There are 2 things that seem to passionately tug at America’s Heartstrings… innocent little children with catastrophic diseases, and the daily happenings on American Idol.
First the kids with cancer.. Its horrible.. Its tragic and may we never know of such hardships… and kudos to those who take the time out of their lives to help these kids and their families. They are true angels.
Here we are deep into the season on American Idol and we have this Indian kid… he’s 17 so he’s not an adult in the legal sense… people pick on his hair and his voice has drawn the ire of many and the delight of wiseguys such as Howard Stern and Vote for the Worst.com. I think I heard that some bigshot with Fox (maybe it was Simon Cowell?) has already said there is no way this guy will be allowed to win. Basically….. for those of you who follow these things.. It is perfectly ok to make fun of this guy and his hair…
And then you have Imus…
This is a story involving a very evil man who is filled with hate and should keep his big mouth shut.. And that‘s Al Sharpton I am talking about.. Imus’s nappy haired comment which was intended as a joke fell very flat and like a lot of other stuff he says.. just wasn’t funny. Let’s get it straight.. I’m not a big Imus fan… However, he is right on the money when he went to the Today show and told Al Sharpton that the term originated in the Black community…. Imus also had a freudian slip and called him Hargis, as in the fake minister he used to do bits about in his WNBC heyday…..I must admit I also noticed during the NCAA tournament that the women there were not quite the same as the Lady Techsters of the early 80s led by current Baylor coach Kim Mulkey and her little pony tail.
But Al Sharpton.. He should just crawl into a hole somewhere and shut his trap instead of his absurd demands that the man lose his livelihood. What does Al do for a living? He leads protests about “white interlopers” in Harlem that led to a riot that caused seven deaths at Freddy‘s Store. He led protests in Brooklyn after a car accident killed a black child that led to a pogrom and the death of innocent Yankel Rosenbaum. And he stood beside Tawana Brawley…. the 1980s version of the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, and turned her phony rape accusations into a racial incident.
His big mouth may have influenced MSNBC, a network with no viewers after 10 am, and now CBS Radio to drop the show effective immediately. This week has been the Imus million dollar fundraiser for sick kids at Hackensack Hospital and The Imus Ranch for kids with cancer. Despite the fact that this was the week of the big fundraiser did that stop Sharpton and his attention getting protests? And how much money has Sharpton’s self serving publicity cost this charity? How about we hear from cancer kids what a bad person Imus is?
Amazingly Al actually picketed outside CBS during the Imus Radiothon… (Imus smartly changed his broadcast venue) Did Al implore parents who heartbreakingly lost a former Imus ranch kid to cancer to not appear on the show, even though Imus’s organization provided some much needed help during such a terrible time in their lives? I would like to meet Al about a year from now and stand with him at the bedside of a dying child so he can explain how his yearning for publicity cost that child a chance to spend a summer playing with animals and petting goats and milking cows. Let Al explain it to that child how he timed the protests during the Radiothon as he spends his last evening on this Earth in a hospital bed while his parents heartbreakingly watch their child slip away in gut wrenching pain . What has Al Sharpton ever done for kids with cancer? Actions speak louder than words.. And in Imus’s case his actions for these kids.. many of them black and female…. speaks volumes… moreso than a bad attempt at humor.
Here is another reason why Sharpton is a hypocrite… When a black actor on Greys Anatomy in a fit of anger called a gay actor a “faggot”…. where was Al Sharpton? I didn’t hear a word out of Sharpton about the actor’s anti gay comment… But of course…. if the gay actor would have had the audacity to call the actor by a black racial slur…. Sharpton would have been all over the place with that big fat mouth of his, picketing outside ABC, and demanding that the actor be fired for his comments.
Check out wfan.com for more info about making a donation to a fantastic charity whose big fundraiser is losing a lot of money due to this latest Al Sharpton publicity tour. And listen closely to what Bo Dietl says on the news channels about this topic…… he has been a great spokesman during this Imus witch hunt. I also betcha Imus will be back…. syndicated from another network or on satellite before Al jumps on his next shoot now ask questions later crusade.
On the other hand however, I must admit I was very interested in what Coach Stringer had to say.. She is what Sharpton is not… smart, well informed,…. a role model to young women,. a teacher, a leader and a person who I have always admired. So when she says her players' feelings are hurt, it makes you realize that people in public may be fair game for Imus rants.. but maybe young 18 and 19 year old women should not be. Another Don - Mr. Trump made insults to overweight women with his Rosie O’Donnel comments.. I didn’t see Richard Simmons leading protests outside Trump Plaza.. And Thank God for that. But remember folks….. in our world we are allowed to pick on a 17 year old Indian kid on American Idol…as many have.. Where do we draw the line? And who the hell is Al Sharpton to decide where that line is drawn?
4 comments:
Al Sharpton, candidate for State Senate, candidate for US senate, candidate for US mayor, candidate for US president, road manager for James Brown 73-80, ordained a minister at age 10 (yes, 10),founder and president National Action Network, founder Nat'l Youth movement, only attended 2 years at Brooklyn College while he was the road manager for James Brown. Lists himself as a political, civil and social justice activist.
Brawley case: Sharpton liable for making 7 defamatory statements about the prosecutor
Crown Heights: refers to Hasidic jews as 'diamond merchants'. Led marchers shouting 'No justice, no peace'. A visiting rabbinical student was killed during the rioting by a mob shouting 'Kill the Jew'
Freddy's Fashion Mart: Led a protest against the plans of a jewish-owned clothing store to expand into a black neighborhood, displacing a black retailer. Sharpton says 'white interloper' and later denies responsibility for inflaming or provoking the violence
Great series of points, and the Imus situation shows it's time for people to be held accountable for their actions.
If the fact that Imus called Rutgers women by that name is worthy of getting him fired, then Isiah Washington from Grey's Anatomy should be fired too, since calling his colleague a faggot in a fit of anger is much worse than what Imus did.
Maybe its time to compile a list of Grey's Anatomy's advertisers and lobby them to drop him the same way Sharpton went after Imus.
And Sharpton turning the other cheek because of that gay slur shows what a hypocrite he is. And being 2 faced is worst than calling a man a racist whose multi million dollar charity has helped people of all faiths... so maybe we should compile a list of Sharpton's advertisers and boycott them too.
Just remember, Imus's lengthy career built him a reputation that was strong enough to create these fundraisers.... Countless millions will be lost in future years due to Sharpton. It's the name Imus that helped bring in the money and his lack of presence over the next several years if that is indeed the case will cost this charity untiol millions of dollars.
Just remember - Al Sharpton, the self serving publcity whore whose thirst for front page headlines cost a children's cancer charity millions of dollars. Yet another notch on the belt of an absolutely disgraceful human being.
Imus's lengthy career built him a reputation
But his reputation's the thing, ain't it? Sharpton's reputation is what it is, and perhaps most deservedly so. But Imus, even though has a reputation for skirting a certain line, also manages to be a "mainstream" figure and one of the perceived arbitors (having many journalists, etc., on his show) of what constitutes the mainstream of discourse in this country. So for him to make certain kinds of statements would inject those sentements (sp?) into the mainstream in a way that whatever Sharpton says is not so considered.
As to the American Idol arc this season -- thankfully I've been largely spared.
And here is another point. I obtained a transcript of Imus's chat on Sharpton's show last Monday and uncovered a nugget.
Imus was quite polite, but one guest told him he didn't care about his past good deeds in the context of his helping cancer kids. Imus pointed out that he noticed that among the kids on his ranch there was an unusually high percentage of black kids suffering from sickle cell anemia. Imus then said he went out of his way to publicize the need for research for this disease, and his attempts to reach out to the black media/journalists to help him raise funds resulted in a lot of unreturned phone calls. So he raised the funds without their cooperation.
This guest then replied that he personally had done work for this cause since way back when Imus was reading copy for used car commercials... a comment that really ticked off Imus because his attempts to say he didnt appreciate the cheap shot were interrupted by this jerks lauding himself for what turned out to be inferior fund raising attempts.
I think The Sharpton crew is jealous of Imus's success. He will also have future success when he returns to the airwaves and hopefully without the backstabbing guests who threw him under the bus such as Tim Russert who made millions in book sales thanks to his appearance on that show.
In The World of Sharpton, Imus's past accomplishments are meaningless unless it involves referring to reading used car lot ads.
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