2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsIf Imus was fired, O'Reilly should be too
Jerry Garretson
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Opinion
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I'm a huge Don Imus fan. It's my Grandpa's fault, I think--I use to work for him at an auction house in the summers, and I could usually talk him into being my company chauffer. It was always early, and Grandpa never missed Imus in the Morning.
Imus was cool to me because he was progressive. Sure, he looked like a leather cowboy, and he was 94 years old, but he would accept anyone who made him laugh. Even if he flew into a rage and fired them on the air, they'd be back after a commercial or two. If you listened to the show enough, you realized that when Imus was calling someone "moron" or "idiot," he was really saying "I love you."
Imagine my shock, then, when I watched his demise earlier this year over a racial remark. An insult DJ insulted the wrong people, and the social outcry cost him his job, and, it seemed for a time, his career.
What I'm getting at is, I hate Bill O'Reilly.
I hope the whole world knows about O'Reilly's trip, with the Reverend Al Sharpton, to a well-known Harlem eatery called "Sylvia's." Later, on his radio program, he explained to his amazed audience how well the owners--all black--were running the place.
The band, for instance, was dressed nice, and they weren't playing rap--not Twista, not Ludacris, not even Snoop Dogg. Naturally, most of O'Reilly's audience just assumes you can't have a good time without blasting a little Luda.
The crowd was also docile--believe it or not, he remarked, not a single person stood up and said, "M.F.-er, I want more iced tea." Again, his audience may have assumed this happened all the time in black establishments--thirsty heckler's at the Apollo, maybe; "I want more iced tea, M.F.-er!" Maybe an NAACP meeting runs too long and one of the member's just starts shouting, "Iced tea! M.F.-er!" The FUBU president, addressing his stockholders, "Iced tea, M.F-ers!"
Isn't this offensive? Not my stupid jokes (they aren't offensive, are they?), but O'Reilly's assumptions. He says he made his comments in an effort to educate his listeners, which just makes me think either he himself holds the beliefs he's projecting onto his audience, he's vastly underestimating his audience, or his show targets the wrong sorts of people.
Imus was cool to me because he was progressive. Sure, he looked like a leather cowboy, and he was 94 years old, but he would accept anyone who made him laugh. Even if he flew into a rage and fired them on the air, they'd be back after a commercial or two. If you listened to the show enough, you realized that when Imus was calling someone "moron" or "idiot," he was really saying "I love you."
Imagine my shock, then, when I watched his demise earlier this year over a racial remark. An insult DJ insulted the wrong people, and the social outcry cost him his job, and, it seemed for a time, his career.
What I'm getting at is, I hate Bill O'Reilly.
I hope the whole world knows about O'Reilly's trip, with the Reverend Al Sharpton, to a well-known Harlem eatery called "Sylvia's." Later, on his radio program, he explained to his amazed audience how well the owners--all black--were running the place.
The band, for instance, was dressed nice, and they weren't playing rap--not Twista, not Ludacris, not even Snoop Dogg. Naturally, most of O'Reilly's audience just assumes you can't have a good time without blasting a little Luda.
The crowd was also docile--believe it or not, he remarked, not a single person stood up and said, "M.F.-er, I want more iced tea." Again, his audience may have assumed this happened all the time in black establishments--thirsty heckler's at the Apollo, maybe; "I want more iced tea, M.F.-er!" Maybe an NAACP meeting runs too long and one of the member's just starts shouting, "Iced tea! M.F.-er!" The FUBU president, addressing his stockholders, "Iced tea, M.F-ers!"
Isn't this offensive? Not my stupid jokes (they aren't offensive, are they?), but O'Reilly's assumptions. He says he made his comments in an effort to educate his listeners, which just makes me think either he himself holds the beliefs he's projecting onto his audience, he's vastly underestimating his audience, or his show targets the wrong sorts of people.
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