Imus is Suing

[amykhar]

Who could have censored the comment that got Don Imus fired? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine

Sounds like maybe corporate radio wanted their cake and to eat it too, perhaps? If they hire the Howard Sterns and the Don Imuses of the world, perhaps it should be them who gets fired. Dunno. Seems to me like they got exactly what they paid for and then got to wash their hands of it instead of taking the blame for putting that kind of programming on the air in the first place.

[hadassahchana[$]]

I agree with you. Firing him had nothing at all to do with any moral high ground. Put a different way, he'd never have said things like that had he felt that there would have been any repercussions at all. The networks made it pretty obvious that there wouldn't be, right up until there were.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

CBS hires Imus to bring in $$.
Imus says something that pissed people off.
People complain and the sponsors hear it.
Sponsors pull their $$ out of show.
Imus no longer making $$ for CBS.
CBS fires Imus to replace him with someone who brings in $$.

I see it less about censorship and more about business. When Imus put himself in a position where he wasn't bringing in the $$ any more, CBS saw him as a useless employee, saw the contract as worthless, and terminated both.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Yep, I agree. I don't think he's got a case, but they didn't fire him out of ethical considerations.

[realtraveller]

Until I read about the suit, I hadn't thought about the 5 second delay and the fact that the comment could have been bleeped out by the show's producers if they had considered it over the top at the time.

[brian_igo]

Except the producer was as much an instigator as Imus.

He'll probably win the suit. His contract had a clause that he had to be warned before he could be fired for bad conduct, and his lawyer says he was never given that warning.

[realtraveller]

Looks like CBS should have spent more time talking with their lawyers and less time talking to the Rev. Al.