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# Letter: Readers debate whether Don Imus's punishment fit his remarks
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/imus-got-what-was-coming-to-him-this-past-week-q-line-asked-do-you-feel-that-the-punishment-fit-the-crime-for-imus-here-are-your-responses/
- Published: 2007-04-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T00:39:28.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

“UNFORTUNATELY, THE SHOCK JOCK shows have gotten away with all kinds of awful and disgraceful programming. But this overboard tirade against Don Imus and super-exaggerated punishment absolutely does not fit the crime. His statement is an echo of what is heard in words and songs all the time. Why single him out?”

“DON IMUS IS A SHOCK JOCK. MAKING off-color remarks is what makes him shocking. Even President Clinton did not escape his raw humor. The uncool thing that Imus did was to whack a minority group of women. Had it been a white group I believe they would have considered the source. I believe that the punishment was too severe and way beyond an eye for an eye. The public outcry regarding his taste in humor would be, in my opinion, enough punishment.”

“NOT NECESSARILY. UNDER FREEDOM of speech he has that right. I guess it is just prudence whether he decides to exercise the right. I wish these guys in the media were as strong and as principled in exposing Bush and Blair’s objectives.”

“WHAT CRIME? IT IS RACIST TO say that only some people can say things like nappy-headed. It’s okay if Stevie Wonder says it. How come it is not okay if Don Imus says it?”

“DON IMUS OR MEL GIBSON OR anybody else has as much right to say anything they want in public or not. It’s their constitutional right. However they should remember one thing, if people don’t like what they say they are going to boycott them and boycott their sponsors and then they are going to be out of a job. That’s what happened to Don Imus. It is not the fact that he said it, but once his sponsors started pulling out he got fired. He deserved that because he wasn’t speaking on his dime, he was speaking on someone else’s dime. And that person has the right to fire him because he cost them money. Which he did.”

“THE WOMEN BASKETBALL CHAMPS needed to slam dunk the jerk and leave him stuffed in the basketball net. We still have thousands of racist idiots in America. Shame on the pandering station managers who kept this sick fool on because of his money making evil talk.”

“WHAT EXACTLY IS HIS CRIME? UNLESS I guess stupidity is his crime. He isn’t a criminal. He’s only an injudicious older gentleman who at 65 years of age wanted to project a hip image by aping black teenagers. I think it is so silly. After years of spouting foolishness, he was long overdue to hit the highway and go for a career change. If it is punishment, it is fair. The U.S. populace is to blame because for years they ate up his garbage. And gave him high ratings and big money. He definitely has his accomplices who are getting away Scott-free.”

“IMUS’ MANNER HAS BEEN VULGAR and explosively inappropriate for too long. Having been fired is the ultimate result for his behavior.”

“WHEN A COUNTRY GETS IN AN uproar over somebody using the “N” word or any other perceived insult and it allows movies and television to use the name of the lord in vain or the “f” word there’s something terribly wrong with that country and you’re all screwed up.”

“WHAT CRIME DID HE COMMIT? What is the statute that he broke?”

“DO YOU SMELL THE STENCH OF hypocrisy? All the politicians, bureaucrats and writers who appeared on Imus’ show to sell something found nothing wrong with his potty mouth. Along comes the two greatest carnival hucksters Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to further the racial divide to their benefit. How long will minorities lean on this rotten stick? Imus apologized to the Rutgers team. Many have said and done worse. Young people should not let themselves be defined by gangsta rap or crass humor from old white guys. Define their lives with patience, perseverance and humility. Something the young women at Rutgers have already found. The only ones to have done so in this totally sordid mess.”

“WHAT DO YOU CALL A DON IMUS FAN? An ignor-Imus.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 28, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042807.pdf?ref=smdp.com)