The Imus Comeback: It's About the Money
In a really good interview by NPR's Michel Martin, WABC NY program director Phil Boyce says Imus is just "great radio." Oh, and he's betting the primo advertisers will also let bygones be bygones. (11.06.07)
Ignorant Empire,Still Flailing, Strikes Back
Kanye West beats 50 Cent in over-hyped sales battle, but rap/hip-hop sales are still dropping. Meanwhile, YouTube video turns vicious on Sharpton, Cosby, Oprah, campaign to take back the culture
"Who's Your Caddy" drops, bombs:
-first fruit of Bob Johnson's Our Stories Films, savaged by reviews, spurned at box office.
Hot Ghetto Mess, aka, We Got to Do Better: cancellation rumors fly
-some black activist blogs claim pink slip in the mail
-WhatAboutOurDaughters (who spearheaded the boycott) says, canceled or not, forcing B.E.T. to clean up the 'mess' in the premiere episode was precedent setting victory enough.
Hot Ghetto Mess: Controversial B.E.T. show premieres tonight
Leon:
CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE
Ties That Bind
Imus, CBS, Viacom,
MLK Dream Concert
I came across a story this morning and I remembered Arsenio Hall's comment: Things that make you go Hmmmmmm?
Why?
Because the "nice" story in today's news mentions that media giant Viacom is going to donate in cash, $1.5 million toward the fund for building the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall and the company will also sponsor "The Dream Concert, a musical tribute to Dr. King" at Radio City Hall next month.
On the surface it looks good, but let's look deeper, or for the context of this, let's get off the ground and good up and see this from about a mile high.
The news landscape is vast and there's another story that was out yesterday regarding Don Imus, the former darling of CBS, that reported that he and CBS had reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount (at that time) of money with CBS Corp. The settlement reach culminates a $120 million breach of contract lawsuit that Imus had filed against this other media giant. As you might recall Imus was fired from CBS Radio weeks, not days, after he made derogatory comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
The Ties that Bind
Both stories have been reported as though they are isolated, but wonder if that is so in respect to the ownership and the timing of the two stories.
Both CBS Corp and Viacom Inc. are both owned by one individual, Sumner Redstone. Redstone is the man who gave Tom Cruise his walking papers from Paramount. Why? Because Mr. Redstone owns it and Mr. Cruise's I'm-so-in-love jumping-on-the-couch antics and his dislike for the practice that make you lie on the couch (psychology, not Hollywood) didn't sit well with the esteemed owner Mr. Redstone. CBS and Viacom are traded separately on the NYSE, but both have the same CEO, Mr. Redstone, who owns 70% of each company.
Essentially, both are rooms in the House that Redstone built. Now stay with me. What a peculiar house is that of Mr. Redstone? In one room houses a shock-jock misogynist and racist and in another room, is housed civil rights poser-philanthropist. Bless be ties that bind!
I've always contended that amid the whole Imus-Rutgers brouhaha that the responsibility should have also been focused on the corporate entity that empowered Imus to continue with his often misogynistic and racist diatribe and/or schtick. But our eyes were not focused on the prize, we settled for the crumb that is Mr. Imus. After all, he said it, right? But ask who gives him a platform.
In the interim Black American starts to rethink about the messages conveyed in rap music, rethink how we speak to one another and some of us went to point of doing ceremonial burials of the N-word. All are valid, but I'll go with the maxim: Follow the money. No one wanted to focus on the corporations that actually make a huge profit on the B-word or the N-word. Our scope is sometimes too narrow.
So now let's descend from the mile-high view and touch the ground and our bases and ask ourselves. What is the cost of a racial epithet?
While you are pondering that one:
-- the concert is a go! (Septempber 18, Radio City Music Hall)
-- Imus is said to be in negotiations with another American icon of race relations past-and-present -- DISNEY -- via WABC radio. (reported on Tuesday)
-- A member of the Rutgers Team is suing Imus.
Behind the the 'Dream Concert' rests an all-to familiar American nightmare where corporations continue to malign Black people and it's all business-as-usual. On the surface it all stinks.
So Black America I'll ask again what is the cost of a racial epithet... $1.5 Million? Or is it just... Pricesless? Perhaps the Dream Concert should be just that, a dream and not a reality, but if it does occur, one should question the source of the funding and in the spirit of Dr. King, if the funding is tainted, boycott it.
Looks like we're getting bamboozled -- again.
Viacom Gives $1.5 Million to MLK Project
By BRETT ZONGKER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; 4:00 PM
WASHINGTON -- Media conglomerate Viacom Inc., which owns BET and MTV, announced a donation Tuesday valued at $1.5 million to help build a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall.
Viacom pledged $1 million in cash plus promotions for the memorial that will include public service announcements across the company's networks and its billboards in New York's Times Square, Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman said.
In response, the foundation working to build the memorial named Viacom the title sponsor for the musical benefit Dream Concert scheduled for Sept. 18 at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
"We are very keen to have our company, our entire employee population really live the messages of diversity, inclusion and justice that Dr. King stood for," Dauman said.
The benefit concert will feature such headliners as Garth Brooks, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and Stevie Wonder. Tickets range from $250 to $1,000.
The memorial will be built near the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. It will include a sculpture of King and 14 quotations from the slain civil rights leader and Nobelist.
The project had been scheduled for completion in late 2008 but likely will be pushed back until 2009 because of delays with the design process, said Harry Johnson, president and CEO of the Martin Luther King National Memorial Project Foundation Inc.
The foundation has raised $82 million of the $100 million needed to complete and maintain the memorial, Johnson said. Organizers hope the Viacom gift and promotions for the Dream Concert will build momentum for the final leg of fundraising.
"Every time we get a large donor, it definitely helps spur others and bring others to the table," Johnson said.
The Houston attorney has been fending off criticism recently over the group's selection of a Chinese sculptor for the statue of King. Some have said a black artist should have been chosen to sculpt the first monument to a black leader on the National Mall.
In February, the memorial foundation announced Lei Yixin, one of nine sculptors considered national treasures in China, would carve King's likeness in the memorial's 28-foot granite "Stone of Hope."
Since then, one group has drafted a petition and started a Web site called "King Is Ours," calling the selection a "travesty of justice."
"For us, with an African-American driven project, for us to then say we shouldn't use somebody because of the color of their skin and not the content of their character ... to me that's a very bigoted thought, which really goes against, in my viewpoint, what Dr. King stood for," Johnson said.
Bronze sculptor Ed Dwight, who also was the first black astronaut, told the Los Angeles Times he was pushed aside from the King project because the foundation hoped the selection of a Chinese sculptor would result in a $25 million donation. Johnson said that wasn't true, noting that Dwight doesn't sculpt granite.
"We have never, never contacted the embassy of China, anybody in China or any companies in China asking for a dime," Johnson said.
___
On the Net:
Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation: http://www.buildthedream.org
King is Ours: http://kingisours.com/
Imus settles with CBS; next, a comeback?
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NEW YORK (AP) — Don Imus overcame a major obstacle Tuesday in his widely expected comeback bid, reaching a settlement with his former employer that allows him to return to the airwaves at a new station four months after he made a sexist and racist remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
Imus and CBS Radio agreed to a settlement that pre-empts the fired radio personality's threatened $120 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS, the company and Imus' attorney said in a statement Tuesday.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Just before his dismissal, Imus signed a five-year, $40 million contract with CBS.
The announcement essentially makes Imus a free agent, and broadcast industry experts say he will be back on the air soon enough.
"I've been comparing this to a divorce. Now both parties are able to move on," said Tom Taylor of radio-info.com, a sounding board for news and information about the radio industry.
Where Imus might land next is still up in the air.
A person familiar the situation told The Associated Press that Imus has had informal talks with several broadcasters, including WABC in New York, about a possible comeback. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks, and it is unclear how serious the discussions were — given the fact that Imus' CBS contract was still under dispute.
"I've had no conversation with Mr. Imus and no one at Citadel or ABC has had any negotiation with him," said Steve Borneman, general manager of WABC radio. WABC radio is owned by Citadel Broadcasting Corp., which owns more than 140 radio stations as well as ABC Radio Networks.
The person familiar with the situation said the deal with CBS also calls for a "non-disparaging" agreement that forbids the parties from speaking negatively about each other.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Rutgers basketball player Kia Vaughn sued Imus, CBS and others, claiming the offensive comments damaged her reputation. A spokeswoman for CBS Radio declined to comment, and a lawyer for Imus did not return a call about the suit.
One radio hire that did become clear Tuesday was the naming of Imus' replacement on WFAN, the CBS-owned New York radio station that was Imus' flagship.
Former National Football League quarterback Boomer Esiason will take over the morning time slot along with New Jersey radio personality Craig Carton, who has been known to push the boundaries of taste during his broadcast career. Carton and his co-host at times offended minorities and women, once nearly coming to blows with former Gov. Richard Codey in 2005 over comments about the widely publicized battle with postpartum depression by the governor's wife.
Esiason has built a long broadcasting resume since retiring from football a decade ago, including stints on Monday Night Football and CBS' NFL pregame show.
The fact that Imus is taking steps toward a comeback might have seemed unthinkable at the height of the uproar caused by his comments about the Rutgers women's team. He referred to the squad as "nappy-headed hos" on his nationally syndicated radio program, becoming the target of heated protests led by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
But industry experts say broadcast executives can have a very short memory if it means boosting ratings — something Imus can still deliver.
"He's more valuable now than before the controversy. He was such a focus of media attention for so long that his career has been reinvigorated, and he's in a position to sort of reinvent himself — to make himself more pertinent and even more interesting," said Michael Harrison, founder of the trade publication Talkers magazine.
Sharpton issued a statement Tuesday saying the settlement is a "a legal matter between a former employer and employee."
But he added that it is "also a testimony to the movement of people that raised their voices to fire Imus that CBS would rather pay him off than keep him on. ... To the rumors that Imus may resurface, wherever he resurfaces we at National Action Network and other groups will be watching and monitoring him."
Kim Gandy, head of the National Organization of Women, said it was disappointing to hear Imus may be making a return to radio.
"After the heartache he caused untold thousands of young women, I find it disheartening that he would have another platform so soon on the public airways," Gandy said.
As for Carton — one of Imus' replacements — New Jersey Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo said that the radio personality is "a guy who's managed to insult almost every community around."
"You would have thought that after the Rutgers incident that a lesson would have been learned. But I guess they figured that this guy would get some ratings for them," he said.
Codey told the AP on Tuesday that he has put the episode involving his wife behind him and that he has since been a call-in guest to Carton's show to discuss sports.
Whatever Imus decides to do next, everyone is in agreement that he better be careful.
"All eyes will be on Imus, so he'll have to watch his back," Taylor said.
Associated Press Writers Colleen Long, Tom Canavan and Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Joseph T. Williams
williwombat1066@hotmail.com
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation,
nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
Posted by: Joseph Williams | Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 05:47 PM