BARB - Big Apple Radio Blog

Unless you've been living under a rock living on a steady diet of Ho-Hos - and in case Rev. Al or J-Squared is reading, by that, I mean the snack cakes - you're probably aware of the huge story in radio, on TV, and in sports. But while this story dabbled in all three of the aforementioned, its importance was mundane because the media kept fanning the flames. And two of those three just happen to fall in the media.

This is exactly what happened five years ago. August 2002. Opie & Anthony had their third go-round of the "Sex for Sam" contest, which gives you "points" for simulating sex - or even going all the way -at various venues in New York City. And every year, on the list of venues just happened to be St. Patrick's Cathedral. Nobody cited its existence on the list the first two years of the contest. Why? Because nobody had the brass bells to go there. And rightly so. And guess what happened in Year 3? Yup, someone went there, ensuing an uproar; an uproar led to a suspension; the suspension led to the eventual firing of Opie & Anthony by CBS. If you recall, the day after the contest, they were back on the air the next day; this would be the last live show before a week of "best-of" shows would start. Same thing here with Imus: he also stayed on the air for roughly a week after the day the bomb dropped; only all of his shows were live, and he had the opportunity to apologize for his remark. Every single day. You think he's of the opinion that this story's got a little more exposure than it should have over a throwaway "two second line"? Not that I'm defending him, mind you. But realize that there were no FCC rules or First Amendment rights violated with that statement. And other radio hosts have said worse.

Incidentally - or should I say, ironically - this was deja vu all over again not just for CBS, but MSNBC, which in that same summer of 2002, cancelled Michael Savage's Saturday afternoon show when he wished death (and homosexual slanders) on a prank caller who had a less demeaning comment on the host's teeth. Ah, birds of a feather.

One underserved part of this story was the fact that Sid Rosenberg may have led that horse Imus to those dark career-ending waters. During the sports update, Imus had only commented about the Rutgers players' tattoos, before Sid - or was it Bernard McGuirk, his producer? - would jump in with, "They're hardcore hos". Maybe Imus tried to get the last word in by turning "hardcore" into "nappy-headed", as if to say, "Can you top this?" Still, "hardcore hos" sounds like a Sid line, given his colorful line of work (remember that equally mindless joke about Kylie Minogue?) . Heck, perhaps he wrote it for Bernard. Maybe Imus always feeds off of this brand of "humor", but given Sid's past, it's really a shock he's returned to the show at all.

But given the show's climate, should it, really? And is Imus indeed a racist? Hey, you make the call. If you want to take Imus to task for all the controversial racially charged statements he's made throughout his career, this album he released in the former half of his career tells you all you need to know: http://www.amazon.com/This-Honkys-Nuts-Don-Imus/dp/B00000I8Y4 You might want to check out Track 2.

What's interesting is that, while Don Imus clearly is a top newsmaker this week, every time I access Google News (http://news.google.com/) - or maybe it's only the times I happen to go to the website - the name "Don Imus" is not listen among the ten "In The News" keywords. Yet I'll see others related to the story like "Rutgers University" show up. Heck, even "Snoop Dogg" has surfaced among those keywords. But no sign of Mr. Imus. By comparison, when Howard Stern announced his satellite radio deal, his name was all over those keywords on the Google News page. Of course, I really want to see if that tasteless phrase Imus used actually shows up as one of those keywords. But I digress.

But as I mentioned earlier, that phrase, while tasteless coming from a white man - and a repeat offender - as Mr. Imus, didn't violate any major broadcasting rules to warrant termination. Suspension, definitely. But some may think that termination over that comment is just the beginning of the end of free speech as we know it. (Or is it only for those on CBS' or MSNBC's air?) But really, if this case went further, to depths even those unfazed by the comments wouldn't have imagined, it may be quite possible that Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson could ultimately end up ruining Christmas. I mean, think about it: the word "ho" is immoral. What does Santa Claus greet kids with? Not once, but THREE TIMES? Yup - "Ho, ho, ho!" Are we going to have to scramble to edit Santa's joyful comments out of movies and cartoons now? And where does The Green Giant stand in all of this? Is any of his classic TV commercials going to end up being pulled from YouTube, not for copyright infringement, but for immoral comments?And while we're at it, is it now time to edit Howard Stern's movie "Private Parts"? Not of all Imus references, mind you, but maybe that part where Pig Vomit tells Stern, "You've got to learn to do what Imus does". That statement sounds pretty un-American at this time, doesn't it? Hey, with everyone coming out of the woodwork on the Imus issue, I wonder what the real-life Pig Vomit - Kevin Metheny, now a regional VP at Clear Channel - thinks about all this. It would be interesting to hear.

I don't know. Maybe Imus is getting senile - or has been for awhile, depending on your point of view. Maybe he's out of touch with reality. Maybe that op-ed columnist on AOL was right: What if the hair he poked fun at was not of the Rutgers Lady Scarlet Knights, but of Sanjaya Malakar?

Which reminds me: do you remember who got sent home on "American Idol" last night?

Yes, folks - this Imus story is THAT big.