MSNBC and CBS Hate Children

Dale Franks notes a particular irony in the decision of MSNBC and CBS to fire Don Imus effective immediately rather than allowing him to broadcast the remainder of the week as originally planned:

This week—starting today, in fact—is the 18th annual Imus radiothon to raise money for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and to help support the Imus Ranch, which offers children, 10% of whom are African-American, with cancer and blood-borne diseases a few weeks every year of vacation and treatment, free of charge.

Yesterday, MSNBC dropped the Imus show, which has run every morning for the 11 years of MSNBCs existence. Today, CBS dropped Imus in the Morning from the radio lineup, effective immediately. Naturally, this means that Mr. Imus will not be able to raise money during the radiothon, which will lead to a precipitous drop in donations. So, in effect, NBC and CBS decided that it would be better for children to die than for Don Imus to broadcast for another day or two. Think about that, too. Getting rid of Don Imus and escaping the controversy is so important to NBC and CBS that they are willing to kill children to do it.

Huh. Maybe there’s something to that “corporations are evil” business after all.

I must admit, it’s rather bizarre. Radley Balko may be right the Imus’ charitable ranch was somewhat “indulgent” and that it “probably has the highest dollars-to-kids-actually-benefiting ratio of any project of its kind.” Still, it’s a noble effort and, as Andrew Sullivan observes, “It does not excuse Imus’ bigotry, but it’s worth noting nonetheless. It’s more than I’ve ever done for sick kids. And probably more than you have either.”

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. markm says:

    It all comes down to dollars. This Imus thing was not a huge problem a week or so ago. It was offensive and stupid to say but he apologized and it looked like the 2 week punishment was going to be it..and it was until the advertisers pulled out. THAT is when the fecal matter hit the fan.

    I did hear the money lost from advertisers was considerably larger than any money he raised for the keeeds (I think he raised 1meg or so…).

  2. legion says:

    Exactly, mark. The fact that he was fired after he agreed to _but before he was able to_ meet with the actual Rutgers players is pretty de facto evidence that this was a knee-jerk reaction by someone high up in corporate.