Critics Call Imus’ “Pacman” Jones Comment Racist
By Martin C. Evans and Neil Best, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Jun. 24–Don Imus, who was fired from a previous radio show 14 months ago after uttering racist and sexist remarks toward the Rutgers women’s basketball team, was taking heat again yesterday for a questionable comment.
It occurred during his morning program on WABC radio, while Imus and sportscaster Warner Wolf were addressing Dallas Cowboys football star Adam “Pacman” Jones’ involvement in a fight at a Las Vegas nightclub last year that led to a shooting. Jones, who was not accused of the shooting, was suspended for the 2007 season.
When Wolf said Jones had been “arrested six times since he was drafted by Tennessee in 2005,” Imus responded by asking “What color is he?”
“He’s African-American,” Wolf said.
“Well, there you go,” Imus said. “Now we know.”
Imus had earlier said of Jones’ suspension: “You’re in a nightclub, for God’s sake. What do you think’s gonna happen in a nightclub? People are drinking and doing drugs; there are women there and people have guns.”
In an e-mail message to The New York Times last night, Imus said his comment was intended to be sympathetic with Jones; “I meant he was being picked on because he’s black.”
Imus wrote he would ask black comedian-activist Dick Gregory, a scheduled guest on his show today, what he thought of yesterday’s remarks.
“I mean … come on!” Imus wrote.
Wolf last night said he was surprised the exchange had generated controversy.
Wolf said regular listeners would recognize it as part of a running, satirical joke in which Imus pokes fun at people who get into serious trouble, then cry racism. He made a similar joke about the Chicago Bears’ Cedric Benson earlier this month after the football player’s latest arrest.
“I think people are looking for something there that just isn’t there,” Wolf said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said he found the comment “disturbing because it plays into stereotypes.”
But he said he would reserve judgment while deciding whether the remarks warrant “direct action on our part as we did in April of last year.”
HE’S NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY: Previous trouble involving radio host Don Imus.
–1993: Imus calls African-American PBS anchor and New York Times reporter Gwen Ifill a “cleaning lady,” on the air.
–1998: When questioned by CBS reporter Mike Wallace about an off-the-air conversation Imus had with a producer for “60 Minutes,” Imus uses a racial epithet to describe producer Bernard McGuirk’s role on the air — to make jokes about black people.
–April 4, 2007: Imus refers to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” His syndicated radio show is canceled a week later.
By Martin C. Evans and Neil Best
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