Imus Reportedly Plans To Sue CBS

(CBS)  Former high-profile radio host Don Imus reportedly is preparing to sue his former employer, CBS Radio, over his firing last month.

At stake is $40 million, reports said.

Fortune magazine says Imus has hired a top First Amendment attorney, because, according to a source who has read Imus' contract with CBS, the pact encouraged the shock-jock to be irreverent and make character attacks.

"Company (CBS Radio) acknowledges that Artist's (Imus') services to be rendered hereunder are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial and personal character," reads the contract, according to CNN.com.

CBS Radio spokeswoman Karen Mateo declined to comment to CBSNews.com on either the possibility of a lawsuit or the contract language.

Imus was fired April 12 from the syndicated radio show that he had hosted for nearly 30 years, a day after MSNBC said it would no longer televise it. Imus' description of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" set off a national debate about taste and tolerance.

Imus made the remark on April 4, the day after the Rutgers team lost in the national championship game. He subsequently met with and apologized to team members for about three hours at the governor's mansion in Princeton, N.J.

Attorney Martin Garbus confirmed to CNN that he has agreed to represent Imus, and said he plans to file an action against CBS in the near future.

CBS' attorneys, according to Fortune, maintain that Imus was fired for cause, and therefore is not owed any further payments on the five-year $10 million-a-year contract he signed in 2006.

But the source tells Fortune that the contract not only encouraged Imus to skate on the edge of taste, but stipulated that he be given a warning before he could be fired.

On the other hand, the contract may also say that Imus had to obey Federal Communications Commission rules for broadcasters, including a prohibition of profanity. The FCC defines profanity as language that is "grossly offensive" to the people who hear it.

Meanwhile, Imus may be planning a comeback.

The New York Daily News reports he is telling close friends he hopes to be back on the air with a few months. One friend speculates his return likely would be on commercial radio, not unregulated satellite radio.

If that happens, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the campaign to get Imus fired, says his next move will depend on how Imus conducts himself.

"If he comes back as his old self, we'd go back to the advertisers and ask them not to support him," Sharpton told the News.

Sharpton's threat of consumer boycotts caused a number of major advertisers to withdraw their ads from Imus' CBS Radio and MSNBC television show.

The cantankerous Imus, once named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America by Time magazine and a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame, was one of radio's original shock jocks.

He first came to prominence at WGAR Cleveland, a widely-heard clear-channel station, then moved to WNBC-AM in New York in the early 1970s. His humor then was more prankish, with routines such as "10,000 Hamburgers To Go," in which he pretended to be an Army Reserve general placing an order at McDonald's for his troops.

But a mix of cocaine and vodka made him undependable, and WNBC took him off the air. After sobering up, he returned to the air and settled into a mix of highbrow talk about politics and culture, with locker room humor sprinkled in.

When WFAN moved from the 1050 frequency and took over WNBC's 660 AM, the "Imus in the Morning" program stayed in place, the only non-sports programming on the station.

CBS Radio and CBSNews.com are both parts of CBS Corp.

[klingon69]

Just saw on CNN where Sharptongue is leading a march/boycott in front of 3 record company offices to protest the foul lyrics.

[klingon69]

Agnim - where do you come from?

Agnim is a troll. The come from the lowest point of the cesspool.

YES they are preppy and come from well to do families BUT justice is justice and they were found NOT guilty

Actually, the charges were dropped, no court/trial. No acquittal, just a year of degradation and unsurety.

Sharpton adn Jackson put their tails between their legs and ran because they barked up the wrong tree...

Did anybody actually expect anything different from those 2?


I feel for that girl - she is in a profession that isn't acceptable and she needs to find herself a decent boyfriend and life

I seriously doubt that after all of this that any "decent" man would have anything to do with her. Due to the amount of dna found on and in her, she has proven who and what she is.

[cornflower3]

the nerve of this bigot. he should have slunk into the woodwork in shame

[dblbar]

According to CNN today, CBS "knew the content of Imus's show that day and could have edited the language but chose not to"...

Go get em, Don!

[omaharose]

Go, Imus!! I hope you sue MSNBC, too. Because of the way Imus was treated, I no longer have CBS or MSNBC on in my house for any reason, nor do I spend money with the cowardly sponsors who pulled their ads. Imus, get the money due you on your contract and MORE!

People need to stop listening to Sharpton - he's nothing but a trouble maker and a publicity hound, and I understand he is not considered the spokesman for black people by most of them. He's an embarrassment.

omaharose

[chergreg]

CBS caved to pressure on a singular comment with Imus! I'm ethnically a '***" by birth & we've endured, for example, years of many unacceptable comments/jokes (racial or ethnic is no different!). We had no (loosely put) Reverends or Priests who got someone fired. I hope Imus wins this lawsuit & is back somehow/someway on the air-for those who choose to listen/view. Shame on CBS & I'm done with the network & agree to boycott sponsors!

[jghutto]

How is it that CBS will allow such programs like "Maury" and maybe "Jerry Springer" on television and not ditch them. Nudity, violence and cursing are much worse that what Imus said. Every generation has had a different standard that they grew up with which can now be unbecoming and Imus making that statement was probably what some of his age group would do. Society is really out to get the older person but just let the younger generation go.

[agnim]

"Agnim - where do you come from? It was proven with DNA that the boys didn't touch her... she couldn't get her stories straight AND there were "multiple" *** samples on her clothes... tells me she was "doing business" before she even got there.
Posted by sugarmice at 06:52 PM : May 03, 2007"

A female can be DRUGGED AND DATE RAPED WITH AN OBJECT OTHER THAN A PEE-NIS, as was the case here.

Of course you wouldn't be able to get your story right either if you were DRUGGED AND DATE RAPED WITH SOME FOREIGN OBJECT!

These KNOWN Duke Drunks and DISORDERLY Drug heads should sue; so the true story can be made bare by a good lawyer!

I double dare those Preppy Pimps and Punks to sue to reclaim their so-called 'reputation'!

The only reputation those dumb Duke jocks had was REPUTATION FOR GETTING DRUNK, DRUGGED, AND DISORDERLY!

Obviously those Preppy Pimps and Punks got off because of RACIST WHITE PRIVILEGE, which allows them to intimidate and buy off witnesses of their DRUG AND DATE RAPE!

They should be given 'STREET JUSTICE'; since the system ALWAYS favors the racist Preppy Pimps and Punks.

[cmp271]

the Duke case and Imus are related. both cases were inflamed by Sharpton and jacka-s-s.

They couldn't win against the Duke case so they had to pick on Imus.

Those two bigots need to be sued!!!!

[pansycritter]

Respose to Posted by Siddin:

I agree but I'm sure Imus can handle that accordingly and CBS will think that was the word.