ZardozZ News and Satire: Sharpton: Fire Everyone Who Repeated Imus Remarks

(2007-04-12) — Just a day after MSNBC dropped its televised simulcast of WFAN’s Imus in the Morning radio program, the Rev. Al Sharpton called for the termination of every member of the news media who repeated, reprinted or replayed Don Imus’ derogatory remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.

“It’s a civil rights issue,” said Mr. Sharpton, a professional former presidential candidate. “Everybody needs to be fired immediately, with no exceptions. The reporters who repeated the insult are worse than Imus, because people actually pay attention to some of them.”

Mr. Sharpton said that he should not be fired, however, despite his own frequent repetition of the insult on his national radio show, because he’s “a victim by definition and not a member of the oppressor class.”

“Every time I repeat that disgusting phrase, I’m personally offended and deeply hurt,” said Mr. Sharpton. “The pain is intensified by the fact that a white man has forced me to take those awful words into my mouth, thereby drawing even more attention to me. This is not about me. It’s about those brilliant, eloquent, highly-educated, physically-powerful young ladies at Rutgers who need me to defend them.”

MSNBC executives said they have already begun the search for a replacement show with “low production costs and no visual appeal, hosted by someone who’s crude and immature, but not insensitive, off-color but not insulting to people of color, and risqué without risking our advertising revenue.”

--- as reported by Scott Ott satirical reporter, author and editor for ScrappleFace

The educated and articulate young women at Rutgers did themselves proud this week. They no more needed the likes of the always comical Reverend Al Sharpton to come to their defense than Batman needed Robin as his annoying side kick. Now that the fearsome duo, Reverend Jesse Jackson and the good ole Reverend Al, have done their best to trip over each other to exploit this media event for themselves and get some extra "air time", we'd like you to ponder the following:

Now that Imus has been canned let's see just how much real energy, effort and public pressure these two are willing to place on punishing black hate rappers and their music industry executives for spreading these vile phrases on the airwaves and in the media? Will they crucify gangsta rap as actively and with the same forceful energy in order to retain any semblance of credibility and integrity within their black community? Now that they have extracted their pound of white flesh, how can it be business as usual without looking like hypocrites with massive double standards to both the black and white community?

The PAIN that found it's way to those awesome athletes at Rutgers has it's roots in a subculture that has only recently been questioned by black leaders.

A subculture of hateful rap lyrics, and debasing black stand up comedy has over the years begun to creep into both main stream music and stand up comedy -- ok, it seems as long as it is sung or spoken by blacks. However, ironically, now you will find both young white and black teens now openly sing these lyrics together in our nation's school yards and in their cars almost oblivious to images these lyrics convey, as the subculture blends into one grey color that disrespects not only women but life itself glorifying the gangsta's life. So what WILL the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do about erradicating these hateful words from the next generation's subculture along with the images of disrespect for women as sex objects and the glorifying of lust, murder and money? Will they continue the lead the outcry and address the root cause?? Don't bet on it.

High profile democratic black leaders in congress have for the most part done virtually NOTHING to boycott it or control it. It's big business don't-cha-know. Instead the current double standard allows both music companies and the convicted felons who call themselves "artists", to prosper from a dysfunctional media, and yes, a dysfunctional society.