[audio:http://media.podshow.com/media/4354/episodes/57800/showgirls-57800-04-18-2007_pshow_65958.mp3]
The gals get together minus SoccerGirl with some seriously uninformed discussion of the Don Imus controversy, the pains of tax day, and plans for PME 2007, plus Cali and Frank weigh in on the release of Final Cut Pro Studio 2, Karen explains her betty protest and we share the latest news from KFC of PodChick podcast, Cali Lewis of GeekBrief TV, Karla and Karen from Rumor Girls, and me.
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i dunno you guys… i don’t think you can ever convince me that it isn’t important that imus made degrading sexual and racial comments out of the blue to a group of hard working, talented girls simply to try and get a cheap laugh. i honestly don’t see how we can overlook that. how is this any more justified than senator allen’s macaca crack???
Although I agree with the fact that his comment was offensive and at the least, in poor taste, I don’t believe that is why he was fired. He was fired because CBS and NBC listened to their sponsors
Among his sponsors were General Motors, American Express, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, TD Ameritrade and Ditech.com. All of which threatened to pull future advertising if he wasn’t fired. Interestingly, Steve Capus, president of NBC news who fired him from the tv deal on MSNBC said that advertising dollars were not a factor in the decision. This, of course, is bs. Imus is an idiot who has said worse things in the past.
This was an example of the neo-conservatist movement influencing the almighty dollar. It’s typical of the hypocrasy of the times. The very presence of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson embody this hypocrasy. Very scary indeed and getting worse every day.
this is a very complicated issue to be sure, and getting more complicated as more people with different agendas get involved. unfortunately it seem to be a kind of 2 (or 3 or 4) wrongs not making a right!
i certainly invite jason or anyone else reading this to send in an audio comment to showgirls regarding this or any other topic we may have too superficially covered.
I almost want to leave the team out of this, I am quite certain that they had no idea who Imus was except when they were fully debriefed by more sensitive adults before they were trotted out for press Q and A.
Imus made an offensive bad comment, and was suspended. He met with the team, everything was going fine in an attempt to deal with the situation, he obviosuly felt bad about his mistake and was trying to make amends.
However when Al Sharpton and other blowhards kept fanning and fanning the flames, playing their well worn out race cards, continuing to display their prime objective that words are always more important than people, whoring it up for desperate press coverage, rallying for a full firing, thats when advertisers started to get nervous and threatened to leave, causing CBS to cave in.
The tragic part is old media, how desperate they have become to keep everyone happy at any cost. Ironically even their own, as losing Imus will cost them millions to be sure.
I was a creative director in broadcast/media for over a decade, and had large teams of employees through the years. I had many personnel problems to work through with my workers. It would begin with a dialog, or a reprimand, or advance to counseling. What I did not do was jump up on a desk and throw fists in the air chatting “fire him..fire him..”. One of my bosses years ago, when I was just starting as a manager, I really wanted to fire this person, and he taught me, you always have to give a person a chance to redeem themselves, you owe them at least that. Everyone makes mistakes. Dumb ones usually.
Anyway..long story longer…Imus will have free speech when he jumps to Sirius radio in a few weeks..so thats a moot point. I am not sticking up for Imus, but I am suggesting we mediate rather than going in with guns blazing. What is most distressing is that this firing was a knee-jerk decision and continues a bad precedent which I see in America, where instead of working to solve problems and issues, we just trout out a fall guy and assassinate.
It gives us a quick fix, fast satisfaction, but completely ignores the long term advances that could come out of working on a solution to the problem. Or at least exploring a dialog on it. Because whenever you point your finger, there are always three fingers pointing back at you…
i’m the one who said that!!!
i was just waiting for my chance to change the subject from free speech to racial and sexual discrimination. i hadn’t seen the video clip yet, unfortunately, so i didn’t actually know anything about it except what i heard tom leykis say. had i seen it first, i think i would have been more forceful about my viewpoint.
its hard to be the only person in a group with a dissenting opinion, but i’m glad i finally did pipe up about my feelings at the end there! i’ll try stand up more in the future when stuff like this comes up.
it would certainly be helpful if everyone researched the potential topics *before* recording the show, so we aren’t just talking out of our asses…
thank you for at least admitting that it was a “seriously uninformed discussion.” it’s been talked about to death, so i won’t force feed the issue. however, i did find something interesting in listening to you all talk about Imus…
it seemed as if being involved in the world of podcasting (where you are free to say anything you like) gave you all reason to side with his right to free speech more than it did a group of women basketball players, many of whom come from inner-city backgrounds and have worked quite hard throughout the season, who lost the championship on national television only to have Don Imus call them “nappy headed hos” on a nationally simulcast show the very next day.
he berated their talent and degraded their beauty, but it seemed like most of you were more concerned about Imus’s right to speak. i only say that because it took about 15 minutes before someone asked why he said that about a group of women who were talented, potential role models.
maybe i’m wrong and totally off-base on that. but it struck me as interesting…