The Problem with Firing Imus

I pretty much knew it but I withheld this comment until I saw it come to pass. Don Imus made a racist unacceptable comment. Unfortunately, firing him provided a great opportunity for right wing MSNBC Executives to replace him with right wing kook Michael Smerconish. It's not hard to guess that a Network owned by Monstrous Defense Contractor General Electric would be a far right wing neocon mouthpiece. It's pretty obvious that a news outlet whose parent company makes billions from war would do everything in their power to promote business. The President of MSNBC should be honest and make the same statement Damon Wayan's made in the movie Major Payne, "Ladies, My Business is killing, and Business is Good".

Don Imus was hated by the right because as quiet as it was kept, he harboured some progressive attitudes and the right wing knew it. He hated Dick Cheney and constantly referred to him as a "fat pork chop eatin bastard". He was an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the Iraq war. He referred to the President and his war party as war criminals that should be in jail. He was recently criticized for saying that Dick Cheney should be shot. His on air cohorts were right wing racist pigs but to be honest, Imus was an often times left leaning Republican critic who rarely, if ever, agreed with them. I am not defending His comments, just stating a reality here that many people have missed. I felt that his racist cohort Bernard McGuirk made such outrageously racist statements that the show should have been trashed years ago. It has been overlooked that immediately after Imus's statement about the Rutgers players, McGuirk referred to the Spike Lee movie' Do the right thing" by saying " The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had." McGuirk made racist statements almost daily and I am shocked that he was allowed to get away with it as long as he did.

At any rate, this is a long winded way of saying that MSNBC was thrilled to get the opportunity to replace an outspoken Bush and War critic with right wing host Michael Smerconish. Who would have guessed that the man who stands in for Bill O'reilly and donated personally to George W. Bush's campaign would be hired as the Defense Contractor's newest mouthpiece. Though the MSNBC show with the fastest climbing ratings is the left leaning "Countdown, with Keith Olbermann" the station ignores the money making potential of more centrist and left leaning hosts and goes for the far right again. Obviously, they understand that a few million from a successful talk show is nothing compared with Billions for G.E. from an unsuccessful war.

Here's some information you may find interesting about General Electric/MSNBC:

"General Electric, one of the largest and most diversified manufacturers in the world, is the Pentagon's top supplier of aircraft engines. The company also provides financial services and owns the NBC television network.

"General Electric's Defense Contracts went up a whopping 1.2 billion dollars after the the start of the Iraq War"

"60% of G.E.'s political donations between 1998 and 2003 went to Republican candidates. During that period the top recipient of campaign money was George W. Bush"

The Imus firing was great for America in that it finally forces the African American community to acknowledge the drug selling gun toting lyrics of modern day rappers. This tragedy has been ignored though it causes irreparable harm to our youth. But it is a bittersweet victory as it gives the giant defense contractor another Republican apologist to sing the corporate song.