Don Imus

On the Monday, January 9, Imus in the Morning, as he was interviewed by phone, New York magazine's Frank Rich - formerly of the New York Times - argued that he believes President Obama should be reelected, and seemed befuddled when host Don Imus, who plans to vote for Mitt Romney, asserted that Obama's foreign policy has been "disastrous." The liberal columnist then tried to give President Obama credit for the death of Osama bin Laden.

After Imus asked, "So you like President Obama, don't you? I mean, you'll vote-"

Rich responded: (Video below)

Appearing as a guest on Friday's Imus in the Morning on the Fox Business Network, actor and comedian Jay Mohr took some sexual jabs at Sarah Palin, suggesting that she used to be his "booty call," and then later referring to her as "screwing black people since the mid-90s."

He also imitated GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain as he cracked that Cain is "getting blacker" as the campaign progresses.

It's been four days since Chris Wallace and Jon Stewart squared off on "Fox News Sunday" and people still can't stop talking about it.

FBN's Don Imus brought it up with Wallace Thursday, and the FNS host said of Comedy Central's feature attraction, "I think he lives somewhat in denial about the bias of his program and of the, more importantly, of the mainstream media" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters previously reported, Jon Stewart earlier this month did a segment on "The Daily Show" wherein he impersonated Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain using an Amos and Andy voice.

On Tuesday's "Imus in the Morning," Fox News's Juan Williams said that if Sean Hannity had done that, "He'd be out there barking with the dogs after they threw him out" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

So much for any scintillating future chit-chat between Rachel Maddow and Don Imus.

Imus cut loose with a withering broadside today against Maddow for what he perceived as her disloyal initial response to news of colleague and mentor Keith Olbermann's abrupt departure from MSNBC --

Having nothing to do with her politics, she is a gutless coward and I'll tell you why. Because everybody knew what the situation was with Olbermann at MSNBC. We used to work there. Tom Bowman, who's our producer, Elisha who's one of our producers, they both worked with me at MSNBC. They left there to come with me, by the way, don't look for any of Olbermann's producers to go any place with him. However, so we all know people, we still know everybody who's at MSNBC. So, everybody knew what was going on with Keith. Everybody knew what was going to happen to him. For this woman, who owed her job to him, she's live there with Bill Maher, a lot of people watch that terribly influential program, not to offer a defense of Olbermann, in spite of what you think about Olbermann, is unconscionable.

[Video after page break]

 

As NewsBusters previously reported, Chris Matthews on Tuesday blamed conservative talk radio hosts Mark Levin and Michael Savage for supposedly creating the climate of hate that led to Saturday's shootings in Tucson, Arizona.

On Wednesday, FBN's Don Imus and his sidekick Bernard McGuirk responded to the "angry," "vile," "psycho," "spittle-spewing" MSNBCer (video follows with transcript and commentary):

You can agree or disagree about former Speak of the House Newt Gingrich's view on the Ground Zero mosque, but is it fair to vilify him with a false characterization of his views?

Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter had a peculiar take on Gingrich's point of view during a Sept. 13 appearance on Fox Business Network's "Imus in the Morning." He expressed his frustrations with the attacks on Islam, as it pertains to public discourse with not only the Ground Zero mosque, but also the idea of people burning Qurans, which has garnered a fair amount of attention from the left-of-center media.

"[I]t's insane," Alter said. "And what are we supposed to have, a war with a billion people? So, this is out of control. And, it's kicked off something pretty ugly."

On CNN's Larry King Live last night, talk-radio star Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced that she's leaving the talk-radio racket after her contract expires in December. "I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart, and what I think is helpful and useful, without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates and attack sponsors." All three TV networks jumped on the story last week that she'd used the N-word repeatedly to a caller in describing how black comedians can freely use the N-word, but others cannot. Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer sounded the alarm that this scalp might not be the last:  

In the wake of Dr Laura Schlessinger's sudden departure from broadcasting, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham and dozens of other talkers could be next to face the axe.

Sadly, the far-left parasites at Media Matters have won this battle by default as conservatives strangely chose to sit out the fight. Now, with champagne corks popping, they can celebrate as major contributions from billionaires fill their coffers....

It's a strange sight after the liberals have been waving around the First Amendment for radical imams for days. Media Matters ripped Don Imus out of his cozy chair at MSNBC for saying the words "nappy-headed hos" on TV at 6 am. Now they've gotten Dr. Laura's appointment canceled over this exchange with a black woman caller with a white husband who felt her in-laws were racially insensitive: 

per·ni·cious \pər-'ni-shəs\ adj.: highly injurious or destructive : deadly

Sounds like a pretty harsh word to describe something, right? So whatever the word pernicious is describing must be pretty bad.

But leave it to The New York Times editorial board to throw this lingo around like it's no big deal. In a July 8 over-the-top editorial, the Times ripped the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law over its constitutionality.

"The Obama administration has not always been completely clear about its immigration agenda, but it was forthright Tuesday when it challenged the pernicious Arizona law that allows the police to question the immigration status of people they detain for local violations," the editorial said. "Only the federal government can set or enforce immigration policy, the government said in its lawsuit against the state, and ‘Arizona has crossed this constitutional line.'"

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This might upset some of the Fox News-ophobes within DC media circles, the so-called purists that tend to look down on the highly rated cable news outlet.

As Fox News is purportedly competing with Bloomberg for that front-row seat once occupied by the former dean of the White House press corps and Hearst Newspaper columnist Helen Thomas, Chris Wallace, the host of "Fox News Sunday," suggested there would be some sort of righteousness in his network taking that seat.

"They absolutely should get it," Wallace said on the June 10 broadcast of the Fox Business Network's "Imus in the Morning." "This is kind of interesting because -- and I think it would be the final sort of back payment for Helen Thomas, if this were to happen because obviously she was very far to the left-wing and if her seat were to be taken by Fox News, that would just be kind of poetic justice."

There are a lot of people angry at BP for causing huge damage to the Gulf of Mexico. As a way to vent some of this emotion, some are volunteering their help to clean up where the oil has washed ashore. Others are petitioning lawmakers to clamp down on oil companies to ensure this doesn't happen again. However, there's one option that has proved to be pointless according to Penn Jillette, half of the famed Vegas duo Penn & Teller. 

On the June 8 broadcast of the Fox Business Network's "Imus in the Morning," Jillette said the first thing that amazed him about the entire oil spill catastrophe was the notion of a Facebook group geared toward boycotting BP.

"Well, you know, I don't know there's many different takes to take on it," Jillette said. "I mean, it's just a horrible disaster and a catastrophe. What amazes me about it is on Facebook, they just, they put this thing up, you know, ‘Boycott BP.'"

Most probably wouldn't think of Rolling Stone magazine as a primary source for information on something like financial regulation reform. However, if you listen to some of the left-wing talking heads like Ezra Klein, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi is in the know on major policy issues.

So how do Taibbi and the other folks at Rolling Stone keep their readers interested in a topic that wouldn't suit their usual demographic? They do so with "insults" according to Taibbi.

In the May 26 issue of Rolling Stone, Taibbi's article, "Wall Street War," lamented the impact lobbyists in Washington, D.C. have had on the legislative process of the financial regulation reform. And in order to keep readers interested, he painted Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., as a villain with a degree of insult:

Citadel Media abruptly pulled Joe Scarborough's radio show from its lineup on Monday, describing it as a “brief hiatus” while they develop a new three-hour version of the show. Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer blog has tape of Joe and his sidekick Mika Brzezinski denouncing conservative talk radio for being simple-minded, one-sided, and “afraid of hearing other viewpoints.”

Scarborough claimed their show was a success because “we trusted you to want something different. You wanted to be challenged intellectually, that you didn't want to have your mouth opened up and have the same old drivel shoveled down it day after day after day.” Mika added that those other talk shows had “the same kind of haranguing and the same kind of ugly talk.”

On his Fox Business show, Don Imus bluntly suggested Scarborough was lying about the new show: “His radio show is cancelled. They're not revamping anything! He will never ever be on WABC in New York again, ever! Ever!...You know why they got blown out? Because they suck! And he's a punk and a phony.”

On the NPR talk show Tell Me More on Monday, host Michel Martin referred back to her joint declaration with Cokie Roberts last week that Don Imus and Chris Wallace mocked Sarah Palin as a "tool of social control."

That wasn't exactly how Martin remembered it: "I made the point that Palin is also a Fox contributor and a member of the Fox family, as it were, but that didnt spare her from being subjected to this sexist palaver. Cokie made the point that the lure of the boy's club often trumps ideology."

But what made Martin's commentary stand out was her bold declaration of how conservatives unfairly dominate the national conversation, and how Fox people mocking NPR doesn't mean they won't continue to champion the liberal point of view:  

Isn't it funny how people who bully people for a living get really annoyed when somebody takes issue with it? You're not only supposed to let them push you around, you're supposed to like it.

Jason Mattera, author of "Obama Zombies" and newly appointed editor of Human Events, said "members in the media treat leftist politicians as though they are at a Jonas Brothers concert." He also had rather choice words for young Obama supporters stuck in a "brainless slumber" on Fox Business Channel's April 2 broadcast of "Imus in the Morning."

"Somebody about your age - mouthpiece of Franken - is trying to dissuade you from continuing that," host Don Imus noted upon viewing his guest's recent confrontation with Sen. Al Franken.

"Yea, he had his hands all over me like Eric Massa," Mattera joked.

And - in usual politically-correct fashion - he went on to address the devastating consequences that journalists and media bias has on the young generation.

"I just think that we know that members of the lame-stream media aren't gonna grill politicians," Mattera said. "Al Franken, Senator Smalley had no idea what was in the bill - and I'm not gonna sit down and play patty cake with the dude...So I mean I gotta go and confront the dude because we know members in the media treat leftist politicians as though they are at a Jonas Brothers concert. They're just fawning licking the heels of their favorite teen idol."

It might seem a little shocking to hear two NPR women standing up for Sarah Palin. But on Wednesday's Tell Me More talk show, host Michel Martin and analyst Cokie Roberts took offense at a weeks-old joke on the Imus show on Fox Business about Palin's first Sunday-show interview on Fox News Sunday:

DON IMUS: When you interview her, will she be sitting on your lap?

CHRIS WALLACE: One can only hope.

Roberts was "appalled" and Martin saw in this ribbing a "tool of social control" to put Palin in her place:

Don Imus, for one, is not surprised by Tom Hanks' recent comments calling WWII and the War on Terrorism racist crusades undertaken by the United States.

First brought to his attention by "Imus in the Morning" producer Bernard McGuirk on the show, the remarks were news to the host - just not shocking news.

"Oh darn, what a surprise. We have another panty-wearing liberal dickweed from Hollywood - of course!" Imus told McGuirk.

McGuirk dubbed Hanks "Tehran Tom" for remarks the actor made March 5 on-set of MSNBC to promote "The Pacific," the HBO mini-series he helped produce.

At last there appears to be a president worse than Jimmy Carter - at least according to conservative talk show host Mark Levin. 

That was the question host Don Imus asked Levin on the Fox Business Network's "Imus in the Morning."  "So the President Obama, worse than Jimmy Carter?"

"Worse than Jimmy Carter? I mean they're not mutually exclusive, they're both disasters," Levin replied, citing many of the parallels of the two administrations. 

A little competition is good for consumers, right? If that's the case, it looks promising for consumers of cable business news.

Former CNBC on-air-editor, now the senior contributor for the Fox Business Network, Charles Gasparino vows to provide just that. Gasparino appeared on the Feb. 22 broadcast of FBN's "Imus in the Morning" and explained why he made the move.

"I always wanted to work for Fox," Gasparino said. "That was the bottom line. And it's, you know, I don't take chances with stories, but, there is an entrepreneurial spirit in me where I want to do something different. I would like to build something, be part of building something and that is why I came."

There's really little opportunity for the spirit of bipartisanship to exist when you have a part-time operative for the Obama administration/cable network political commentator throwing bombs about the GOP for not catering to the Obama administration's wishes on health care reform.

CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala bashed the opposition on Fox Business Channel's Feb. 10 broadcast of the "Imus in the Morning" program. He claimed the problem wasn't stubborn congressional Democrats wheeling and dealing behind closed doors on health care reform legislation but Republicans wanting to be obstructionists.

"Well, it is kind of preposterous," Begala said. "The Republicans bit is, ‘Well, we'll work on health care if you stop and end and scrap all the progress we've made over the course of a year.' Well no, actually. The health care bill already has 213 Republican-sponsored amendments - 213. And for that they got zero Republican votes. I guess they got one in the House, David [sic - Joseph] Cao."

Is the luster finally wearing off the love affair between the White House press corps and President Barack Obama? It is, if CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid's analysis of President Barack Obama's latest Wall Street proposals is anything to go by.

Reid appeared on the Fox Business Network's Jan. 25 "Imus in the Morning" program and offered an update on the president's financial and economic advisers, mainly Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Director of the National Economic Council Lawrence Summers. He said both Geithner and Summers should survive, despite a run-in with former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who chairs the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

"Well, you know, it's really the same as it's all been," Reid said. "That there's some unease about both of them, but the President has been satisfied with the jobs they've done. Behind the scenes, they both still have a lot of control. They lost this battle to Volcker, but now they're on board on this new plan for Wall Street, although it really sounds more like politics than a real plan because it's hard to believe it would get through."

Since Republican Scott Brown won the special election Jan 19 to fill Massachusetts' U.S. Senate seat vacated after the death of Ted Kennedy, President Barack Obama and high-level White House staffers David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs have been on the media circuit in damage control mode.

But according to "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, efforts to spin this in a positive way are futile. Wallace appeared on the Fox Business Network's Jan. 21 "Imus in the Morning" program to explain their efforts to alter the news coverage to a favorable tone in the wake of this news is not the proper course of action.

"I think it means a big deal and I have to laugh, you know, somebody was saying yesterday, there's some events that are just un-spinable," Wallace said. "They're just too big, too dramatic, too obvious - you can't spin them and yet the White House clearly is trying to spin this."

While the wizards of smart are convening in Copenhagen, attempting to solve what they perceive to be the biggest global societal ill - anthropogenic climate change, one of the things that likely won't be discussed is the possibility of the opposite occurring, global cooling.

But AccuWeather's chief hurricane forecaster, Joe Bastardi warns it is a bigger threat than global warming. He says the phenomenon is coming, based on three priniciple reasons - 1) Natural reversal of ocean cycles, 2) Low sun spot activity and 3) An increase in volcanic and seismic activity. Bastardi made this case on the Fox Business Network's Dec. 11 "Imus in the Morning" program.

"I have something behind me here called the ‘Triple Crown of Cooling,'" Bastardi said. "I'm just as worried that in the next 30 years that we are going back into a period back in the early 1800s which was a mini-Ice Age. We have the natural reversal of the ocean cycles going on. We have very low sun spot activity, increased volcanic activity. I have to tell you something, after this winter in the eastern and southern part of the United States and in Europe - this winter here - a lot of people aren't going to want to hear about global warming because there's already signs that things are turning around."

Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday" is the latest in a long line of observers to note the essentially religious fervor of those who believe man is responsible for global warming, and the blind faith with which they cling to the science behind it.  

Wallace, appearing on the Fox Business Network's Dec. 10 "Imus in the Morning" program to discuss the President's European trip with stops in Oslo and Copenhagen, said the religious conviction is evident in the way climate change alarmists treat those who challenge the theory.

"The President's going to Copenhagen - so he's flying all over the world leaving a Sasquatch-like carbon footprint," host Don Imus said. "So what's that all about?"

Has the left finally a reason to be impassioned by a threat to our national security? Michaele and Tareq Salahi seem to have provided that reason.

After the Salahis literally crashed a White House State Dinner on Nov. 24, the two demonstrated how vulnerable President Barack Obama could be to outside intruders. And justifiably, it has not only caused some concern with members of Congress, but also some of the more outspoken members in the media.

On the Fox Business Network's Nov. 30 "Imus in the Morning" program, host Don Imus conveyed this concern, suggesting it exposed potential weaknesses in the U.S. Secret Service's protection of the President (h/t Tim Graham of Newsbusters.org).

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According to Don Imus, it's the late-1970s all over again, and not in a good way. 

Imus appeared on the Fox News Channel's Nov. 24 "Hannity" program and had some disparaging words for the current administration's economic policy. He told viewers that Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers weren't the problem (h/t Erick Erickson at RedState.com).

"You had me convinced - yes, he was. But you had me convinced that Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and some of these people are all going to be in the Cabinet. We'd be better off if they were," Imus said.

Ever since long-time radio talker Don Imus inked a deal with the Fox Business Network to simulcast his morning radio program, he said he has been getting pushback from several acquaintances.

And as he explained and showed on his Oct. 28 program, he's not particularly pleased with the reaction about his deal with Fox News.

"I get this email and the e-mail says, ‘Sorry to see you've sold out to Fox Business, or whatever. But I am not surprised you sold out to Fox Business, disappointed.' Could you explain to me exactly what does that mean? When you walk in the door here, Roger Ailes or Neil Cavuto or what's the other fat guy's name? Kevin McGee? Not the other fat guy, that was unfortunate."

Is Fox News Channel president Roger Ailes about to score another big name personality for his fledgling off-spin business channel? According to The New York Times television and digital media reporter Brian Stelter, News Corp's (NASDAQ:NWS) Fox Business Network is considering adding CNN "Lou Dobbs Tonight" host Lou Dobbs to its lineup.

"The business channel is also keen on another administration critic, Lou Dobbs, who met for dinner with Mr. Ailes last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting," Stelter wrote in a piece for the Oct. 12 Times about the growing divide between Fox News and the Obama administration. "The shift for Fox News - the favorite network of the Bush administration, now the least favored one of the Obama administration - has financial implications for the News Corporation, especially given the network's status as a growth engine in a perilous time for media companies."

Radio's Don Imus on Friday attacked a litany of present and former CBS personalities including Katie Couric, David Letterman, and Dan Rather.

In an interview with Fox News's Neil Cavuto, Imus called CBS "Evening News" anchor Couric "a little rodent," the "Late Show's" Letterman an "angry, mean-spirited jerk," and former "Evening News" anchor Rather "crazy."

The outspoken shock jock also said the thought of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin becoming the Republican nominee for president is "horrifying" because "she's a dope."

Imus also had some very interesting things to say about his own controversy with CBS surrounding the Rutgers women's basketball team and "nappy-headed hos" (videos in several parts embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Story Balloon):