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By pennpatriot Posted in Archived — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I know this post will not win me much favor here on RedState, but I think bloggers everywhere need to pay attention to how the mainstream media is covering Don Imus's controversial comments regarding the Rutgers girls basketball team.

Let me first say that I'm not a big Imus fan. I do watch Imus in the morning on MSNBC sparingly. Although I don't agree with him politically, I do find his straight talk refreshing in a media world full of leftist doctrine and professional sound bites.

The mainstream media spin on the story is now reaching toxic levels. Today, African American leaders like Al Sharpton have followed the media elite's lead by publicly accusing Imus of being a racist. Sharpton himself has called for Imus to be fired on his radio show after Imus cam on the show and apologized for his comments.

This is all fine and dandy if you watched the news coverage on the comments. But you get a very different story if you are someone who actually watched the show the day Imus made his comments.

The following is the full radio show dialogue in context:

"That's some rough girls from Rutgers," Imus said. "Man, they got tattoos ..."

"Some hardcore hos," said McGuirk. Imus responded: "That's some nappy headed hoes there, I'm going to tell you that."

McGuirk compared the team to the NBA's Toronto Raptors. A voice in the background added: “The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate.”

Imus and McGuirk discussed how the Tennessee team was pretty, using the jigaboo/wannabe terms from Spike Lee’s 1988 film, “School Daze.”

“The girls from Tennessee, they all look cute,” said Imus. “Kinda like a Spike Lee thing – the jigaboos vs. the wannabes.” McGuirk then said erroneously, “From ‘Do The Right Thing.’”

I watched the show that day. In my view Imus was simply pointing out how the Rutgers team looked in their national championship game against Tennessee. He was implying that the girls looked sloppy and came across very unprofessional for a group of girls representing a university.

This is talk radio folks. It is not the nightly news for heavens sake.

Come to think of it there are two white girls that start for the Rutgers girls basketball team. Imus didn's say man those black girls on the Rutgers girls basketball team did he? No!

Personally, I agree with Imus. I'm not a big fan of girls with numerous tattoos on the arms and legs either. But does that make me a racist.

Imus was right. The girls on the Tennessee basketball team did come across more professional and more appealing. This is just another example of political correctness out of control. At the very least Imus is not a big fan of girls with tattoos, but he is not a racist.

How is Al Sharpton calling Imus a racist any different from how Imus described the appearance of the Rutgers girls basketball team? I actually find Sharpton's accusations more offensive than Imus's comments.

Now African American's own the phrases "Nappy Headed" and "Ho". If you say them publicly you are a racist. What a joke.

Tonight CBS and MSNBC have suspended Imus for two weeks. I'm outraged by this. I agree that his comments were insensitive, but people including African Americans need to learn to handle constructive criticism. Good thing the Rutger girls didn't show up for a job interview the same day of the championship game. I'm sure their tattoos would have made a great first impression.