Monroe Anderson

Wright's soundtrack, Nina Simone's and Sam Cooke's songs

    No doubt about it, Barack Obama was forced to kick his former pastor under the bus. I understand. You can't run for Cheerleader-in-Chief of America while your spiritual mentor is out front and center badmouthing the nation.
     Then there's this reality: the world of American politics, where bumper sticker wisdom and sound bite dialog reign supreme, is not a comfortable place for the truth to reside.
    And make no mistake about it: there was a bunch of truth telling in what Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been saying. I saw it and heard it during his speech and Q and A Monday. But the vast majority of Americans and my fellow journalists saw a train wreck.  I didn't. I saw a Soul Train of a lecture and sermon with a payload of truth, intelligence and common sense.       
    I ended up into a back and forth e-mail debate about Wright's performance at the National Press Club with CNN's Roland Martin on the NABJForum. In the middle of our e-mail discussion, I noted that it was generational; Roland is about 20 years younger than I am. He insisted it was not.
    Later in the day, I heard from Daniel St. Albin Greene. Dan took me under his wings when I was a cub reporter at the National Observer back in the early '70s. I hadn't talked to him in more than 25 years. He happened to see one of my commentaries on line about Rev. Wright and tracked me down.
    After a bit of catching up, we took up the Wright controversy. Dan admitted to being thoroughly confused about Barack Obama's former minister until he saw the Bill Moyer's interview.
    Then he got mad.
    Back in the late '60s, Dan, who is an exotic mixture of Native and Euro-American, spent much of his time covering riots and racial protests for the Observer. He developed an in-depth understanding and an abiding appreciation for what was going on in the black liberation struggle.
    When he got his first beyond the looped snippets look at Rev. Wright, he understood the man instantly. Wright, Dan surmised, was an old-fashioned black nationalist who had disappeared into the faith but still holds the liberation movement close to his heart and deep in his soul.
    Dan's anger was sparked by the realization that there is an entire generation of journalists; editors and reporters that have no connection or understanding of the black liberation movements of the 1960s. Nor do they understand that while there are the Oprahs, Bob Johnsons and Bill Cosbys, blacks with plenty of wealth and influence, far too many African Americans are no better off, no more embedded in the American dream than their parents were a generation ago.
    In watching yesterday's news and the response of regular black Americans, then Obama's angry divorce from his former pastor, I began to wonder if Roland hadn't gotten it completely right and if I had missed the boat.
    I called Rev. Frank Watkins for a reality check. Frank was an idealistic young white man when he joined the civil rights movement back in the '60s. For the longest time, he was the Rev. Jesse Jackson's right-hand man. He later went on to work as Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s press secretary and was the campaign manager when the Rev. Al Sharpton ran for president four years ago.
    Frank viewed Rev. Wright Press Club performance much like I did. As we talked and analyzed our response versus the vast majority, we concluded that it WAS generational for sure.  We were looking at Wright's performance through the lens of the '60s.  We were listening to his words to the tune of a time when Nina Simone's protest song, "Mississippi Goddamn," summed it all up.
    Rev. Wright's God damns America echoed that sentiment. 
    As Frank and I talked, he pointed out that Rev. Wright was an analyst and that as an analyst he had been brilliant. Unfortunately, Wright's politics are as bad as his comprehension of this nation's problems is good.  Beyond that, times have changed. It's no longer good enough to understand America's failures and to strongly express your frustrations with them.
    The time has come to seriously seek out solutions. That's what Obama's candidacy symbolizes: a chance to put somebody in command that understands the shortcomings and will vigorously act to correct them.
    This is why Obama's campaign themes of hope and change resonate so well with young people. With all respect to Rev. Wright and the late Nina Simone, a new day is on the horizon and Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" tells that tale.

Sharpton plays Harlem's Hamlet

    

Yesterday, when I wrote about the loosey-goosey support Barack Obama was getting from the nation’s black leadership, I only mentioned the Rev. Al Sharpton in passing.

    Four years ago, Rev. Al was a semi-serious candidate for the Democratic party’s nomination for president. This time around, he’s been a dedicated fence-sitter. The most obvious reason is that he’s from New York and Obama’s eyeball-to-eyeball challenger is New York’s junior senator, Hillary Clinton. With Hillary as the state’s favorite daughter, there has to be a lot of pressure on Sharpton to jump on the Clinton bandwagon.

    Today Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church where Adam Clayton Powell once dominated the pulpit, announced his support of Hillary. The Clinton camp had Rep. Charlie Rangel (D., N.Y.) with "Hello."

    But beyond Harlem, Sharpton is engaged in his own political battle with the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. over who’s the Number One leader of black America. With Jackson backing his state’s favorite son, Obama, and Barack, of course, being black, just how should Sharpton position himself?

    How does the nation’s wannabe top black leader stomp for the white lady? How does New York’s most famous black minister-politician not support New York’s candidate for the Democratic nomination? To do or not to do?--That is the question.

    It’s been so much easier for Sharpton in past elections as I pointed out in an op-ed page column I wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times nearly a year ago. The column is not exactly complimentary to Sharpton. The day after it ran, I got an e-mail from Fatiyn Muhammad, the executive producer for Keeping It Real, Sharpton’s nationally syndicated radio program, to discuss the issues I’d raised.

    My ego isn't big enough and I’m not that stupid. I was to go on Sharpton’s show, before Sharpton’s audience, to discuss Sharpton’s life? I respectfully neglected to respond. Anyway, I reread the March 18 column today and it’s still good. Check it out.

    Tomorrow, I board a plane for South Carolina. I’m back on the Obama campaign trail.

Why Sharpton is badmouthing Obama

March 18, 2007

BY MONROE ANDERSON

Al Sharpton is on a jealousy trip, power trip, ego trip and is tripping over his own two right feet. Last week, the New York preacher declared that presidential candidate Barack Obama should not take the black vote for granted. He also bad-mouthed Obama for supporting Sen. Joe Lieberman. Sharpton’s Obama-drama took center stage last week when the New York Post reported a pro-Hillary activist charged that a jealous Rev. Al was out to do deadly damage to Obama’s presidential bid. “He’s saying that Obama never did anything for the community, never worked with anybody from the community, that nobody knows the people around him, that he’s a candidate driven by white leadership,” the Post quoted the activist.

Bathing in the warmth of glowing television cameras and hyped by headlines, once again, Sharpton denied and deflected. He wasn’t jealous; he was just doing what he’s always done, he said. “I want to talk about a civil rights agenda as a priority.”

That civil rights agenda Sharpton wants to talk about is just fine if you’re in the presidential race to see if you can get more votes than the Rev. Jesse Jackson did back in the ‘80s so that you can claim the de facto Leader-of-Black-America crown. But it won’t play in Peoria if you are seeking to become Ruler of the Free World. That calls for universal, not racial, appeal. And whether Sharpton knows it or not, universality in good hands is great for civil rights. Universal health care appeals to all Americans but will help African Americans proportionately more. An African-American president, elected on universal appeal, can launch a public school initiative that will ensure that each child is well-educated and that voting rights are enforced.

To say that Sharpton is jealous is about as obvious as saying that America’s not about to elect a black man who wears his hair conked. Why should the media again seek out Rev. Sharpton, a self-appointed leader, when it can call on Sen. Obama, the first competitive African-American presidential candidate? Why go to Sharpton to get a quick quip on how we’re losing the war on poverty, when you can go to top-tier candidate Obama for a substantial response on what he’d do about us losing the war in Iraq?

Some of the over-the-hill New York politician’s over-the-top anti-Obama snipes and gripes are transparent. Lieberman for one. While both he and Obama opposed the Iraq war, Sharpton tongue-lashed the Illinois senator for campaigning in Connecticut for the pro-war Lieberman. Sharpton failed to mention that Obama’s support came during the primary with the balance of power in the U.S. Senate up for grabs. In the general election, Obama backed the party nominee, Ned Lamont. In both elections, Obama was acting as a loyal Democrat. Sometimes Sharpton does not.

In his 2004 presidential loss, Sharpton strangely fellowshipped with GOP Watergate trickster Roger Stone. Back during that symbiotic relationship between the civil rights leader and the right-wing operative, I’m not sure who was tricking whom. A Village Voice investigation revealed that Sharpton’s campaign was staffed, financed and finessed by Stone and other rich Republican conservatives. The Stone hookup also helped pave the way for Sharpton’s unlimited access to Fox Cable News, the semi-official Voice of the Bush White House. The Republican strategy was to keep hope alive in Sharpton’s campaign, allowing him to bloody the eventual Democratic nominee, undermining the chances of the Democrats winning the presidential election. With a war chest of a mere $600,000 for the 2004 race — Richard M. Daley had 10 times that amount for a run in a sure-win contest — I’m not sure what was Sharpton’s strategy.

Power to the people protests aside, Sharpton has a history of hanging with the GOP — from 1986 when he endorsed Republican Al D’Amato for the U.S. Senate to his 2004 presidential bid when his campaign co-chairman gave as much money to the Bush-Cheney campaign as to Sharpton’s.

Sharpton hasn’t said whether he’ll endorse Obama or make another run for the presidency himself. He may be waiting for Fox’s flamethrower Bill O’Reilly to cheer him on before he makes the big decision.

Barack's back

    I find it curious that not all of black America’s civil rights organizations and its power elite are enthusiastically backing Barack Obama.
    My curiosity evolves not out of the traditional tried-and-true black and white purview or from simply peering through a rose-tinted lens but because I’m approaching it from an ethnic stance, not a racial one. If a pro-Israel Jewish-American candidate had a real shot at winning the Democratic party’s nomination for president, would leaders from the Anti-Defamation League or Jewish Defense League lay back in the cut until . . . ? If an Italian-American or a Polish-American ended up being the Democratic party’s front-running candidate, what would most Polish American or Italian-American politicians and community leaders do? So why are so many African-American leaders ambivalent, if not outright AWOL? And why are some of them backing the wife of our "first black president" while backstabbing the man who could be our first real African American Commander-In-Chief?
    Earlier this week, William Jelani Cobb, a history professor at the historically black Spelman College, had a widely-circulated Outlook piece tackling the issue. The headline read: Civil rights leaders aloof from Obama. Here’s how the piece began, click here to read it in its entirety.

   

    There was a time in the not-too-distant past when "black president" was synonymous with "president of black America." That was the office to which Jesse Jackson appointed himself in the 1970s — resigned to the fact that the actual presidency was out of reach. In 2003, Chris Rock wrote and directed "Head of State," a film about the first black man to win the presidency. (It was a comedy.) And in the ultimate concession, some African-Americans have attempted to bestow the title of black president upon Bill Clinton — a white man.
    In the wake of his strong showing in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has already permanently changed the meaning of that term. It is no longer an oxymoron or a quixotic in-joke. And this, perhaps more than anything else, explains his tortured relationship with black civil rights leaders.
    The most amazing thing about the 2008 presidential race is not that a black man is a bona fide contender, but the lukewarm response he has received from the luminaries whose sacrifices made this run possible. With the notable exception of Joseph Lowery, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference veteran who gave a stirring invocation at Obama's Atlanta campaign rally in June and subsequently endorsed him, Obama has been running without much support from many of the most recognizable black figures in the political landscape.

    In Cobb’s commentary, he cited the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s criticism of Obama for not championing the “Jena Six” cause. Rev. Jackson took issue with Cobb’s wrist-slap, making a defensive rebuttal in his own commentary which ran under the headline: Barack Obama is Not a Threat.
    This is part of Jackson’s rebuttal, click here to read the rest: “I have supported Obama's campaign since early on. But civil rights leaders have always played a somewhat separate role from presidential candidates. Free from the constraints of sound bites and pollsters and the politics of compromise, we are able to speak truth to power and apply positive leverage to get inequality issues on the candidates' agendas.”
    Jackson should know better. Inequality issues were the driving force behind his two runs for the Democratic party’s nomination in 1980s and they automatically and instantaneously limited his potential to win. Rev. Al Sharpton, who ran for the Democratic party’s nomination on the inequality platform four years ago, did not fare as nearly as well as Jackson.
    The reason Obama is poised to be the first African American standard bearer in the Democrat’s bid for the presidency is because he’s not running on what have been stereotyped as black issues. His stage is larger than that. He is addressing and debating the same issues that Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are addressing and debating. Should he win the party’s nomination and then go on to defeat the Republican presidential nominee, Obama will be free to push any inequality issues that need pressing.
    And should he fail to do the job the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton and the other black power brokers in the civil rights community believe he should be doing, I have no doubt that they’ll have his ear. Nor do I doubt that when they pull his coattail, he’ll be more understanding and more receptive to their inequality-issue pitch than any previous occupant in the White House–much more so than the last Clinton or, if it turns out that way, the other Clinton.

E-mails about the I-Man

   

    When I wrote my column at Don Imus’ firing in April, I got an avalanche of e-mails. I’m sharing a few of the 363 I received. As I mentioned my Sunday’s post, I argued that instead of jettisoning the shock jock off into cyberspace or somewhere else where he wouldn’t be accountable, we should give him a chance to prove he’d learned his lesson. Well, if we are to take him at his word from his first new broadcast, he has become much wiser. He not only has a black woman, as I suggested in my column, but a black man as well. Since Karith Foster and Tony Powell are  both comedians, we'll have to wait and see if their voices measure up to the mega watt that heir boss projects.

    Time, of course, will tell the tale but the I-Man seems to have become a new man. As you read the e-mails that I received (all were addressed to me, some assumed from the argument I made that I was white) after my April 15 Chicago Sun-Times column, the notion that he’d be a new, improved shock jock was not universal.

   

  Bob Herbert wrote in the NY Times, "The real question is whether this controversy is loud enough to shock Americans at long last into the realization of just how profoundly racist and sexist the culture is." You bet. You go to the court of public opinion with Al Sharpton as the judge and you're going to get lynched. 
    Imus got lynched. OJ is playing golf. Case closed.–KC Remington

    THANK YOU! For having the stones to go against the grain and put into print what most of us feel. Imus is a grumpy old foul mouthed ass, which is why i subscribed to MSNBC (and have cancelled since last thursday). I'm sure this will be a huge victory for that idiot Sharpton at the "Ebony-Awards". I wish i could speak up for Imus at the "Whitey-Awards". OH, wait a minute,  there is NO Whitey-Awards, cos that would be racist against Blacks. Thanks again for your courage to write this article.--Dana Olsvik

    Had your child worked hard to attend college and in the process was a runner-up in a national championship, then was referred to as a stringy haired cracker bitch, you might not have the same attitude.–Oscar Brewer, Jr.

    Don didn't cull anybody or anything.  He called an ace an ace, a spade a spade. I too don't care for tattoos, especially on women. Hate that women try to be a man; women should not be allowed to play any sport. America is the only country that supports, promotes women sports activities. The name of the game is money!
    The most unruly member of our body is the tongue. In the good U.S of A. our Constitution allows the American populaces freedom of speech.
    The King James Bible and the Torah blacks are mention in an uncomplimentary manner. The Bible, Torah written by men inspired of GOD.–Doug

   

    I have to thank you your article gave me a much needed chuckle. What black woman in her right mind do you think would go on that show? After how he has talked about Maya Angelou, Gwen Ifill and the girls on that team he has shown a contempt for black women in general.  No black woman had been on his show for years because he had a bad reputation. Why would you expect that to change after this mess?
    And do you think people wouldn't be able to see past the desperate tokenism involved in having this woman on his show? You may not feel he should have been fired however to think that the black community that never supported this man would work to save what was left of his career is crazy.–Valerie Logan

    Thank you for your article on the firing of IMUS. I have watched IMUS every morning for years and have come to depend on the show for my news. It is the only show where you can actually get to know political figures and get some honest, real dialogue. I disregarded his vulgar side (as a non, stick thin white female), and have to admit that I laughed at some, like Cardinal Egan. In any event, his show was personal to alot of people. Guests told stories about themselves and their families and their views on politics and other subjects. It was obvious that IMUS was a caring person and I think if brought out some caring viewers rather than the Howard Stern types. I also think it educated alot of viewers on issues they would never hear anywhere else, while also entertaining them and starting their day with a smile.
         It happened so fast, so unfairly. What other choices are there for his viewers? Fox and Friends? I don't think so. 
    I wonder how African Americans would feel if one day Tom Joyner disappeared for a mistake that discovered as a gotcha moment?
    Once again, thank you for your thoughtful and courageous and honest opinion.–Mary Cass

    imus got fired...and?  who cares, this isn't a blow to freedom of speech, heads up, there is no freedom of speech.  it's just another asshole out of a job, but don't worry.  he'll be back someday making more money than you and i, doing not funny things for not funny people.  and his cancer ranch, wow, those kids must be sooooo stoked to sit on a horse after chemotherapy!--Jonathan Heckman

    I couldn't agree with you more.  The crusade lead by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton was disgraceful.  They should clean up their own act first.  The sensible way to have handled this was a suspension followed by a restructuring of the Imus in the Morning show.  No one is excusing what he said.  But take a look at this man.  He is not a racist.  Left to handle it he would have turned this around to have a positive influence on race relations in this country.  All that has happened here has fanned the flames of racism that lie just under the surface in far too many Americans.  It has been a total over-reaction on the part of too many people.  Thanks for your column.--Pat O'Brien.

    YOU ARE A RACIST WHO IS JUST JUSTIFYING A LONG RECORD OF RACISM, STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND FOR ONCE ACCEPT RESPONSIBLITY FOR WRONG DOING! -KARMA WILL CHASE YOU DOWN LIKE THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST, BE IT THROUGH YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS OR YOUR OWN
HEALTH AND WE BEING--BRITTANY walker

    Monroe!  God Bless You!!  I read your piece on Imus on Google News.  He is needed more than not, I agree.  While I'm not a big fan of his, to have him removed from his post is beyond ridiculous.  I think Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Faracon are the worst things that could have happened to black Americans.  Martin Luther King I put in the same light.  Instead of trying to lead their people in a positive direction, they'd rather stir shit for their own glorification and gain.  And what gets me is their people actually believe the crap they spew. I am hoping that this thing backfires on them, and even some of their own see them as the useless mouths that they are. 
    While indeed I think equal rights are for all, to me the whole civil rights thing teaches the blacks to not want an education, job, or fathers; just checks in the mail and any excuse to cry discrimination, racism, demonstrate, complain over nothing, and generate one more brain-dead resource-sucking generation after another.  They are in reality it seems
to me to be sealing their own doom, along with our own.
    What I see on BET and other black entertainment channels is about as vile, disgusting and sickening as anything I've ever seen.  I'm 56 years old and that crap should be outlawed I think.  What role models are they? The influence it has on young  people of any color is evident in the way they now act, talk, look and think.  I see America as I knew it when I was young gone forever, replaced by uneducated, lazy, fat, bent- valued, welfare-sucking, Godless, deplorable generations that are killing our country.  The USA will fall from the inside out, not from conquering armies the way I see it. While I'm  not racist I personally believe we've passed the point of no return, and if  we don't wake up and call a spade a spade (no pun intended) real soon, our society is in deep shit.
    I hope you don't get fired for putting your opinion in print, but chances are some are already lining up against you, to pin a racist tag on your butt.  You and the few others who are coming out on this ridiculous crap are about all America has left. I hope some good comes from it all.  Good Luck, and again God Bless You.  I hope some kind of way you have time to read this, and keep up the good work.–Gene

    Imus is wrong and should not have a show at all ever from the day he start his rampage of rude insults! I think that if you can even justify his actions.. then you also should be fired!–Wonderful Spendid

     Monroe, Why would you make such an insulting admonition? Was your intention or motive centered around getting some much needed guidance for future responses to "folks who get second chances and really deserve them."
    I grew up with you, I've watched you become the best at what you do in a number of areas of expertise in journalism one-up-manship. If  you don't have it all, it certainly appears you have accomplished and maintained a level of integrity that should not be questioned by suggesting such a stupid utterance that implies "not putting a muzzle on a pitbull that could possibly rip your throat out if a careless owner felt he was harmless."
    Perhaps you are working too many hours these days and should probably cut back ASAP.(lol) However, lets cut to the chase. Imus insulted a group of black women who did not deserve that kind litmus; attacking the winning ways of not only a team of skilled athletes but educated black women seeking their dreams of becoming  something other than just an athlete.    
   Monroe,  "What are you  thinking....give this guy a way out and surely he'll take it". He deserves exactly what he got, "Fired." I'm still disheartened that his cohorts did not get the ax ,also. Maybe they are five minutes away from career ending assaults that are going to come in the form of "Imus inspired retribution to continue his bullshit message of inclusion and exclusion of straight haired ho's". Are you getting the picture...? You don't need anyone to wonder where it is that you are now coming from at this particular time. Always...accurate and to the point have you come across...Please don't change your ways now because of an idiot who demeaning remarks and worthlessness all of sudden can impact the moral fabric of not only how we feel about our mothers but equally our daughters. Cast the stone where it belongs. –Paul Griffin


    As you stated, put a sharp tongue Black woman who perspective is totally different than Imus and his producer, and they will bow yieldingly to comprehending the derogatory remarks they make. First thing they would do is LOOK OVER at the Black Woman and think six times before saying it. Now there is no one to guard their mouths. If a person has been doing it for 30 years, some one else will find a way to pay them to continue to do so.–David Robinson

    Amen!
    Peoples anger often causes them to miss an opportunity to grow. After
9-11, it would have been very easy to sell this country on making personal changes to end our dependence on foreign oil. Instead of ending our entanglement with the middle easterners, we chose to kill them. Similarly, Imus could have ended up being the greatest example of
reformed thinking on the air. Instead we got more blood in the water. Its as if we never learn.--Corky Coreson

   
   

Imus redux

    Like it or not, Don Imus is back. Come first thing Monday morning, the shock jock reboots his broadcast career on WABC-AM and on satellite TV. I’m not surprised. In an op-ed column in the Chicago Sun-Times nearly eight months ago, I predicted something like this would happen. I argued that Imus shouldn’t have been fired but taken at his word to make amends. I got some redhot reaction to my position. On any given week during the 17 months I wrote my Sunday S-T column, I received between two and 22 e-mails. The Imus column, ignited 363 e-mail responses--from across the country and around the world. I’ll post some of them tomorrow. Today, I’m posting the April 15, 2007 opinion piece. Before you work yourself into a tirade--or succumb to an impulse to congratulate me for defending a victimized man--I ask that you read the entire piece and give it some thought.

Imus shouldn't have been fired

By Monroe Anderson

I know I'm plunging into dangerous waters, but I've got to go against the raging Don Imus tide. I think he could have been given much more time off for bad behavior but should not have received from MSNBC and CBS Radio what amounts to corporate capital punishment.

Before I go any further, let me confirm what I believe is obvious: Imus is a grumpy-butt, foul mouth, ol' coot. Pardon the name calling, but I'm just trying to get in the ''Imus in the Morning'' spirit that spawned the ''nappy-headed hos'' riffing between Imus and Bernard McGuirk, the show's on-air executive producer.

Imus has a three-decades-old history of spewing hateful and hurtful remarks on the air. The daddy of all shock jocks hasn't limited his nasty remarks solely to teenage girls attending Rutgers University. He has intentionally insulted blacks, women, Jews, Arabs, Catholics and gays. A litany of his ''errant comments,'' as Fox Cable Network's Neil Cavuto would describe them, is listed on Media Matters for America, the watchdog Web site that first posted Imus' comments online. He has referred to black athletes as simians and Arabs as ''towel heads.''

But there is more than sexist and racist ranting to the man Time magazine once named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America. Sometimes bad Imus lets good Imus out to do good work. For the past nine years, his Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer has brought some measure of comfort and joy to seriously ill children regardless of race, creed or national origin. On his last day on the air, Imus was fund-raising for three charities -- two for children with cancer, one for families who have lost babies to SIDS, bringing in more than $2 million in contributions.

There's no charitable thinking in my belief that the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Sen. Barack Obama and almost every group and individual who demanded that Imus be canned was wrong. I believe this despite similar demands from NBC heavyweight Al Roker and Bruce Gordon, a CBS director.

Imus would serve us better on the air than off. During his era of contrition last week, when he was broadcasting his mea culpas and heartfelt apologies, Imus pledged to make amends. With his head bowed and his Stetson hat in hand, he promised to trash his sexist and racial incendiary insults. He promised to have a black presence on his show daily. I saw it as a bad old dog ready to learn some new good tricks. The firing converted that opportunity to DOA. After four to six weeks off for moral reflection and rehabilitation, a new, improved ''Imus in the Morning'' featuring a strong-willed, sharp-tongued black woman would have worked wonders on the strait-jacketed thinking of the show's mostly white male, mainly conservative network of listeners. Instead of McGuirk and the I-Man one-upping each other's racist and sexist jokes, imagine ''CBS Sunday Morning's'' commentator Nancy Giles, Louisville Courier Journal columnist Betty Baye or Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell present and ready for repartee.

We now may end up with Imus, the devil we don't know, instead of Imus, the devil we knew. Banished from terrestrial radio, Imus is bound to end up on satellite or off in cyberspace. Like that other race-baiting shock jock, Howard Stern, Imus is a longtime friend to Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio. There are 2.3 million I-Man listeners still out, whose appetite for his shock shtick is undiminished. Imagine what new depths the I-Man and McQuirk duo might go to on pay radio, uncensored and unchecked. Or imagine them on the Internet, where pornography is predatory. Next year, Wi-Max -- wide-area wireless access -- will make the Internet available everywhere, including in automobiles. In a new medium with a possible 100,000 streams, Imus would be a definite destination.

We could have kept an eye on Imus in mainstream media. Out there on the World Wide Web, he's on his own.