The “I’m a good person” defense did not stop Imus from getting cancelled on MSNBC. The fact that Imus was a “good person that said a bad thing” was a lame defense because during his apology Imus continued to say things that showed his racism. I don’t think the apology was from the heart because Imus kept saying that black people say these things to each other every day, and that “black women, in their society were degraded by their own kind, their own men on a regular basis”. Where is the apology? His attempt to deflect his responsibility by saying these words are products of the black community and hip hop music were also offensive. His defense and “the apology” only seemed to make things worse. Also this is not the first time Imus has used racial slurs against blacks (who he frequently called “apes” and “chimps”) or other ethnic groups. Don Imus was an obvious bigot.

The fact is a “good” person would not have made those comments. A good person would have thought of the feelings of those who the joke pertained to. A good person would not make racist comments over the airwaves. The statement that the Rutgers basketball team were the only affected parties need closer examination. Those comments were against everyone woman, particularly Black women. As the coach of the Rutgers team stated this is a larger issue, and Imus doesn’t realize his comments carried more weight because his show was not perceived as a comedy show. His show was political in nature. On the cable guide Imus’ show was described as “Political figures, journalists, and news makers discuss current events”. No one thought this was a comedy show.

I think the ouster of Imus was a good move on the part of NBC. While NBC’s claim that employees were the major factor in making the decision, I believe dollars also may have played a role. NBC saw advertisers pulling out of the Imus show and after the news conference by the Rutgers team, conversation did not die down. Good people realized that a good person just would not have said these things about our nations children, which also affected a major segment of our national community.