The I-Man Strikes Back!!
Ousted shock-jock Don Imus, whose on-air remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team ignited a media storm and national debate about race, gender and free speech on public airwaves, appears ready to talk some expensive trash at his former employer.
With about $40 million left on his contract with CBS Radio -- whose boss Les Moonves fired the I-Man on April 12 -- Imus has decided to hire Martin Garbus, a New York-based attorney at the law firm Davis & Gilbert, who is widely recognized as one of the country's most able First Amendment lawyers, Fortune reports.
Click here to read complete Fortune report.
At issue, Fortune reports, is whether language in Imus' contract encouraged him and his producers to be irreverent and engage in character attacks.
The language, a source told Fortune, was part of a five-year agreement that went into effect in 2006, and that paid Imus close to $10 million a year. The contract stipulates that Imus be given a warning before being fired for doing what he made a career out of: making off-color jokes.
Garbus successfully represented comedian Lenny Bruce against criminal charges on First Amendment grounds, and the writer Robert Sam Anson in a lawsuit filed by Walt Disney trying to halt the publication of a book critical of the media giant.
But in Imus' case, his free speech rights are tempered by the fact that he said what he said on the public airwaves, which are subject to Federal Communications Commission regulations about what is appropriate content.
Meanwhile, Imus plans to retreat to his ranch in New Mexico for the summer before deciding whether to make another go of it on the radio, Fortune reports.
The TrekMedic ponders:
- Wither the ACLU? Oh, yeah,...it isn't so much that Imus is a conservative (he's far from it), but in defending Imus, the ACLU would be put in a position of biting the hands (Sharpton, Jackson et al) that feed.
- Imus was a knucklehead. He got paid by CBS to be a knucklehead, even when he crossed the line, such as in this case. All things being equal, and in the MSM world it ain't, why hasn't Rosie O'Donnell ever gotten throw under the bus in a similar manner (And, no, its not because her girth would damage the aforementioned bus!)
- CBS wouldn't have fired Imus, had they not caved into the political pressure of those harbingers of hate, the Revs. Sharpton and Jackson, ministers of the First Christian Church of "Do as I Say, Not as I Do."
Labels: Double Standards, Free Speech
posted by TheBitterAmerican @ 6:43 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
The crux of the matter is simple; did CBS, et al, warn Don Imus about his content in the days before Apr 4 but after he signed the 5 year contract?
I think it is worth noting that Imus and his staff ran a professional operation from their end. I have a clip of noted historian Profession Doris Kearns-Goodwin quoting Sen. Barry Goldwater saying c^&#-sucker. YouTube had dozens of copies of MSNBC's own Chris Matthews dropping the F-bomb.
In both instances, the words were bleeped from radio, but not MSNBC.
And the ensuing minutes were pure, comedic, radio history ... especially in regards to Dr. Kearns-Goodwin.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I'm not a real big fan of Imus, but I hope he wins his case and sticks it up CBS's ummmm...yeah.
Charlie: good point. It was my understanding that Imus and CBS had a mutual agreement that he would perform outrageous skits and such as part of his shtick.
Imus, along with most AFTRA-member radio personalities, had what was called the "First Dog Bite" clause in his contract. Simply put, CBS, knowing Imus would say stupid s**t, had to warn him ONCE before taking any action, such as terminating his contract.
Imus' other ace in the hole is that CBS didn't make any major moves until Sharpton started shooting his mouth off, which implies CBS gave Imus tacit approval of what he said and it would have been swept under the rug after Rutgers accepted his apology.
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