Imus Be Hearing Things

I will have to do some research on this, but I heard on the radio this morning that CBS has settled out of court with Don Imus over his wrongful termination lawsuit. Does this mean that he will be back on the air soon? Also, one of the Rutgers women has filed a lawsuit against Imus. My gut reaction is, 'Good for her!' On the other hand, from what they said on the radio, part of her lawsuit is based on damage to her reputation. I'm sorry, but if your reputation gets damaged because someone who's never even met you calls you a name on the radio--granted, nationally syndicated radio, but still--that's going to be a tough thing to prove in court. ABC's online article is available here. Apparently what I heard on the radio was correct.

This brings to mind several troubling issues: Without condoning what Imus said (because he shouldn't have said it), legally, an entertainer can make jokes about public figures. Does playing college basketball make one a public figure? I'm not so sure. Maybe. The other issue is, if someone that has never met you makes a joke about your personal life, how damaging is that, really? I can certainly understand that the Rutgers women got their feelings hurt, but surely no intelligent person is going to seriously think that what Imus said was true--or that he even had any way of knowing if it was true. Surely, no one has been treating these women as if it is true. Also, on the lesser side of what Imus said, where did the term 'nappy' come from, anyway? I've heard it said that it just refers to how a person's hair looks like when they've just woken up (i.e., excuse my hair, I just had a nap), but I don't buy that. If you've used a relaxer on your hair, I don't think sleeping is going to make your hair kinky again; tousled, yes, but not nappy. I think it comes from 'nap' as in fabric, which is a fuzzy surface, and is usually undesirable (at least, I think it is. That's not my area of expertise). Now, given that, what did Imus mean when he called those women nappy-headed? Is he familiar enough with the term to understand what it actually means? If so, has he seen any pictures of the women in question? I've seen pictures of them, and I've seen pictures of him, and it seems to me that he has more naps in each of his eyebrows than the entire team has on their heads...

I've heard some commentary that Imus isn't going to let something like this lawsuit interfere with getting his career back on track--it's in his best interests to settle this out of court as quickly as possible. Maybe, but this suit was only filed on behalf of one of the Rutgers women. I'm not sure how many there are on the Rutgers women's basketball team, but Imus may be able to swing tuition and fees (past, present, and future up until graduation), but if they start asking for millions of dollars a piece, he's in trouble. And if he gives money to this one, the rest of them will line up for the same serving of pie. But, again, if the Rutgers women stir the pot enough, they may be able to derail Imus' new career plans. There is money in controversial radio show hosts, but if there is more money going out than coming in, then it just becomes bad business. Keep in mind that Imus isn't the only one named in the lawsuit.

The lawyer is claiming (rightly so, IMHO) that CBS created a culture in which the kind of comments that Imus made were not only acceptable, but encouraged. Controversy draws listeners, listeners draw advertisers, advertisers bring money. Imus (and Howard Stern, and Erich Muller, etc.) wouldn't make comments like that if people didn't tune in to hear comments like that, and buy products sold by advertisers that promote comments like that. Unfortunately, in the words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."