolboy humor -- not very different from what many of us do here on Daily Kos. But he needs to leave racial bigotry out of it.
In the next couple of days, Imus will meet with the Rutgers players. Long time friends will stand up for him. Advertisers will NOT leave in droves. His charity drive later this week will probably be a big success.
Again: looking at things long term -- would it be better for Imus to survive and change? Or is his scalp on a pike the ultimate prize? Could there be a backlash
if he falls?
UPDATE
More of What Greenfield said:
But, it is true I think that your show makes fun of black people in a different way than you make fun of white people. Which is, when your comedic staple does "Ted Kennedy" he doesn't sound like "Hulk Hogan", who doesn't sound like "Dr. Phil" who doesn't sound like whoever else you're doing.
But I think it is fair to say, and I just read this by one African American columnist who made this point today, that when you parody black people they all sound the same, sort of a nineteenth century mushmouth minstrel thing. And I think that comes from a more general notion, that like all comedic insult type humor, you look for the most obvious thing to parody.
If some of us put on weight you make fun of that, but when that gets into the area of race, and I think that's what happened with this admittedly idiotic and hurtful comment you made yesterday, you look for the most obvious thing, and in this context, in this country when you do that with people's skin color it's at a different level of insult.
And one of the things that I think would be really useful in the two weeks that you're off, is not to swear off making fun of black people who do dumb things, I mean you know if Barack Obama or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson says things that are hypocritical, I mean the idea that Reverend Sharpton gets to decide what's a racially inflammatory remark kind of shows that God has a sense of humor, but you may want to think about how you do that in a way that isn't the most obvious stereo-typical comment to make about someone's skin color. That's what I think about that."