MSNBC Drops Imus Show Over Racial Remark

MSNBC DROPS IMUS SHOW OVER RACIAL REMARK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
NBC News dropped Don Imus yesterday, canceling his talk show on its MSNBC cable news channel a week after he made a racially disparaging remark about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. The move came after several days of widening calls for Mr. Imus to lose his show both on MSNBC, which simulcasts the “Imus in the Morning” show, and CBS Radio, which originates the show. CBS Radio, which is the main employer of Mr. Imus, said in a statement last night that it would stick by the two-week suspension of the show that it and NBC News announced earlier; the suspension begins Monday. But CBS said it would, in the interim, “continue to speak with all concerned parties and monitor the situation closely.” The demands that Mr. Imus’s show be canceled have grown in intensity every day. Numerous advertisers said yesterday that they would refuse to sponsor the show in the future. Among the advertisers were General Motors, American Express, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, TD Ameritrade and Ditech.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/business/media/12dismiss.html?hp
(requires registration)

* Facing Ad Defection, NBC Takes Don Imus Show off TV
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117631524468166584.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
* MSNBC Drops Imus's Show
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR200704...
* Pressure grows on CBS as MSNBC drops Imus
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070412/1a_topstrip12_dom.art...
* NBC cancels its Imus simulcast as outrage builds
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-imus12apr12,1,14...

* Advertisers risk waves on radio
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joshua Chaffin and Jonathan Birchall]
The mounting scandal over racist and sexist comments by radio personality Don Imus offers another reminder of the unpredictability that advertisers face when they support controversial programmes on radio and television.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/11227882-e893-11db-b2c3-000b5df10621.html
(requires subscription)

* Imus and mustn't
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Talk-show host Don Imus has probably figured this out already: As he works through his apology to the Rutgers women's basketball team, he's also defining the line that separates what's acceptable from what's not in public discourse.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0412/p08s02-comv.html

FCC DOWNPLAYS REPORTS OF IMUS INVESTIGATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin confirms that the FCC has received complaints about Don Imus' racist and sexist comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The FCC has no authority to regulate such language, a point former FCC Chairman Michael Powell made to CBS News, but it looks into all its complaints as a matter of course. Ensslin discounted media reports that said it was conducting an official investigation, which suggests the commission is actively soliciting information from the parties involved rather than routinely assessing the complaints as it would with any others.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6433091.html