Month: April 2007

A sports-blog variation on one of this blog’s features. Cool.

I didn’t know this from Juan Williams:

My sense of what you have here is was that the market spoke. [Y]ou know it’s interesting, you look at the guy who runs — Ken Chenault, who runs American Express, they pulled their ads, Ken Chenault is black. I think there are a lot of people, in American corporate positions, wouldn’t have been there a generation ago, who now have some say, have voice over people like Imus. And I think Imus just didn’t anticipate that.

The culture has changed since Imus started in radio. White straight men don’t control everything any more, and they don’t get to set the rules for public discourse with the same finality they once did. What we’ve seen here is, I think, a genuine reflection of the new American mainstream. Most Americans simply find the spectacle of a rich white bigot beating up on young black female achievers after a crushing tournament loss to be gratuitously cruel and unfair. Punishing someone for calling college women "whores" – especially those who have beaten the odds and are role models for other back girls and women – is not a new step in political correctness. It’s applying a very old American standard of fairness and decency, which now applies to all Americans, regardless of race or gender. This was the voice of mainstream America speaking. It’s not what it once was. I wonder whether many of Imus’s buddies realize that yet.

Grand Junction, Colorado, 10.56 am.

Marc Ambinder defends himself from the charge of being anti-federalist.

It’s peak hours at the dish, which means you’re looking to be distracted from work. The Brits have a name for this. They have a gift for this kind of thing.

What will government busy-bodies do now?

"This is only the beginning. Sure, Imus is a liberal. You can measure the depth of his vapidity through his endorsement of John Kerry for president … Some of you have asked how in the world I can say that this is the beginning of an all-out push to damage or destroy conservative talk radio when it was a liberal who bit the dust. Simple. Imus was sacrificed. A ‘proof of concept’ exercise, if you will. Now the left knows that race hustler Al Sharpton can move large corporate mountains with his racially charged dialogue … so it’s time to use him to go after the real nemesis – talk radio…

Rutgers Coach Vivian Stringer says it’s time to ‘go forward and let the healing process begin.’ Healing process? What healing process? I’m not buying any of this nonsense that the Rutgers woman’s basketball team was egregiously hurt by Imus’ comments. Tennessee wins the championship and Rutgers gets all the publicity. It wasn’t the Tennessee girl that were allowed to sit before the national TV cameras a few days ago. And how many of you can name the Tennessee coach? Let’s face it … the only people really, genuinely hurt in this episode are those connected with the Imus show who are now going to lose their jobs," – Neal Boortz, libertarian talk show host, whose own record of remarks can be found here.

Michael Tomasky has a hit-piece in the American Prospect. Except it might actually endear Giuliani to the base. Money quote:

When Giuliani was mayor, did he really believe in abortion rights and gay rights and strict gun-control laws and very liberal immigration policy? "That’s a very, very tough question," says David Garth, the legendary New York political consultant who handled Giuliani’s 1993 and ’97 mayoral races. "My feeling was, the positions he took, he felt them. Whether he really felt them, if you know what I mean … I don’t know."

Mitchell Moss, the New York University professor and longtime municipal politics savant (and occasional adviser to Mayor Mike Bloomberg), paused when I asked him the question and delivered almost the exact same answer: "That’s a very interesting question." Moss sensed that of the four issues mentioned above, immigration was the one Giuliani believed in more than the others. Indeed, his position was one that many Democrats, let alone Republicans, would have trouble with: He prevented city employees from contacting the federal government when they turned up immigrants with no legal documentation, and he fought for his position in federal court.

That’s two veteran Rudy-watchers, neither of whom can say for sure that he meant it. I’m a third, and I can say it more bluntly: He did what he needed to do to attain and maintain power.

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty.)

You can imagine the fury and scorn directed by Frank Rich at anyone associated with rampant anti-gay, anti-woman and racist commentary on the right. But his good old liberal friend, Don Imus? We have the following profile in courage:

"I’ll have to wait and see how it plays out," he said. What would affect that decision? "How (Imus) comports himself and how the show shakes (out) when he gets back." … "I’m not convinced he is a misogynist, racist guy," the columnist said…

Ultimately, Rich said he wanted reserve judgment until he had to make a decision about returning to the show: "I will decide when the question is asked." He stressed he was uneasy about dealing in a "hypothetical" situation.

Sounds like Newt Gingrich, right? Or one of the White House spokesmen Rich makes a living deriding for not being candid. Here’s the kicker:

"If this is the pattern of the show, no one will want to appear" on it again.

If? These moments are so revealing, aren’t they?

Some constructive advice:

Troops on the ground who see inaccurate reports about their operations should contact the media outlets in question and demand corrections—or take other steps to publicize the facts as they know them. In short: stop griping about the press in private and start doing something about it in public.