Rutgers Blasts Imus' "Despicable" Remarks

But Players Stop Short Of Saying Radio Host Should Be Fired; They Will Meet With Him Privately

(CBS/AP)  The Rutgers administration and women's basketball team blasted Don Imus' "despicable" remarks Tuesday, but stopped short of saying he should be fired and agreed to meet with the embattled radio host.

In the meantime, however, the televised version of "Imus in the Morning" has lost three sponsors: Staples, Bigelow Tea, and Procter & Gamble.

Starting Monday, Imus will be suspended for two weeksfor calling the Rutgers players "nappy-headed hos."

Rutgers' athletic director, Robert E. Mulcahey III, thought a meeting with Imus offered the team's players a chance to listen to him and hear what he has to say. Several players said they wanted to ask the host why he would make such thoughtless statements.

Ten young women donned their game faces today and walked out onto the national stage, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes. They were determined to show they are nothing like the derogatory terms used to describe them.

"We all agreed the meeting with Mr. Imus will help," Essence Carson, a member of the team that lost the NCAA women's championship game to Tennessee last week, said. "We do hope to get something accomplished during this meeting."

With uncommon poise for students so young, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights described how they went from elation to outrage in the space of 24 hours, adds Cordes. They went from playing in the college basketball championship to being humiliated on a national radio show.

"Unless they've given 'ho' a whole new definition, that's not what I am," said player Kia Vaughn.

Head coach C. Vivian Stringer said her players "are the best this nation has to offer, and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers University. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate, they are gifted. They are God's representatives in every sense of the word."

She said it's not about the players "as black or nappy-headed. It's about us as a people. When there is not equality for all, or when there has been denied equality for one, there has been denied equality for all."

She further said: "While they worked hard in the classroom and accomplished so much and used their gifts and talents, you know, to bring the smiles and the pride within this state in so many people, we had to experience racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, and abominable and unconscionable. It hurts me."

"You imagine in sports that the winners circle is genderless and colorless, and they got disabused of that notion rather abruptly," Sally Jenkins, a sports columnist for the Washington Post, told CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked if President Bush thought Imus' punishment was strong enough.

"The president believed that the apology was the absolute right thing to do," Perino said Tuesday. "And beyond that, I think that his employer is going to have to make a decision about any action that they take based on it."

Imus started the firestorm after the Rutgers team, which includes eight black women, lost the championship game. He was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk and said "that's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos ..."

"Some hardcore hos," McGuirk said.

"That's some nappy-headed hos there, I'm going to tell you that," Imus said.

Imus' comments about the Rutgers players struck a chord, in part, because it was aimed at a group of young women enjoying athletic success.

It also came in a different public atmosphere following the Michael Richards and Mel Gibson incidents, said Eric Deggans, columnist for the St. Petersburg Times and chairman of the media monitoring committee of the National Association of Black Journalists. The NABJ's governing board, which doesn't include Deggans, wants Imus canned.

"What I did was make a stupid, idiotic mistake in a comedy context," Imus said on his show Tuesday morning, the final week before his suspension starts.

Asked by NBC "Today" host Matt Lauer if he could clean up his act as he promised on Monday, he said, "Well, perhaps I can't." But he added, "I have a history of keeping my word."

Of the two-week suspension by MSNBC and CBS Radio, he said: "I think it's appropriate, and I am going to try to serve it with some dignity."

[waawaaley]

Hey, There are a lot better stations then MSNBC and CBS, I only went to MSNBC to watch Imus In the morning, now I just moved over to CNN, screw MSNBC. I have not found my nitch listening to the radio, Lots of rap and sexist programs, if CBS thinks they did the right thing, they better start listening to there own programs, what a mess. Some said that this a start to clean up the air ways, and talking points for race relation. You can talk all you want but until you bring family values back into the home and schools, you are not going nowhere. Lets start with morals at home and school and disapline.

[sparkkxx]

spammeister, are you guys going to let the whole "rap" thing go. It is not acceptable for ANYONE to call a girl a ho. Why do you keep justifying this man's actions by rappers???... I really hope you are not of the feminine gender. you guys are dispicable! How can you even for once justify his actions. It is not right for a man, a rapper, and entertainer, NO ONE to call a woman a ho! What says a "nappy head ho". It is obvious who he was talking to. At least in rapping, it is generalized and only idiots would take it personally, but Imus targetted a specific set of ladies...that's the difference!

[joeblowfromcocamo]

I'm so glad my family does not watch television. Who really cares? Who actually takes Imus serious? In that fact who takes Jackson and Sharpton serious? Yeah fire Imus so what. That does not ignore the underlying racial and class tensions in this country. Really it is better to have all these idiots, with their racial slurs and counterpoints, in the forefront of media than to let it fade away and fester and brew in the background as home grown terrorists hatch in our backyards.

CBS should interview Snoop Dog to get the pimp/ho perspective. I think you dropped the ball on that CBS. Think of how many new young viewer$ this would attract. After all another 10 soldiers died in Iraq today for our freedom$.

Were the "white" girls of Rutgers offended or was it cool for them to be categorized this way?. I wonder what kind of music and videos these women watch? Do they dress in a puritanical fashion off the court? Will they need years of therapy? Probably so after the media is through with them and they realize they are just people like everyone else who has to deal with everyday life. After all, another 10 soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan today for their freedom$.

I love to watch hypocrites interviewing hypocrites. Some good does come out of this as I can use this as a lesson to teach my children on how not to act like an idiot when they become adults. It's sad we all have to grow up to behave like children instead of keeping the honesty of our childhoods in tact.

[kelleycox]

Guess CBS no longer believes in freedom of speech.
Guess Rutgers does not believe either.

Frightening to know I am alive during a time where we all as humans will be forced to never speak at all.

Imus has been doing this for years. Best press CBS has gotten in years and years. And they fire him? I pay a pretty penny for my cable, and yes, I have been annoyed that my week has been all about Imus and Rutgers' need for press and respect regarding women's basketball.

There are so many bigger issues out there...more important issues, and I was always grateful for the humor of Imus. Humor keeps us all from taking ourselves too seriously. If someone wants to call me a ho, who cares, I don't, whether I am one or not. And there is not one friend or acquaintance of mine...caucasian, african american, asian, hispanic, etc. that has not had nappy hair at some point.
We're all human.

Spend some time researching Rush L., Glenn Beck (Obama is not black enough), Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and William Bennett (abort all black babies, the crime rate will drop).

Educate yourselves on racism. True racism. Not humor that provides a press opportunity and is a threat to our freedoms. Haven't enough of them been taken away already?

[kelleycox]

Guess CBS no longer believes in freedom of speech.
Guess Rutgers does not believe either.

Frightening to know I am alive during a time where we all as humans will be forced to never speak at all.

Imus has been doing this for years. Best press CBS has gotten in years and years. And they fire him? I pay a pretty penny for my cable, and yes, I have been annoyed that my week has been all about Imus and Rutgers' need for press and respect regarding women's basketball.

There are so many bigger issues out there...more important issues, and I was always grateful for the humor of Imus. Humor keeps us all from taking ourselves too seriously. If someone wants to call me a ho, who cares, I don't, whether I am one or not. And there is not one friend or acquaintance of mine...caucasian, african american, asian, hispanic, etc. that has not had nappy hair at some point.
We're all human.

Spend some time researching Rush L., Glenn Beck (Obama is not black enough), Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and William Bennett (abort all black babies, the crime rate will drop).

Educate yourselves on racism. True racism. Not humor that provides a press opportunity and is a threat to our freedoms. Haven't enough of them been taken away already?

[kelleycox]

Guess CBS no longer believes in freedom of speech.
Guess Rutgers does not believe either.

Frightening to know I am alive during a time where we all as humans will be forced to never speak at all.

Imus has been doing this for years. Best press CBS has gotten in years and years. And they fire him? I pay a pretty penny for my cable, and yes, I have been annoyed that my week has been all about Imus and Rutgers' need for press and respect regarding women's basketball.

There are so many bigger issues out there...more important issues, and I was always grateful for the humor of Imus. Humor keeps us all from taking ourselves too seriously. If someone wants to call me a ho, who cares, I don't, whether I am one or not. And there is not one friend or acquaintance of mine...caucasian, african american, asian, hispanic, etc. that has not had nappy hair at some point.
We're all human.

Spend some time researching Rush L., Glenn Beck (Obama is not black enough), Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and William Bennett (abort all black babies, the crime rate will drop).

Educate yourselves on racism. True racism. Not humor that provides a press opportunity and is a threat to our freedoms. Haven't enough of them been taken away already?

[sparkkxx]

Is this really a race issue????...or a gender issue!! Someone, please do me a favour and answer that!!!!

[sparkkxx]

I really have to say, I hope there are no "ladies" here, condoning, what Imus says! It is a shame and completely ridiculous, that people here are referring to rap music!!! I am a black woman, but please...I am a woman! I have made the conscious decision not to listen to rap music because I feel like it degrades women, however that's not the point here. The point is, he says "hos"...Ladies stand up for yourself, where is the respect for women, in general??? All of you should be proud that he got punished. Maybe more people (including the rap industry) should be punished more often for degrading women! With that said I am appalled, as to how many people are making this a black, white issue (I am sure some women, are included, and I say women no ladies, because Ladies would know better)! It does not matter your race, calling a woman a ho is wrong and ridiculous! All of who are of the the feminine gender, should be ashamed to stand up for this man. Also note, whereas I do not condone wrap music, it is general. What they say is general, and as I often say the women who listen to them are stupid. However, in Imus' case he called a specific set of ladies "nappy headed hos". That is completely different! Stop Ladies! Stand up, and be proud to be a lady! Ladies, Goodafternoon

[alicemarple]

That is 100% correct.

[waawaaley]

I Man is done, he had down more good then bad, he is a shock jock, I do not agree on many things he said, but I laugh or shake my head. Every one in there life gets hurt one way or another, remember as a kid growing up how many times have hurt your best friend, you made up and still played together. Now days we must do it the Jesse Jackson or the Al Sharpton way, don't forgive ruin the man and keep kicking him whiles his down hes only a white man. Remember there are white girls on the team, but they don't count, I notice some of the pictures of the team, NO WHITES. Have any one (white) gone to black comedy club. Since you stand out you will picked on all night, you even may leave in short time like I did because of racial insults. What I am trying to get accross it is a two way street, if Imus gets so should Sharpton, Jackson, Chris Rock, Rush Limbaugh Hip Hop and Rap music and all the other moroons. Speaking of RAP music I will bet that more then half that team listens or dances to this music and its not hurting them.