Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

The Rutgers head coach must have believed Imus’ apology for making sexist and racist comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, she said the season was the most rewarding of her career. Imus’ suit of CBS proves it wasn’t sincere, clearly, he didn’t FORGIVE CBS.

Rutgers' Suit Necessary - Don Imus Never Sorry

It was bad enough that Imus could easily be reborn with higher pay on satellite radio in spite of being fired, but then Imus decided to sue CBS for wrongful termination.

But it may be justice that on the same day Don Imus settled his lawsuit with CBS Radio Rutgers women's basketball team player Kia Vaughn filed a slander and defamation of character lawsuit against him.

The Vaughn suit claims that since Imus’ comments were made in the context of a news or sports report and therefore he had standards to abide by that he ignored.

The suit states: "The ... false, defamatory, sexually denigrating and slanderous statements and comments against the women athletes of said basketball team were heard, believed and understood by millions of listeners ... as factual pronouncements concerning the character, chastity and reputation of the plaintiff,"

Vaughn claims the comments caused her to be publicly humiliated, embarrassed and mocked. She said the comments overshadowed her team's amazing season.

"Our moment was stolen from us," Vaughn said. "Instead of us coming here to enjoy what we accomplished and how far we came, we had to sit back and look at media asking questions about what he said."

Now all of you may be saying: they let Mel Gibson off the hook, they Let Isaiah Washington off the hook, why not Imus?

Before I go on to explain why Imus is a true bigot, let me give you a gentle analogy about privilege and how it works, based on a recent study on how boys and girls interact with teachers in the classroom. In the 1990s it was discovered boys spoke up more, interrupted more and were listened to by teachers and spoke twice as much as girls in classes. When the study forced the teachers to hear the boys and girls fairly and equally, the boys complained they were being cheated, short changed, that the girls were being heard more than them.

It’s a similar case with Imus. Imus and more of those like him behind closed doors, expects to racially abuse and degrade African Americans for his entertainment and financial benefit and when he’s challenged or reprimanded for it, he screams “unfair, I’ve been cheated, I need to sue… free speech, free speech, I’m an artist!” He, like other whiners having trouble with any hint of an equal playing field, thinks he is above the law and is behooved at the notion of being treated like everyone else. The argument was made by many Imus pundits (white guys that speak more than most get the opportunity to) that black men use the terms (Ho’s, Nappy), why can’t they?

Curiously, no one used the argument that Gays call each other the “F” word with respect to Isaiah Washington using it, so why can’t Isaiah use it? Why? Because we all know you can’t use any discriminatory term against someone in a minority group you are not a part of. Perfect example: as a Jew, Brian Singer can make a movie about a young Jewish boy admiring a Nazi (Apt Pupil), but no one else can or should. We all get it, unless we want to be above the law, like Imus. Imus is a straight up bigot, racist, supremacist who thinks he is above us all.

Let me tell you what makes Mel Gibson and Isaiah Washington different form Imus. They went through the phases of sincere conviction about what they said: conscience and conviction, apology, repentance, acceptance of consequences—in short, accountability. Imus didn’t.

When Mel Gibson made clearly anti-Semitic comments, ABC pulled him from producing a miniseries on the Holocaust. Saying Jewish people— “are the cause of all wars” --which is a lie and however you slice it, wrong-- a sober Mel promptly and publicly apologized after his arrest and the media exposure. He also made amends to Jewish religious organizations. Though what he said was wrong, and I repeat, in case you didn’t hear me, though what he said was wrong, he admitted he felt betrayed by his Jewish friends and business colleagues when the Passion came out. "During the course of that, I think I probably had my rights violated in many different ways as an American. You know, as an artist, as a Christian, just as a human being, you know." But since Mel knew he was wrong to make the wholesale statements about all Jewish people, he didn’t sue to reclaim the Holocaust production or lost income-- he took his punishment, knowing what he said was wrong.

Isaiah Washington was fired from ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy for using an anti-gay term in referring to TJ Knight. It seems Patrick Dempsy is a frequently late actor whose tardiness cut into Washington and other talent’s time and scheduling of scenes for the entire crew. Washington’s was the most compelling and complex male character on “Grey’s”, he wasn’t just a one dimensional McDreamy or McSteamy. Washington got angry with Dempsy’s Devo-like (male Diva) behavior and expectation of obeisance. He Washington indirectly used the F word to refer to TJ’s subservient relationship to Dempsy to check Dempsy’s arrogance, which he should not have. It was obviously hurtful to TJ. But unlike Imus, Washington has done sensitivity courses; PSA’s on homophobia and publicly apologized without waiting two weeks after he had his gag taken off by ABC. More importantly, Washington isn’t suing ABC for firing him. He knows what he said was wrong.

Unlike Imus, both Washington and Gibson cannot be demonized as bigots who made comments in a vacuum. Both were wrong, but both had some circumstantial catalyst—though it’s no excuse-- that they allowed to let them loose control. Both have no prior history of this type of behavior. Mel was making an anti-holocaust film, Isaiah had played gay characters and had previously done work for GLADD.

Imus however, has a prior record of making such comments on several other occasions and being reprimanded. Imus was un-provoked, made his comments in a vacuum, attacked innocent woman from his place of privilege for the sake of his personal entertainment and, since he sees it as part of his job to entertain in this fashion, for his financial benefit. This is the very definition of a racist or a bigot.

Imus also took two weeks to apologize, under pressure from media and his superiors. In terms of repentance, he never made any anti-discrimination PSA’s, didn’t offer scholarships to the Rutgers’ team or make apologetic visits to African American Women’s organizations. His wrongful termination suit indicates he is not willing to accept the consequences of his actions. Clearly, Imus thinks he’s done nothing wrong.

Ironically, as Imus is a pundit for the political elite, he wasn’t targeted by George Bush’s nephew Billy Bush, host of Access Hollywood, the Syndicated NBC Universal show as a bigot. Though Access Hollywood is a typically very non-political, light, promotional entertainment show, Billy Bush chose to use African American target Isaiah Washington, (who is not part of a minority group with any political clout in Hollywood), as a tool to ingratiate himself with liberal Hollywood and shed himself of his family’s conservative image. Billy Bush didn’t target Imus for firing. Imus is part of Bush’s family’s political world, and unfortunately part of his mother company, NBC. Hollywood was altogether conspicuously silent on the whole issue, until it succumbed to pressure from sponsors almost two weeks after the comments were made.

On the whole, the Rutgers team captain and coach were right to accept a sincere heartfelt apology from Imus. However, if the apology is insincere, as Imus’ suit against his former employers indicates, Imus and all like him need consequences like a multi-million dollar suit to make them think twice about doing it again. Imus may not be reformed by it, but at least it will prevent others from being so presumptuous. And, who knows, it could shut Hollywood’s (“Monique”, “30 Rock”, “Flavor Flav”, Soul Plane) mouth, if only for a moment.