FIRE IMUS & TAKE RADIO REPTILES STERN, LIMBAUGH DOWN WITH HIM

DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman

Radio snake Don Imus, who may or may not survive his having referred to student athletes as “nappy-headed ho’s” on the air, could be legitimately fired for each and every moronic episode of his show – as should perverted Howard Stern, dope-addled Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of their ilk.
These radio personalities represent the dumbing down of America to absurd levels no one could have imagined just a few years ago. They're vicious clowns of no redeeming social value who have no allegiance to truth, fairness, or any sort of moral code west of Taliban country.

America suffers from dumbed down elections, music, TV, education, morality, logic, newspapers, weekly magazines, 24-hour news, you name it. And nowhere is it more evident than talk radio, where vocal reptiles like Imus race to the noxioius bottom of the listeners’ barrel to scoop up fame and profit from an alarming deterioration of standards and taste.

Imus is the guy who once told a series of terrible jokes based on Bill Clinton’s extra-marital affairs at a black-tie dinner attended by Bill and Hillary. He got what he wanted – publicity. Where I grew up a guy like that would have been instantly dragged out to the nearest alley for justice. Such a solution is neither terribly intelligent nor always fair, because the ability to pound lumps in a guy’s head is not always in synch with the justness of the pounder’s cause. But seeing it would have been a guilty pleasure.

In that particular case a dumbed-down radio personality was relying on dumbed-down politics to increase the audience of his dumbed-down show. No low-life could have insulted Harry Truman like that because he’d have turned it all around on the perpetrator. But Imus knew his man. He knew the Clintons, who are fuzzy on morals and can’t make a serious move without a focus group to guide them, would sit there and take it, and Imus would get the headlines he so desperately craved.

Years ago friends tried to persuade me there’s actually substance to Howard Stern, that I should try him out. The second time I heard his show he and his ghastly crew of ass-kissers superimposed their own catcalls and laughter over a 911 tape of tearful Joaquin Phoenix’s call to police as his brother River died of a drug overdose on the Sunset Strip. If there was something funny to say about the death of a 23-year-old kid, these fools didn’t find it. I’ve despised Stern ever since.

Limbaugh is a scumbag who styles himself as a kind of political analyst until you catch him telling a flat-out lie, in which case he pleads he’s merely an entertainer. The ascendance of Imus, Limbaugh, Stern, and their clones was aided by the fact that most of their listeners are alone in their vehicles where they feel safer indulging in a moral decay they find appealing.

Fire Imus? Of course. But not just because of his latest racist remarks. Fire him because of what he does every day to make dumbed-down America dumber – and viler.