All Blog Posts from Public Eye

"Try transporting yourself back to the time of Imus. Hard, isn't it? It was just five or six days ago, but it might as well be five months."

--William Powers in the National Journal. He adds: "We really do care about these stories for a few days, sometimes a week. Then one morning you wake up to find that the most urgent topic on the planet (or at least in this intensely self-absorbed corner of it), the five-alarm narrative that everyone from Bush to Obama to Rosie was weighing in on, has vanished from the collective consciousness."

Happy trails, Don. "CBS today announced its decision to cease broadcasting the Imus in the Morning radio program, effective immediately, on a permanent basis." Release after the jump.

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“I have absolute confidence that Les will do the right thing.”

--Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom Inc.,* on whether CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves will fire Don Imus. NBC News announced yesterday that "MSNBC will no longer simulcast the 'Imus in the Morning' radio program." The program "generates in excess of $20 million in annual revenue for CBS Radio," according to the New York Times.

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"It was a dumb thing he said I don't think it was vicious and he genuinely wishes he hadn't said it. It was really stupid of him to say, but I can't condemn him…I would go back [on the show] if he asked me -- sure -- but I hope he doesn't ask me."

--Andy Rooney, speaking about Don Imus' radio program in the Sun-Sentinel.

Check out this video of soon-to-be CBS News Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield, who went on the "Early Show" this morning to discuss Don Imus' radio show. Greenfield has been a frequent Imus guest, and he went on Imus' show again yesterday. Greenfield told Julie Chen that to "stay away from the show when he gets in serious and deserved trouble seems to me the ultimate act of hypocrisy and cowardice."

"Will I go back on? If it were anyone else, I wouldn't have anything to do with them. But I'm not going to sever a relationship with someone who has apologized for what he said. He's my friend. I hate what he did, but he's still my friend."

--Bob Schieffer, speaking about Don Imus' radio program in the Washington Post.

Not So Dapper Don: The weekend doesn't seem to have dampened criticism of Don Imus, the radio host under fire for referring to Rutgers University women's basketball players as "nappy headed ho's." Imus has apologized and said he is "not a racist;" he is scheduled to appear on Al Sharpton's radio show today. (Said Sharpton Saturday: "I accept his apology, just as I want his bosses to accept his resignation.") In the New York Times, David Carr points out that Imus continues to book big name guests from the political and media world, and notes that he "generously provides airtime to those parts of the news media and political apparatus that would generally be expected to bring him to account." Imus' show appears on WFAN, the parent company of which is CBS Radio.

I Got Your Blog Post Right Here: "Is it too late to bring civility to the Web?" wonders the New York Times. ("Yes," responds Public Eye.) The Times writes up an effort to create a blogger code of conduct, which could call on bloggers to ban anonymous comments and delete comments that constitute threat or libel. It's not censorship, says Tim O'Reilly, who is working on the guidelines. He argues that “[f]ree speech is enhanced by civility."

Expert Witness: As Sinbad fans well know, Wikipedia's open-source nature can mean inaccuracies. Citizendium wants to change that – it's meant to be "a smarter, kinder Wikipedia [in which] experts approve all articles posted on the site," as the Los Angeles Times notes. Sounds great, right? Too bad exacting standards mean a whole new set of problems. After six months, "editors have approved only nine of the roughly 1,000 articles that volunteers have written." And the experts may not have the same interests as the unwashed masses: "According to a chart on Wikipedia compiled by one of its contributors, the 20 most-viewed articles in February included 'Anna Nicole Smith,' 'Sex,' 'List of sex positions' and 'World War II.'"