Does Don Imus deserve to be back on the air? After almost an eight-month hiatus, the radio personality is sorry about his racist comments to Rutgers women's basketball team, according to this CNN article. How much can a celebrity like Don Imus apologize until people think he is really sorry? Imus says his comments have changed his life for the better, but who's the sucker here?
Despite the four-year, $40 million contract with CBS he signed right before being fired for the comments in April, he is not announcing his salary at this time. Even if he is not making as much as before, he is rewarded with the same job back.This leads to one conclusion: not every journalist will lose their job for good when exhibiting slander, especially if the source absolutely did not deserve it. Money is power in this business, not necessarily good judgement.
3 comments:
Chris - Good post. And I like the way you always include art with your blog posts. That's thinking like a designer! It does draw more people in.
Money makes the world go 'round? Money is power? What a new concept. Just kidding.
I will say this though, if you had a $40 million contract and it was suddenly taken away because you said something that should have never been said (something absolutely stupid, not necessarily racist) then I would be completely apologetic to the point where they hire me back as well. Not to mention Imus was well known and I'm guessing the audience he attracted was not happy when he was let go, which I'm guessing had an effect on the station and therefore interrupted the cash flow to the big bosses. Whether it was a good decision overall, they don't want to lose money, so they had better let him back on the air. I'm guessing this time he'll be more careful with what he says though.
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