Yeah, and that's the problem.
As Newsweek's Fineman put it (Imus in the Morning, 4/9/07): "You know, all of us who do your show, you know, we're part of the gang. And we rely on you the way you rely on us."
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Because much of what I post is analytical in nature (and therefore still useful with the passage of time), I recommend checking out both the titles of postings below and using keyword(s) searches in the search rectangle in the upper left corner of this page.
The inchoate feelings that so very many people feel today need to be acted upon by the people. It needs to be organized and it needs to find its voice. The world awaits. The future beckons. Who will answer the call?
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Declare It Now
Spread the Resistance
Wear Orange Daily
Because much of what I post is analytical in nature (and therefore still useful with the passage of time), I recommend checking out both the titles of postings below and using keyword(s) searches in the search rectangle in the upper left corner of this page.
I am experimenting with posting at Open Salon and encourage my visitors to check it out here.
I created Declare It Now, along with its accompanying pledge, 333. DIN was adopted by World Can't Wait and honored at the end of 2007 by The Nation magazine's John Nichols as the year's Most Valuable Crusade.
DIN and 333 depart from the traditional approach to political organizing and political protest. They provide a means for single individuals and millions of people to act politically in daily life - an endemic rather than episodic shift. Such a dramatic change is not only necessary; it is possible given today's specific alignment of forces. For a fuller description and analysis of DIN/333, see the core essays in the following places:
The Declare It Now Campaign;
Why the Democrats are Acting This Way;
The One Percent Solution
A brief description of the 333 Plan/Pledge
Scroll down about half-way for the card
DIN Ning Site - Join Up!
Visit the Impeach the President Now Blog/Go to the DIN Ning Site
About Me
- Dennis Loo
- Avowed Opponent of Obscurantism, Lover of Science, the Arts and Sports.
Writings and Talks by Dennis Loo
- I tend to publish at worldcantwait.net, counterpunch.org, and opednews.com. You can do a name search at their websites.
- "To Those Who Put Their Faith in Progressive Democrats and Obama" interview on Michael Slate's Beneath the Surface, KPFK, 9/16/08 5 pm
- "Shock and Awe Comes Home to Roost," Counterpunch, 9/12/08
- "Of Whales and Worms, Counterpunch, 6/16/08
- "Threats on Iran and the 'Batterer's Defense'" at Counterpunch on 6/9/08
- "Change We Can Believe In?" OpEd News, headlined on 6/8/08
- "The Road Ahead and the Audacity of Moral Truth," OpEd News, headlined on 5/12/08
- "Don't Try This At Home: Waterboarding" at French 24 The Observers 2/25/08
- Interview on KPFK's 6 pm Evening News 1/3/08 (top of the show with Page Getz)
- White Rose at the Rose Parade, 1/1/08
- "Fighting Terror with Terror"
- Editor's Choice Comment on the NYT editorial "Looking for America" To find my entire posting, go to Editor's Selections and Scroll Down.
- The Declare It Now Campaign 10/07 on YouTube
- On the Warner Act on "Radio-Active," hosted by Alex Ko on KPFK. (Scroll down to Radio-Active for 7/31/07.)
- A Battle for the Future, 3/3/07
- "Why Isn't There More Outrage?" Talk on March Forth!
- On the Boycott and Impeach the President 1/22/06
- YouTube broadcast of Santa Barbara 12/10/06 Speech
- Interviewed by Paul Berenson, 12/30/06
- "No Common Ground with Torturers," speech in Santa Barbara on Human Rights Day, 12/10/06.
- Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney by Dennis Loo and Peter Phillips (eds.), Seven Stories Press, 10/06.
- Interviewed by David Swanson, "Scales Fell From Their Eyes," October 21, 2006
- On This Critical Juncture We Face, Hot Talk, October 25, 2006
- Campus Forum Talk on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, October 25, 2006
- "More on Vote Theft and the Big Picture," Podcast Interview with George Kenney's Electric Politics, March 19, 2006
- Talk on the Stolen 2004 Presidential Election, includes an analysis of "the silence of lambs:" the Democrats and the corporate media, October 19, 2005 - scroll down the page halfway for this one as there are two talks by me on this page.
- Guns and Butter Interview on the 2004 Election, September 21, 2005
- "No Paper Trail Left Behind: the Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election" at Project Censored, 8/05
- "Polls, Politics and Crime: the 'Law and Order' Issue of the 1960s, Western Criminology Review, 2004.
Other Wonderful Links
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- Yeah, and that's the problem.
- UFPJ Statement on Impeachment
- Amen!
- Announcing the Show It Off! Campaign April 23-27, ...
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4 comments:
Are you trying to imply that Fineman is complicit in Imus’ recent behavior Professor?
Yes.
I should elaborate. You call it "Imus' recent behavior." Imus has a very long history of this kind of behavior. People who should know better have looked the other way and tolerated it. Here's what FAIR said about him recently:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3082
Action Alert
Racism Is to Be Expected From Don Imus
CBS, NBC, media pundits complicit in talk host's bigotry
4/9/07
In the wake of the latest racial slur broadcast on Don Imus' show, the question is not whether Imus is a racist—the man, after all, admitted to hiring one of his co-hosts to do "nigger jokes" (60 Minutes, 7/19/98)—but why CBS, NBC and top media pundits seem to feel no embarrassment over associating with his racism.
The Imus in the Morning radio show is aired on CBS-owned radio station WFAN, and is syndicated nationally by CBS-owned Westwood One. It is simulcast daily on MSNBC, a cable news channel in which GE subsidiary NBC Universal holds a controlling interest. Top media pundits like Tim Russert, Howard Fineman, Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd are frequent Imus guests. The show has also been a conduit for televised racism and other bigotry for years.
FAIR and others have documented numerous instances of Imus and his on-air colleagues expressing overt racism and other forms of bigotry. Imus himself has referred to African-American journalist Gwen Ifill as "a cleaning lady," to New York Times sports reporter Bill Rhoden as "quota hire" and to tennis player Amelie Mauresmo as "a big old lesbo." Imus called Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz a "boner-nosed... beanie-wearing Jewboy," referred to a disabled colleague as "the cripple," and to an Indian men's tennis duo as "Gunga Din and Sambo." In Imus' words, the New York Knicks are "chest-thumping pimps."
Imus' on again/off again sidekick Sid Rosenberg was temporarily fired in 2001 for calling tennis player Venus Williams an "animal" and remarking that the Williams sisters—Venus and her tennis player sister Serena—would more likely be featured in National Geographic than in Playboy. Rosenberg insisted to New York's Daily News (6/7/01) that his comments weren't racist, "just zoological." In 2004, MSNBC had to apologize when the rehired Rosenberg referred to Palestinians as "stinking animals."
In May 2005, MSNBC let Contessa Brewer out of her short stint as a news reader on Imus' morning show after Imus had made a daily game of crude personal attacks against her, calling her a pig, a skank, dumber than dirt and other similar felicities, all on air. MSNBC claimed they "expressed their displeasure" to the host (New York Post, 5/1/05), while noting that his "humor" was "often brilliant and provocative."
In his most recent racist outburst, on April 4, Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," just moments after sidekick and executive producer Bernard McGuirk (the "nigger jokes" hire) called them "hard-core hos." The Rutgers team, which recently played in the national championship finals, is made up of eight African-American women and two white women.
On April 6, Imus issued an apology for the slur of the Rutgers team. It was the latest in a long line of apologies for bigotry on his show. Past apologies have served to take pressure off Imus, but haven't resulted in a change of behavior by the host or his colleagues.
Niether has Imus' history of bigotry dissuaded prominent journalists and pundits, more after publicity than principle, from appearing on Imus' show. Friday's show, in addition to Imus' apology, featured an interview with NBC's Meet the Press host Tim Russert.
In an exceptional report on April 9, New York Times reporter David Carr noted Imus' history of racism and the parade of media luminaries who have appeared on his show, who have rarely raised questions about the show's bigotry. Carr noted that, even in the aftermath of the latest Imus slurs, Newsweek editor Evan Thomas defended appearing on the show, explaining: "I am going on the show, though. I think if I didn't, it would be posturing. I have been going on the show for quite some time and he occasionally goes over the line."
It's time for CBS and NBC to acknowledge that Imus is unlikely to ever rein in his bigotry, that the crude and hateful insults are a key part of his routine: Like the cowboy hat, they provide an air of "edginess" to what is often otherwise a dull exercise in Beltway insider back-scratching.
A media company that chooses to run such a show has two choices: It can declare, explicitly or implicitly, that calling people "nappy-headed hos" and "beanie-wearing Jewboys" is an acceptable part of the national discussion. Or it can end its affiliation with said program.
The Russerts, Finemans and the like who elect to appear on Imus' show have a similar decision: Are you down with "nigger jokes" or aren't you?
I agree they have looked the other way and tolerated it. Examples of this purposeful ignorance seem to be quite common.
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