Imus

Obviously, someone has put crack in the nation's drinking water. What else can one think after the spasms of bigotry to which Mel Gibson, Isaiah Washington, Tim Hardaway and Michael Richards have treated us over the last nine months? That's a lot of stupid in a short period of time. And then there's radio shock-jock Don Imus, who, as even polar bears must know by now, recently leveled racist and sexist insults against the Rutgers University women's basketball team, most of whom are black.

The morning Don Imus uttered the phrase that appears to have ended his career, Ryan Chiachiere was watching. The veteran shock jock's comment was so incendiary that the 26-year-old researcher for Media Matters in America, a liberal media watchdog group, took the rare step of removing his headphones and repeating the slur to his co-workers in the room, who were also glued to various forms of programming. But the rest of what happened April 4 at the group's Washington office was fairly routine.

When Rutgers University women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer announced yesterday that the team had accepted an apology from Don Imus, she expressed hope that the furor would be a catalyst for change. But the speediness and manner of his dismissal from CBS and MSNBC, after calling the players "nappy-headed hos," may foreshadow a ripple effect on talk radio, industry observers say. "What's different about this firing compared to that of other insult jocks is that people internal to the organizations - women and African-Americans at NBC and CBS - came forward and said, `I am in this organization, and I do not want to be associated with this kind of man,'" said Sheri Parks, a University of Maryland professor who teaches courses on race and gender.

WASHINGTON -- As she faced the world's television cameras to respond to a gross insult by radio and television showman Don Imus, a member of the Rutgers University women's basketball team spoke volumes with one sentence: "I'm not a ho," she said Tuesday at the team's first news conference after the "nappy-headed hos" incident. "I'm a woman and ... I'm somebody's child." Indeed, she is. So are the rest of Rutgers' Scarlet Knights. And anybody who would make them out to be anything else should be ashamed.

The firing of radio talk-show host Don Imus, who last week referred to Rutgers University's female basketball players as "nappy-headed hos," thrust into the national limelight the misogyny of rap lyrics - a long-debated issue in the African-American community. Over the past 15 years, performers such as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Notorious B.I.G. and 50 Cent have built lucrative careers, and transformed hip-hop into a billion-dollar cultural force, with the gratuitous use of such words (and much harsher ones)

Thankfully, Imus finally held accountable for ugly remarks To CBS Radio and NBC television, on behalf of my mother, my sister, her best friend, her teammates, her coach and all the girls who ever played for and against St. Thomas More ... thank you. St. Thomas More is the elementary school in Southeast Washington that my siblings and I attended, back in 19- ahem, ahem, cough, cough. That's also where my sister started playing basketball, for Mr. Caldwell, my sister's friend's father.

After days of mounting pressure from civil rights advocates, advertisers and the public, CBS Radio fired Don Imus from his nationally syndicated radio show yesterday. Imus' ouster came a day after his dismissal from MSNBC, which had simulcast three hours of Imus' 4 1/2 -hour show. It originated from CBS' flagship WFAN in New York and was beamed to some 70 radio stations via the network's Westwood One arm. The rapidly unfolding developments in the Imus saga were driven by increasing outrage over his April 4 reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball players as "nappy-headed hos," a term embedded with pejorative racial and sexual undertones.

Fallout over the racially insensitive comments by radio talk-show host Don Imus intensified yesterday as MSNBC announced that it will immediately cease simulcasting the Imus in the Morning radio program. Meanwhile, two major sponsors suspended their advertising from the show, and a former NAACP president who is on the CBS board joined those who have urged Imus' dismissal. A week after Imus referred to the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" following the team's second-place finish in this year's NCAA tournament, opposition to the longtime radio personality continues to mushroom.

Cal Ripken Jr. had himself one hell of a day Monday, one that made him much, much larger than a Hall of Famer-elect and iconic figure of a city and franchise. Yes, he threw out the ceremoni al first pitch at the Orioles game, and yes, he made a huge commit ment to Major League Baseball's RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program on behalf of his family's charitable foundation, putting his money and name be hind something that, ideally, should bring baseball back from life support in areas like the neighborhoods west of Camden Yards and the Inner Harbor.

Don Imus, whose daily broadcasts reach about 70 radio stations and are simulcast on MSNBC television, has one of the most lucrative franchises in the business. His show attracts not only hefty advertising dollars, but also a stream of high-profile guests peddling books, opinions and political gamesmanship. The racially insulting remarks he made last week could threaten all that, some experts say, if the controversy persists and guests and advertisers flee. If that happens, Imus - who referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball players as "nappy-headed hos" - could see the two-week suspension he received Monday turn into a more permanent departure.