CBS fires radio host Imus after racial comments

Racist remarks by US radio host Don Imus got him fired by CBS yesterday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation’s most prominent broadcasters.

Imus was initially suspended for two weeks after he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos” on the air last week. But outrage grew and advertisers bolted from his CBS radio show and its MSNBC simulcast, which was cancelled on Wednesday.

“There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of colour trying to make their way in this society,” CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision.

“That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.”

Imus, 66, had a long history of inflammatory remarks. But something struck a raw nerve when he targeted the Rutgers team – which includes a class valedictorian and a musical prodigy – after they lost in a NCAA championship game.

The team met Imus for about three hours at the governor’s mansion in Princeton, New Jersey last night. Imus left without commenting to reporters, but Vivian Stringer, the team’s coach, spoke briefly on the mansion’s steps.

“We had a very productive meeting,” she said. “We were able to really dialogue. … Hopefully, we can put all of this behind us.”

She did not say whether the team forgave him for the remarks.

Imus was fired in the middle of a two-day radio fundraiser for children’s charities. CBS announced that Imus’ wife, Deirdre, and his long-time newsman, Charles McCord, would host today’s show.

The cantankerous Imus, once named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America by Time magazine and a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame, was one of radio’s original shock jocks. His career took flight in the 1970s and with a cocaine- and vodka-fuelled outrageous humour. After sobering up, he settled into a mix of highbrow talk about politics and culture, with locker-room humour sprinkled in.

He issued repeated apologies as protests intensified. But it wasn’t enough as everyone from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama to Oprah Winfrey joined the criticism.