CBS fires radio personality Don Imus over racial comments about Rutgers

NEW YORK – CBS fired Don Imus from his radio program Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation’s most prominent broadcasters.\nImus initially was given a two-week suspension for calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos” on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his CBS radio show and its MSNBC simulcast.\n“There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society,” CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. “That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.”\nRutgers women’s basketball team spokeswoman Stacey Brann said the team did not have an immediate comment on Imus’ firing.\nTime Magazine once named the cantankerous broadcaster as one of the 25 Most Influential People in America, and he was a member of the National Broadcaster Hall of Fame.\nBut Imus found himself at the center of a storm as protests intensified. On Wednesday, MSNBC dropped the simulcast of Imus’ show.\nLosing Imus will be a financial hit to CBS Radio, which also suffered when Howard Stern departed for satellite radio. The program is worth about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS, which owns Imus’ home radio station WFAN-AM and manages Westwood One, the company that syndicates the show across the country.\nThe Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson met with Moonves on Thursday to demand Imus’ removal, promising a rally outside CBS headquarters Saturday and an effort to persuade more advertisers to abandon Imus.\nSumner Redstone, chairman of the CBS Corp. board and its chief stockholder, told Newsweek that he had expected Moonves to “do the right thing,” although it wasn’t clear what he thought that was.\nThe news came down in the middle of Imus’ Radiothon, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990. The Radiothon had raised more than $1.3 million Thursday before Imus learned that he lost his job.\n“This may be our last Radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million,” Imus cracked at the start of the event.\nVolunteers were getting about 200 more pledges per hour than they did last year, with most callers expressing support for Imus, said Tony Gonzalez, supervisor of the Radiothon phone bank. The event benefited Tomorrows Children’s Fund, the CJ Foundation for SIDS and the Imus Ranch.\nImus, whose suspension was supposed to start next week, was in the awkward situation of broadcasting Thursday’s radio program from the MSNBC studios in New Jersey, even though NBC News said the night before that MSNBC would no longer simulcast his program on television.\nHe didn’t attack MSNBC for its decision – “I understand the pressure they were under,” he said – but complained the network was doing some unethical things during the broadcast. He didn’t elaborate.\nHe acknowledged again that his comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball players a day after they had competed in the NCAA championship game had been “really stupid.” He also said he had apologized enough and wasn’t going to whine about his fate.\nSharpton and Jackson emerged from a meeting with Moonves saying the corporate chief had promised to consider their requests.\n“It’s not about taking Imus down,” Sharpton said. “It’s about lifting decency up.”\nSheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and, with her ex-husband Robert, co-founder of BET, called Imus’ comments reprehensible in an interview with The Associated Press. She said she had called Moonves to urge that CBS cut all ties with the veteran radio star, and was worried that what he said could hurt women’s sports.\n“I think what Imus has done has put a cloud over what we’ve tried to do in promoting women’s athletics,” she said.