By: E&P Staff Weighing in again on the Don Imus controversy, the National Association of Black Journalists Tuesday said the radio personality who outraged many with his comments about "nappy-headed ho's" should not be allowed back on the air.
NABJ called reports that Imus is in negotiations with Citadel Broadcasting and in informal talks with Fox News "unimaginable."
"It seems inconceivable that less than a year after Imus was dismissed from CBS Radio and MSNBC for his vicious insults upon the Rutgers women's basketball team, that Citadel Broadcasting and Fox News would consider putting him back on the air," Ernie Suggs, NABJ's vice president of print said in a statement. Suggs is an enterprise reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
[[UPDATE: NABJ later issued the statement saying it had learned Fox News is backing away from any association with Imus. In a telephone conversation with NABJ president Barbara Ciara today, a Fox News spokesman said his company has not made a deal, in negotiations or discussions with Imus to simulcast the radio program on television.]]
Imus was fired in April after referring to players on the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's."
He "used his free speech to broadcast hate speech," and allowing him to return to broadcasting now "makes light of his serious and offensive racial remarks that are still ringing in the ears of people all over this country," NABJ President Barbara Ciara, the managing editor and an anchor at WTKR-TV News in Norfolk, Va.
At the time the controversy first broke, NABJ urged CBS Radio and MSNBC to fire Imus.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here