the rix mix

I've always liked Don Imus. I still remember when he came to New York in the early 70s, there'd never been anything quite like him. He was truly an angry man, something he proved through his personal self-destructiveness. Imus was always an equal-opportunity bigot. Shock jocks have to fill up enormous amounts of air time & they have only so much prepared material, so they just jabber, relying on their sidekicks to poke & prod them into ever more outrageous statements. Politicians are his specialty, there's no dearth of targets, & for some you can't aim low enough. You can hardly miss by calling a Repug congressman, "a lying fat little skunk from Texas." Whatever possessed him to toss racist, sexist insults at the Rutger's women's basketball team is beyond me. It was shock jock jabber. It'll be a damned shame if Imus wrecks his career over this, given all the other ways he could do it, but who can defend him? I don't know what he can do to make amends, but he should not push for a meeting with Coach Stringer & the team. Imus' predicament isn't about them. He doesn't know who they are. To them, he's just some big-mouthed radio dirtbag. For us fans, the Scarlet Knights are great winners. But their loss to Tennessee was a bitter disappointment for the team, despite the national attention & admiration they were receiving. Imus spread ugliness over a week when we wanted the team to feel only love & respect.

Labels: Rutgers