The notion of ratings needs to be challenged as well. Nielsen has the MONOPOLY.  As such the ratings for the Middle Tennessee area which includes Nashville are based on the viewing habits of people in 375 homes.  Mind you, our demographic market area is 993,000 people.  So when media executives claim that a show is high in the ratings, the question must be asked, who is being surveyed? 

Another issue that I am grappling with is the lack of educated Black women being interviewed about topics that affect us directly. 

I feel like Fannie Lou Hamer, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. 

LILLIE FEARS wrote:
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-----Original Message-----
From: Lionel C. Barrow, Jr. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 6:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; LILLIE FEARS
Subject: [Fwd: Imus Reveals Race Prejudice Again: Will NBC Do Anything This Time?]

for your info.

l.c. barrow, jr.

  
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: 2007/04/07 Sat PM 09:19:29 CDT
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Imus Reveals Race Prejudice Again: Will NBC Do Anything This Time?
    

  
Imus Reveals Race Prejudice Again: Will NBC Do Anything This Time?
    
I've just about had it with Don Imus.<
  
I know I'm not the only one. The crusty DJ has snarked off just about everybody in the business, from Howard Stern to Tavis Smiley, with his unthinking, sexist, racist nonsense.
This time, Imus decided to stick it to Rutgers University's female basketball team, calling them "nappy-headed ho's" on a recent broadcast.
Here's how it was captured on the liberal-oriented Web site Media Matters:
"On the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which is comprised of eight African-American and two white players, as "nappy-headed hos"immediately after the show's executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "hard-core hos." Later, former Imus sports announcer Sid Rosenberg, who was filling in for sportscaster Chris Carlin, said: "The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the [National Basketball Association's] Toronto Raptors."
McGuirk referred to the NCAA women's basketball championship game between Rutgers and Tennessee as a "Spike Lee thing," adding, "The Jigaboos vs. The Wannabees -- that movie that he had." McGuirk was presumably referring to Lee's 1988 film, School Daze (Sony Pictures), though co-host Charles McCord misidentified it as "Do the Right Thing" (Criterion, June 1989)."
This isn't the first time Imus has pulled this kind of nonsense.<
    

 >NBC had to apologize for Imus in 2004, after he called Palestinians "stinking animals" and referred to an Iraqi executed by a U.S. soldier as a "bobby-trapped, raghead cadaver."
  
Former New York media critic Philip Nobile has made a crusade of documenting Imus' awful racial remarks, including calling the highly-regarded black journalist Gwen Ifill a "cleaning lady" when she was sent to cover the White House for the New York Times.
    
Nobile also noted Imus admitted to 60 Minutes that producer Bernard McGurk was brought on "to do nigger jokes," called Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz a "boner-nosed Jewboy," called Patrick Ewing "the missing link," Shaquille O'Neal "a car-jacker in shorts," and the Knicks "chest-bumping pimps.
  
It's been easy to ignore his nonsense because I find the show so boring I never watch it. And critics such a Nobile who have taken on Imus have paid a price, as the celebrities and journlists who frequent his show find it easier to disparage the critics than turn away from the book sales and TV ratings Imus fans deliver.
But turning away from this is wrong. Pretending it's all in good fun is wrong. And with Imus show growing in popularity -- the Washington Post noted a 35 percent jump in ratinghs from last year -- it's time to demand this crusty knucklehead join the 21st century.
The National Association of Black Journalists today called on journalists to boycott Imus' show until he sincerely apologizes and cleans up his act.
    
"I wonder if NBC will do the same? Will regular Imus guests like Sen. Joe Lieberman, Meet the Press host Tim Russert and presidential candidate Sen. John McCain do the same? </A.."WINDOW.OPEN(THIS.HREF,>
  
Hard to believe that, in 2007, you still have to make a case for shunning a guy who slings around slurs about black people and Jews like it's 1957. But it's time for all of us to make that case, already -- he's been given a pass for his high-paying bigotry for far too long.

UPDATE: My friend Richard Prince reports on his Journal-isms blog that Imus has apologized for the slurs. The NABJ has refused his apology and still calls for his firing.
Prince writes: "On Friday's "Imus in the Morning," which originates at WFAN in New York, Imus said: "Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team.
"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry."
MSNBC distanced itself from the comments.
"While simulcast by MSNBC, 'Imus in the Morning' is not a production of the cable network and is produced by WFAN Radio. As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC. We regret that his remarks were aired on MSNBC and apologize for these offensive comments," spokesman Jeremy Gaines said."
When talk radio firebrand Michael Savage made insulting comments about gay people and AIDS, MSNBC dropped him relatively quickly. What will the cable newschannel do now -- besides distancing themselves with a mealy-mouthed apology -- faced with similarly offensive comments from one of their biggest stars?
Feel free to visit my blog for further discussion or post to the listserv....
http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/





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