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Ducking for Cover in the Imus Shitstorm

4/18/07, 3:52 pm EST

Imus

The minute the Imus situation blew up, did you know exactly what was going to happen? If so, you might enjoy Matt Taibbi’s vicious new column, in which not one of the major players — Snoop Dogg, major media, Al Sharpton — is spared a bit of mercy. Check it out and let us know what you’ve learned in the wake of the latest, lamest “censorship” battle.


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Comments

lhaughton | 4/18/2007, 4:38 pm EST

Wow… what a great column.

meretrix sum | 4/18/2007, 4:45 pm EST

Well said. Very well said.

suzynonsense | 4/18/2007, 4:46 pm EST

Thanks Matt Taibbi’s for spelling out (correctly, I might add) what has longed plauged me about the black ‘community’. He’s right, the joke is on us. This is why I stopped listening to any music I don’t consider conscious years ago. It ain’t worth the degredation its printed on.
I guess I have to take comfort in the fact that if at any point I’m feeling high and mighty, I can take rap’s/Don Imus’ que and refer to myself as a ‘college educated ho’.

Jon B. | 4/18/2007, 4:57 pm EST

I think this was an excellent article. It makes me really contemplate how media overexposure has really jaded us all into epilleptic apathy. People just aren’t choosing to use their brains anymore and think for themselves. Otherwise I don’t think the sort of regression in creativity by way of media art and comedy would have happened. Mencia should be taken off the air. People just aren’t thinking about their words anymore. Apathy apathy apathy. Can we move forward please??

michael | 4/18/2007, 4:59 pm EST

Right on the money. But Rev. Al “Tawana Brawley” and Jessie “Hymietown” Jackson will never see it this way. It would cost the black community too much money to admit this ganster rap is just plain wrong. I have wondered hoe Sharpton and Jackson keep their jobs – after all the things they said. Then i remembered – they don’t have jobs.

Boner | 4/18/2007, 5:00 pm EST

Nappy headed hos give the best head

borracho | 4/18/2007, 5:01 pm EST

AMEN

ilovetaibbi | 4/18/2007, 5:08 pm EST

So true. So, so, true. Before I read this I didn’t really have an opinion on the whole subject. Thanks for putting everything into perspective.

convulso | 4/18/2007, 5:11 pm EST

i wish columns like this were scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen 24 / 7 in the wake of one of these overblown celeb gaffes. better to air opinions like these than the sanctimonious and utterly phony opprobrium spewed by the usual suspects.

but opinions like these are not (yet) sensational, and they diminish the offender’s obviously evil nature, so for a while to come, we’re stuck with more of the same.

in this america, i and all of you must hold each other to godlike standards of responsible, benign speech and behavior – and, when one of us falters, we must mercilessly stone the poor bastard. it’s the only way to ensure that the sin dies with the sinner. the good guys are never the ones throwing the rocks. right?

Ne-Gro | 4/18/2007, 5:13 pm EST

How many times has RS had Snoop and 2 Pac on their cover?

Klaatu | 4/18/2007, 5:25 pm EST

Matt,

To borrow a term from the hip-hop lexicon as Imus did…

Word.

Mark B | 4/18/2007, 5:29 pm EST

Preach on, brutha.

cobracommander | 4/18/2007, 5:32 pm EST

Great column. I really needed to read about this with all the pieces in the right order. Taibbi nailed it.

JTWriter | 4/18/2007, 5:33 pm EST

Simply the best article on this debacle written to date.

Imus made a racially charged comment. Wrong. But does that make him a “racist” or just a stupid old white guy trying to sound hip? I mean, after all, it IS considered hip in certain communities.

After watching Russell Simmons & Co on the “Oprah Town Hall” yesterday, I can’t help but laugh at his double standard — calling the current group of rappers as “The Poets” — I mean, can he really believe that?

And Al n’ Jesse selling their brand of hate.

The funniest part of all is come this fall, Imus will be back on the air, with greater name recognition and visibility. And no doubt, a larger and more supportive audience base.

And that will be a great day.

njboss | 4/18/2007, 6:00 pm EST

excellent…get it out there for more to read…

Courtney Donovan-NY | 4/18/2007, 6:18 pm EST

exactly!

Woah | 4/18/2007, 6:21 pm EST

Dude. Friggin awesome article.

wxmas | 4/18/2007, 6:25 pm EST

WOW! Slam dunk, homerun, 80-yd TD pass..whatever you wanna say in that class, this article nailed it. I’m a multi-degreed black man with nothing but respect for the job done on this article. I pray hip-hop will find its way. The minstrel show must end!

gjackson | 4/18/2007, 7:22 pm EST

The nation has been ‘clear channelized’ and ‘rap/hiphop sodomized for long enough. Where are the creative people. Smooth jazz! blah. Urban music? ca ching. We want talent. We want talent.

Phil Maggitti | 4/18/2007, 7:26 pm EST

This article is full of sound and fury, but it signifies nothing beyond the art of signifying. It’s all foreplay and no payload, all argument and no conclusion, verbal tennis without a net.

Yuppie Killer | 4/18/2007, 7:37 pm EST

Great assessment of the situation. But what’s the solution?

Shiraz | 4/18/2007, 7:50 pm EST

Great response to the situation.

Question though: Who’s on the cover of the current Rolling Stone? A pair of “Very Bad Girls.” Welcome to the grindhouse, indeed. No, no, it’s okay because Tarantino, Rodriguez and Rolling Stone are all being ironic and co-opting the act of exploitation, right?

N.E.R.D. | 4/18/2007, 8:12 pm EST

Nice article, but so what. Trace it back further and you’ll find our problem is that we no longer have families. trace that back, find out why and maybe we can talk.

No excuses | 4/18/2007, 8:25 pm EST

I agree with everything in the article except that Imus comments are related to hip hop. When he called his white co worker a skank and a slut on national TV he didn’t excuse it by saying I didn’t originate the word. Please! If he didn’t call them hos he would have called them some other word that he and his racist ass ” he gives me my n*&^ jokes” producer came up with. Today’s hip hop music sucks and Imus is an old school bigot… he is too old to blame someone else for his words… old ugly ass.

Ralph Beer | 4/18/2007, 8:54 pm EST

Yup, Matt got the Imus pile-on exactly right. Best article by far that I’ve seen. Bottom line for me is that I miss Imus on MSNBC already. He was the one guy not in the pocket of the radical Right or the mush-mouth Left. Come bac, Don.

Dwight | 4/18/2007, 8:57 pm EST

The whole thing is a joke.

CBS & NBC will regret their error…

The losers here are the kids at the IMUS Ranch…and the listeners who take the IMUS sense of humor with a grain of salt. After all…who hasn’t IMUS offended? :-)

Bangers-N-Mash | 4/18/2007, 9:02 pm EST

. . . Does this guy write for the actual magazine? Becasue he should. I’m tired of seeing Panic at the Disco cover stories… as if they mattered. This is real journalism, and thank God someone finally had the balls to come out and say that rap music nowadays is just what boy bands and commerical country were.

You know rap has gone away from what it really once was (an outlet for pent up frustrations in the black community) when you hear a 40 year old mom playing it through her car radio. And, I have seen this.

Ueno Murakami | 4/18/2007, 9:37 pm EST

Agree totally with your assessment, but I believe Imus should have gotten the punishment given. He and his producers targeted these women, joke or no joke. They didn’t have to pick them, and they didn’t have to make that comment. When making a specific comment about specific people they should have done their homework. I think Snoop and his cronies don’t point fingers at specific people, and call out names. Imus pointed out these women and made a specific comment. Where it came from is irrelevant. It wouldn’t have been any better if he had called them, “What a bunch of scary looking people who have no future and can’t even win a basketball game. They suck.” Did he make any commentst about the men’s teams? Why couldn’t he have said, “You know they lost that game hard, but apparently one is a valedictorian, another is a musical prodigy, and it seems the whole team are active in the community. I guess none of them will need to rely on basketball.” How about that for a positive comment. Imus doesn’t need ratings. Why play into the culture of degredation?

Hip hop culture has a lot to answer for, but people like Sharpton and Jackson, for the all the chest beating do what they can. We have gone backwards since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. I will agree that the laugh is on the black community, to a degree, but let’s put Imus where he belongs. On the street, or back on his ranch. He can devote all his time to helping the kids. I’m sure he can enlist the help of some musical prodigies from the Rutgers to help him. They will be good role models for his kids.

Great column, as I said before. Keep up the good work.

rrdixie | 4/18/2007, 10:06 pm EST

Exactly.

John Noonan | 4/18/2007, 11:05 pm EST

Just about the best column I have ever read…this is just the truth.

Political correctness needs to die so that people can be honest with one another. People need to quit being so damned shallow and/or sensitive. I am Irish and love Irish jokes. Get over it.

macdog | 4/18/2007, 11:26 pm EST

Wow…what an article. First decent Rolling Stone article I’ve read since forever. Someone finally got it right. Spoke from the heart to the heart.

lik roper for president 2008 | 4/19/2007, 12:18 am EST

imus sick n’ tired a hearin’ bout imus!…

Dan | 4/19/2007, 3:35 am EST

What a self-righteous fucker. Every article he writes can essentially be summed up as “everybody involved in this argument is wrong but I’m not.”

Enough already. Taibbi has the same hustle as Imus or Sharpton or anyone else. He’s getting paid Rolling Stone money for this shit and he goes into it full tilt, playing himself off as the outsider. Bullshit. He’s in the middle of it same as everyone else.

Tone it down, learn to write like a real journalist and give me a fucking break.

SPUDZRULE | 4/19/2007, 4:08 am EST

GREAT!!!! AMERICA IS SPIRALING DOWN THE TOILET BECAUSE WE ARE SO POLITICALLY CORRECT NO ONE HAS THE NERVE TO CALL WRONG—WRONG. BEST ARTICLE I HAVE READ ABOUT THE WHOLE MESS.

Glen | 4/19/2007, 6:36 am EST

Great article. It expresses so eloquently the frustration with the idiocy of politcal correctness, but without denying that racism and bigotry exists. I’m a white male living in South Africa, and these issues are close to home.

Good job, well done.

from romania - yes, in europe! | 4/19/2007, 7:24 am EST

thanks to articles like this i remember that not everyone in america is stupid, watching stupid things on tv, lisenig stupid music, eating stupid things in stupid fast food reasturants and not everyone is a stupid spectator at his own country tv show.

PlotIs | 4/19/2007, 8:17 am EST

I think Claude, a previous poster, missed the overall point of the article.

This isn’t a black problem, it’s an american problem! There is no need for finger pointing. Finger pointing sets people back 50 years! Everyone in america needs to look at themselves and ask, what has our society come to where we are promoting this type of behavior? Claiming something is a black/white problem gets US nowhere.

Johndous | 4/19/2007, 8:31 am EST

To think that Imus learned the phrase “nappy headed hos” from Hip-Hop or rap music is absurd. The dude’s a fucking fossil. He didn’t just learn how to use those words in the last twenty-five years. “Nappy”, and “Ho” have been around for a lot longer than rap and hip-hop music. When a white constipated geezer refers to black women he doesn’t at all know as “nappy headed hos”, and all the other good-ole boys in the room laugh along with him; that’s not racist? Wake up and smell the shit!

husker don't | 4/19/2007, 8:54 am EST

Now I guess we’ll all start watching and caring about womens college basketball (yea right!) Imus said they “look like” not they are, no names ,we all know he meant they look tough.
Another question, do the black girls on the team feel more offened than the white girls? Another can of worms waiting to open. Another point, don’t try to understand youth culture after 30 we just sound like our parents!

Tim Kreider | 4/19/2007, 9:05 am EST

With respect, I have one criticism to offer about this otherwise superb piece: the original title of “The Simple Life” should’ve been “Ho-Down.”

Anonymous | 4/19/2007, 9:18 am EST

wow. i am greatly impressed

SaveOne | 4/19/2007, 9:34 am EST

Thank you for issuing a voice of reason in this whole debacle. I live in Canada, and that’s all we are inundated with is the latest scandal and everyone’s two cents worth. Thank you Matt for putting a voice of intelligence and reason to this stupid overblown mess. Can anyone go on Oprah if they are offended by something?

Mr. Dart | 4/19/2007, 10:35 am EST

Having never read one of his columns, I have to say that his was an extremely thought-provoking article.

I think he’s absolutely 100% correct.

Aaron | 4/19/2007, 11:29 am EST

It’s a well written article but it missed the point. Imus didn’t get fired for making black people look bad, he got fired for losing money. He’s been saying dumb, bigoted things for years. Only recently have things changed. Now his sponsors don’t want to spend money on him, and he was losng money by the second. Losing money would get Chris Hanson fired, so why not Don Imus?

Fred | 4/19/2007, 11:37 am EST

Never thought I’d agree so much with a column in Rolling Stone. Bullseye!

Will | 4/19/2007, 11:44 am EST

Excellent article, but I’ll ask this: will anyone (within the media or otherwise) even care in the slightest after six months have gone by? Will any action be taken? No one can predict the future, but I’d bet a paycheck that the answer is “probably not.”

For better or worse, our country has become spoiled on swiftly getting the latest information on the issue/story that has the brightest colors and loudest noises – and we care until that issue/story is trumped by a newer, more exciting event that’s taking place. Long-term memory and understanding context have fallen wayside in favor of American Idol and campaign-trail vendettas.

Again, it’s a great, great article, but Imus will be back on the air in some capacity within a year’s time. That’s the reality of all of this.

Tai-bo | 4/19/2007, 11:47 am EST

Come on Taibbi, I’ve liked and agreed with 99% of your columns even when you were at the New York Press.

It is not about who said it, since most people under 70 don’t know who Imus is.

The Rutgers team did nothing except play basketball and Imus took an idiotic cheap shot at them. Just because some hip-hoppers are morons doesn’t mean that a geezer like Imus needs to play along.

Just like you Imus told listeners loud and clear that he is not a sheep, so just cause other people are doing it too doesn’t mean he was unfairly attacked.

You think the Rutgers women were giving blow jobs at half court or something. Why criticize a bunch of students.

Get back in the boat with Sean Penn and his rifle, dude.

mattm | 4/19/2007, 11:58 am EST

damn… that was a great article. i wish more people would have the balls to come out and say this in the media instead of the whole “i can’t believe he would say something like that” routine. we need to start ignoring al sharpton and jesse jackson. they use to have positive goals, but now they just want to make a buck.

Rockness | 4/19/2007, 12:28 pm EST

Matt my dear, Great perspective. you rock.

Lenny | 4/19/2007, 12:55 pm EST

That is the best viewpoint I have seen thus far regarding the Imus incident. Very well done.

mikeky | 4/19/2007, 1:03 pm EST

preach ON, brother. that’s the best take i’ve seen on this media-induced debacle since day one.

except for the part about richard pryor at the end. i think you’re way off base with that one. pryor really WAS mocking stereotypes and embracing them in order to negate the whole thing. he said so repeatedly in interviews.

all in all–bravo. except you need to brush up on your pryor history, my friend.

Burnward | 4/19/2007, 1:04 pm EST

The only criticism I have, Oprah escaped……

max | 4/19/2007, 1:22 pm EST

matt taibbi has written some great articles, but this is by far his best.

mmw | 4/19/2007, 2:12 pm EST

Outstanding article. I still want someone of color to be fired for saying something like this. Everytime something like this happens, AA’s set themselves back and negate any progress that they have worked hard for. The hypocracy and double standards that plague this whole thing need to be pointed out on a national level. This is a good start.

uiuc_grad | 4/19/2007, 3:03 pm EST

Taibbi you said it! Modern hip-hop “culture” has trivialized the plight of black Americans for too long…

and I see now signs of it ever stopping.

Sad, sad.

Jacob | 4/19/2007, 5:14 pm EST

Nice job. I think demeaning language should be nipped in the bud….no matter WHO it is coming from. Just because you are white or just because you are black does NOT make it ok to say certain things and demean other cultures.

PEACE…..

07/07/07 ——–>the smashing pumpkins new album will be out. ROCK!!!!

please take my rights! | 4/19/2007, 6:01 pm EST

I yearn for the day when we finally go so far as to police speech by word alone. Maybe then this bullshit idea that words themselves are offensive rather than their semantics will be realized. Then we can have ourselves a nice revolt and set things straight again for a few decades until the pc zombies arise again. I suppose the revolt may take a while though, considering how much the notion of ‘bad words’ gets beaten into children while they are still impressionable.

Or to put this another way: fuck anyone who tells me how to say what I think. Meaning matters, everything else is just a tongue flopping around.

Dr. Ralph | 4/20/2007, 12:31 am EST

Wow… I had to read up on Taibbi’s resume after this article. Impressive. Extremely impressive. Keep up the good work RS/MT…

DRob | 4/20/2007, 8:25 am EST

Great article, but a bit ironic that it comes from Rolling Stone magazine. A once great, but now pathetic magazine. Just take a look at the cover of the latest issue.

nwzmn | 4/20/2007, 11:26 am EST

Totally on target, minus the dig at Townhall. You can’t fault them ALL for piling on, as several columnists have said long before Ho-gate things very close to “Satan himself couldn’t have designed a more effective vehicle for marginalizing black culture than modern hip-hop”. If you don’t believe me, look in the T. Sowell and W. Williams archives.

Jon McEwin | 4/20/2007, 12:50 pm EST

Let the rappers say whatever they want. And let Don Imus say whatever he wants.

Steve | 4/20/2007, 1:10 pm EST

Well documented outrage at the outrage.

F’n white guys. What are your gonna do?

Jhon | 4/20/2007, 1:56 pm EST

Taibbi is exactly on point about this issue. My question is this: If we’re going to criticize hip hop in this way, which I believe it is high time that we do so, why do we still give such “glowing reviews” to this type of crap in the Stone when I look at the music reviews? It makes it seem like the articles are written by the people trying to validate the garbage that they’re selling. Here’s one more question: How many times can we HEAR THE SAME SONG OVER AND OVER AGAIN?? I feel like “Straight Outta Compton” has been playing over and over again since 1991.

Mike | 4/20/2007, 2:43 pm EST

Started off good, but..wow…Could you be more NIMBY? How exactly did you manage to completely transfer responsibility for hip-hop culture to whitey? “Like selling trinkets to the Indians for Manhattan”?

Black people are fully aware, fully cognizant of what rap is, ok, and they embrace it. They ebrace the sexism, the racism, the homophobia, the anti-semitism, etc…cause lets face it, it IS empowering to be that forcefully ignorant. Simply because it places vitile young Black men at the top of the Totem pole.

Dr. Ralph | 4/20/2007, 3:10 pm EST

It’s all Janet Jackson’s fault. If she wasn’t flashing titties at every twelve year old in America on Superbowl Sunday the media wouldn’t have it’s panties in a wad and wouldn’t have to overreact to each and every indiscretion just to try to prove it is actually able to govern itself. Imus said nothing indecent according to the FCC, and they will levy no fines! Translation: More white boys getting hosed by a nappy headed ho.

miccc | 4/20/2007, 4:45 pm EST

The best analysis I’ve read of the Imus witch hunt. Don’t forget that Media Matters ignited the firestorm by sending clips of the slur to every media outlet in the country, most effectively Youtube. The Clinton’s have had Imus in their crosshairs since the roast that Imus hosted many years ago. Imus recently referring to Hillary as ’satan’ did’nt help either. Imus has a very loyal following along with many powerful and well placed friends, I predict he will eventually return to the airwaves.

hmfearny | 4/20/2007, 4:48 pm EST

Great article. Where was the uproar when a cartoonist painted Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas Uncle Toms and many other nasty things? Or when they were called house slaves, etc?

Michael P. Whelan | 4/20/2007, 8:38 pm EST

You hit the nail squarely on the head. There is always reluctance in the public domain to be candid in relation to social, political, and economic inequality. You deserve credit for bringing light to this matter in a frank and realistic manner.

Well Done!

AnnCoulterneedsamouthfulofcum! | 4/20/2007, 9:07 pm EST

The real irony in all of this is that the far right who complains about “political correctness” and the “moral decline of our culture” are now defending Imus from the evils of PC. I saw this in my local paper, where almost everyone on the message forum is a loyal Bushie, were defending Imus and saying the whole thing was overblown. I guess they hate PC more then they hate the “moral decline of our culture”. All of this proves just what a joke the whole “culture war” is!

lik roper for president 2008 | 4/20/2007, 10:40 pm EST

if i say something you agree with; then i meant every word of it ~ but if i say something that offends you; then i was just joking…

qp | 4/21/2007, 8:50 am EST

This is probably one of the best takes on the whole Imus situation. It should be must reading for Steve Capus, Les Moonves and all the other media types who appeared on “Imus in the Morning” for “points” (Wonkette) and to hump their latest story or book, only to join the “chop off his head” outrage bandwagon as it rolled by.

howie365 | 4/22/2007, 8:02 am EST

OK, I’m in agreement with all of that but the truth is Imus stepped on many toes. As a huge fan of, and chronic listener to, the Imus in the Morning program it is clear to me that certain folks were lying in wait for something inordinate to pounce on. His removal was clearly a hatchet job. The “comment” was simply the vehicle by which conniving scuz balls with sore toes exacted their revenge. In my opinion, MSNBC sucks, Tim Russert is a pig eyed freak and CBS doesn’t deserve the I-Man anyway.

JP | 4/22/2007, 1:43 pm EST

Good article. Even though, you were more accurate on the state of hip-hop than you were on the why Don Imus got fired.

First of all, I’m not naive. He got fired, because the sponsors pulled out. Regardless if people are offended by a comment or not, when you don’t have sponsors, you don’t have a show. The reason the comment was inflammatory was WHO he made it about. The Rutgers women basketball team were a smart, hard-working, over-achieving group of women. Don Imus was suppose to be a credible radio personality, not a mindless shock jock. So, his comments had more weight than say Carlos Mencia. Ironically, if Don Imus was talking about a rap video he saw last night and described the women “Nappy-headed hos”. I doubt he would be fired right now.

Lisa | 4/22/2007, 8:16 pm EST

Nice job, but I’m still glad he got fired (this was obviously a final straw for sponsors, too). As some commenters have mentioned, he negatively targeted a specific group of young women who really deserved nothing but praise for their great season, which is pretty uncalled for regardless of semantics.

Guymar Dudikoff | 4/23/2007, 12:09 am EST

Sorry Matt. I love your writing, normally, but rap and Imus have about as much to do with eachother as Dick Cheney and Tarantino. They both use the F word alot, Dick must be watching Tarantino movies, he’s lowering the public discourse!

It’s a straw man Matt, a straw man, and really, I expected more than you and dozens of other posters on here devoting time and kilobytes to swinging at it ineffectually.

russandnadonna | 4/23/2007, 6:29 am EST

i fully agree with the column.imus made a black comment but, said as a white man.

pkohan | 4/23/2007, 4:05 pm EST

Taibbi – That column was sheer brilliance. Take no prisoners.

DeezNutz | 4/23/2007, 4:09 pm EST

I just saw an article about a school in rural Georgia that just had it’s first intergrated senior prom. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t agree with what Imus said but it seems really blown out of proportion when there are high schools in this country that still keep their kids social activities seperate according to skin color. WOW!

claman | 4/24/2007, 7:50 pm EST

Best article on the topic that I have seen. Matt you are right on target. Imus had no friends at msnbc because he had insulted almost all of the hosts i.e. (Tucker bow tie wearing pussey) so when they had a chance to pile on they did. NO ONE who has listened or watched the the show for a long time belives he had any malice in the comment.

Let Them Eat Cake | 4/25/2007, 5:09 am EST

Not Impressed with the article…

The Far-Right is worried about losing their Goof-Ball Limbaugh’s, O’Reilly’s, etc…(They are experts and making false statements and “Presenting them as Fact”…

The “Righties” are scared that their babies(jelly-fish-like Limbaugh) and, “Ed Grimly” O’Reilly might be “Invited” to exit their Pompous Seats of Fabledum with all their Ugly Bias…

Racism, racial slurs, ignorant blurbs and, fabricated-”facts” are
the norm spouted by idiots like Imus…

I wouldn’t worry about the plight of “His Kids at the Ranch”-I’m sure he’ll pop up somewhere, where wasted conversation will be “Treasured” and “Richly Rewarded”…

Maybe Murdoch will fit him into the Fox Schedule…Imus just needs to Pander to the Right…Easy Money, Most Undeserved-like Carlson-Distorted views and a “rightie” bias beyond logic or Common Sense-Challenged…

Watch Who or What MSNBC will put on to “Replace” Imus-should be very Telling and adding to their Unprofessional but Sponser-Lucretive “Lean to the Right”…Facism will probably ride, again…

Annike | 4/25/2007, 12:45 pm EST

DUH. I don’t think Taibbi is saying anything new. And if Taibbi wasn’t as hypocritical as the rest, wouldn’t he have written about this before? It was out there. There is a discussion.

But he seems to say, it’s all hypocritical so who cares?… So… what? We should talk about the measurable impacts on women, on girls and on men. There are consequences to the exploitative culture. Why doesn’t he talk about those? Perhaps Taibbi — whose other recent article in Adbusters caricatures the peace movement as a ‘creaming hysterical old woman’ — should have wrote about that instead of ODing on self-righteousness for public consumption.

Michael | 4/25/2007, 2:03 pm EST

Thanks for deleting my post.

Obviously, it wasn’t over the line for wordage (another contributor identified himself as “AnnCoulterneedsamouthfulofcum !”). Yeh, that should stay.

I know my content was on target for topic.

I am left to assume the sin was folding of white record executives into the mix of responsibility.

I still enjoyed Matt’s column. I just hold a poor opinion of the RS filter.

Fare well.

poster | 4/27/2007, 12:30 pm EST

Good column. Rap is demeaning to women, but so is most of our pop culture. Rap has strayed from its core subject matter of blacks in society to more lucrative shock value subjects of violence and exploitation of women. Why isn’t Stern getting fired for demeaning white women on a regular basis? Apparently it’s okay as long as it’s a white man demeaning white women or a black man demeaning black women. I guess it’s still acceptable and funny to insult and demean women of your own race.
A reminder to all women: whatever you happen to achieve, we still think your highest and best use is as a whore, and will do everything in our culture that we can to reinforce that message; Love, the Media and your Black and White Brothers.
The argument that its okay for black men to demean black women in hip hop music, because it’s somehow self-aware, rings just as hollow as jewish men making JAP jokes.

In the 60s the cultural leadership came from the black churches, and Martin Luther King. Funk and soul music was about love and positivity. Check out Curtis Mayfield. People were not afraid to say that exploitation of any kind, against any person, was wrong. Maybe its time to go back to the well.

Harley | 4/27/2007, 12:36 pm EST

Way to go Matt! I’m sick of white men getting blamed for everything. I mean black people sold slaves also but only white people get blamed. You Rock!!!

Harley | 4/27/2007, 12:42 pm EST

Way to go Matt! I’m sick of white men getting blamed for everything. I mean black people sold slaves also but only white people get blamed. White people probably got the idea for slavery from Africa. It’s time for complaining minorities to understand we’re all the same, every group gets picked on, and everyone has exactly the same opportunities it they work hard. Thanks Matt, you Rock!!!

Nat | 4/27/2007, 12:50 pm EST

Oh that’s tough. Pick only two sides of an argument and then plop yourself down smack dab in the self-righteous center as the brilliant voice of reason. Get some real courage and pick a side.

Fannie | 4/27/2007, 1:02 pm EST

You spent most of your ink attacking black rappers, but where were the column inches on the profound inequality between blacks and whites in America? Black people still face incredible obstacles that have nothing do with rap: Higher rates of arrest, police harassment, and incarceration; poorer schools; lack of access to lending and family wealth and child-care; low-wage jobs; employment discrimination, police brutality, underfunded and neglected parks and playgrounds; lack of access to decent and affordable health care; all under the banner of white supremacy that still promotes the idea of black inferiority. Maybe that “white boy from the suburbs” should spend a little more time in the hood. And while he’s at it maybe he can share some of the black jokes he learned growing up in the far-off margins of the ghetto.

zentropa | 4/29/2007, 6:29 pm EST

WOW Was that a Tragic story from Fannie Sharpton.That story is so old that no one is listening any more.Maybe you should start another Liberia.Can,t blame that one on White Boy little sister.

Word | 4/30/2007, 10:50 pm EST

Racism in the south started in the Jamestown colony in the early 1600s. Seems the colony elites “employed” white indentured servants and started importing black slaves. Afraid the combined wrath of the white and black servants would lead to a rebellion, Jamestown elites promoted racism between whites and blacks. Modern versions of this can be seen in Nixon’s “southern strategy.”

Now with your feeble brains apply this message to issues greater than race: income inequality. You know how the rich stave off rebellion these days? By dividing the poor and middle classes into left vs. right.

“Stupidity is the worst danger facing the United States today.”

–Word

Fyodor | 5/1/2007, 1:32 am EST

“Vicious new column”?!? WTF is vicious about it? Because he articulates a viewpoint that is discomforting to some people who can only emote when faced with argument that is based in reality?

Only a handful of you out there are familiar with Taibbi and a guy named Mark Ames who wrote for the Exile while they lived in Moscow in the 90’s. To see him write such great stuff that doesn’t even get into the print edition of RS is just appalling, but is reassuring in the end, as it confirms that I was right when I pronounced Rolling Stone DOA the first time I read it around 1984.

mm | 5/5/2007, 11:37 am EST

This was a great column. I loved your exposure of the idiotic “ironic distancing” defense though I admit Sarah Silverman is a guilty pleasure.

Also great to see someone expose today’s gangsta rap for the Steppinfetchit dance it is. There was an excellent documentary recently on PBS made by a young black man, that demonstrated how the evolution of rap from serious acts like PE to today’s racial caricature intersects with the acquisition of small black-controlled record labels by white-controlled conglomerates. He even interviewed aspiring rappers, who admitted they deliberately leave out social commentary and play up violence and sex, mindful they will never have careers otherwise.

Racial politics really has come down to petty arguments of good and bad manners. When to, and who can, say nigga and ho and when to, and who can’t, say it. Then there are the groups like Arabs and Muslims, who by virtue of having no meaningful political unity or clout, are routinely slurred by everyone. They were the target of Imus’s worst venom and no one said anything.

rizzo | 5/9/2007, 1:47 am EST

Great article. This guy is the only thing I read from Rolling Stones.

Anonymous | 8/22/2007, 12:38 pm EST

I stopped reading when you said Imus is a liberal

Anonymous | 8/22/2007, 12:38 pm EST

I stopped reading when you said Imus is a liberal

Anonymous | 8/22/2007, 12:38 pm EST

I stopped reading when you said Imus is a liberal

Anonymous | 8/22/2007, 12:38 pm EST

I stopped reading when you said Imus is a liberal

libitia | 1/29/2008, 11:44 am EST

once again blame the darkie coon I just wish white america would just stf up people from all over the world come here for a better life that’s how good whitey has it and they still blaming blackie boy for evrything i am too the point where if chinese navy ships docked on the west coast and planned to invade i wouldn’t mind at all.

libitia | 1/29/2008, 11:44 am EST

once again blame the darkie coon I just wish white america would just stf up people from all over the world come here for a better life that’s how good whitey has it and they still blaming blackie boy for evrything i am too the point where if chinese navy ships docked on the west coast and planned to invade i wouldn’t mind at all.

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