Imus

[Jonathan Lighter]

In a statement to the media, the Rutgers coach described the team as "brilliant...the best this country has to offer...classy...God's representatives in every sense."

  JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: Imus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 4/10/07, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> At 4/10/2007 10:16 AM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
> >Imus was thinking exactly what it sounds like, and smugly (and evidently
> >correctly) assuming that his regular listeners would applaud and his
> >employers would defend him. Whether or not he really is a racist, sexist,
> >homophobic SOB, he talks that way.
>
> Listening to the excerpt, one can hear someone else (perhaps in his
> broadcast booth, perhaps a producer with an open mike) applauding (if
> I may assume laughter fits that category) and commenting
> (unfortunately I could not make out the words).

Here's Jesse Jackson's description of the on-air exchange:

-----
http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/333946,CST-EDT-jesse10.article
Imus opened the bit by saying that he had watched the game. His
sidekick Sid Rosenberg announced the score. Whereupon Imus took the
conversation into the mud: "That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man,
they got tattoos," said Imus. His executive producer, Bernard McGuirk,
interrupted: "Some hard-core hos." Imus added insult: "That's some
nappy-headed hos there."
McGuirk then compared the Rutgers team to Tennessee, suggesting it was
a "Spike Lee thing." "The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that
he had." (In Spike Lee's movie "School Daze," there was a rivalry
between the dark-skinned Jigaboos and the light-skinned Wannabes.)
-----


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
8:00? 8:25? 8:40?  Find a flick in no time
 with theYahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org