NEW YORK, May 3, 2007
Imus Reportedly Plans To Sue CBS
Contract Had $40M Left, May Have Encouraged Radio Host To Be Outrageous, Reports Say
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Don Imus on Rev. Al Sharpton's radio program, April 9, 2007. (AP)
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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.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 97 CommentsIt's not called the Chicken Broadcasting Corporation for nothing.
Look at what they did to Dan Rather.
Go give it to them!
Still waiting for apologies all around, Twana Braley, Duke Lacrosse...etc.
Hey Jackson;
remember Hymietown???
Still waiting for apologies all around, Twana Braley, Duke Lacrosse...etc.
Hey Jackson;
remember Hymietown???
Posted by Klingon69 at 11:03 AM : May 03, 2007
Sharpton doesn't know how to say he's sorry. But you can say you're sorry to him at www.imsorryalsharpton.com
LOL
GO IMUS!! This whole episode is a sham and CBS will pay dearly for it, as they should. When Don Imus does win this law suit big time, the issue will become how MSNBC and CBS caved not even waiting for a cooling off period during a (justifiable) suspension. Then it will come out that Imus made a lot of enemies because he spoke truth to power, which no one else does. Give me an example of anyone in the media so quickly fired, so quickly silenced. Does that not scare the heck out of you?
Amazing what cowards everyone was. I am a New York liberal who now says it was the New York liberal media elite who shut him up. For the first time, I understand what the conservatives have been saying about excessive political correctness and the liberal media elite. They are controlling the agenda and controlling what we see and how it is presented and passing it off as news. Self-righteous hypocrites.
The Rutgers coach, who has to be the classiest lady around, emphatically pointed out that they were not asking for Imus to be fired. They accepted the apology. Chances are Imus would have had these girls on their air and done more good healing the rift and focusing the debate on the smut in our discourse and culture. But firing Don Imus as if he invented it was preposterous.
Les Moonves and the rest of the pathetic backstabbers aren't fit the shine Imus's boots. I wouldn't want to be any of them when Imus takes back the airwaves.
%u2026yes, we hired the hit man, payed him to play with guns, and provided him with a greater audience of potential victims%u2026but it%u2019s not our fault he shot somebody%u2026
He did exactly what he has been doing for years. al sharpton can go &*$*^%$&( him*%*(lf. Al serously nobody likes you..NOBODY..go away..
GO IMUS!!!Maybe he should take up signing Rap Music.And he could say what he wanted then when he was singing.
Americans are constantly told that FOX news is a racist station...........SO how could it be that CBS (Corrupt Broadcasing Station) NBC (Nothing But Clinton) and MSNBC (More Same Nothing But Clinton) could hire someone like Imus?????
Hummmmmm could it be a conspriacy by our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack to lie and mislead the American people??? like they claim our President has?? (which is the biggest LIE out there today)
But I also think Sharpton & Jackson are complete phonies, only surfacing when there's an opportunity to advance their own mis-guided ambitions. There is a difference between race relations and advancement of their race. These two men are single-handedly doing more to distance whites and blacks than anyone I've seen in my lifetime.
Just like we need a leader in the White House (that leader can be black or white), we need new leaders in the Black House.
I hope Don decides to come back better than ever on the political issues and ready to point his verbal six-gun at Sharpton, Jackson, CBS, NBC, the rap moguls, Tiny Tim Russert, T-Ball Chris Matthews, the pretenders on the Today Show, etc. etc. etc. And he can still take the high ground on important issues and once again be an effective irritant to those who pretend to care.
Maybe, just maybe, justice will win out.
Next go after Rev. Al and Jesse.
Support ALL THE WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somebody tries to change it; they get their rumps sued.
What's left to say?
"Company [CBS Radio] acknowledges its familiarity with the program Conducted by Artist [Imus] on the station [WFAN] prior to company's ownership thereof and it, and its familiarity with the reviews and comments, both favorable and unfavorable concerning Artist and his material by critics, reviewers and writers of the various media both in New York and nationally. Company acknowledges that Artist's services to be rendered hereunder are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial and personal character and that programs of the same general type and nature containing these components are desired by Company and are consistent with Company rules and policies."
In other words, CBS and MSNBC knew what they were getting when they hired him. That is why they gave him the big bucks.
I don't condone Imus's "irreverent, controversial, and personal character" remarks, but he was giving his employers exactly what they wanted. He was an equal opportunity offender.
Maybe "unfavorable reviews and comments" by Sharpton and Jackson should have been an exception in his contract.
FOR REVERSE DISCRIMINATION!!! AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!
Hurry back.
His political observations were the best!
CBS and MSNBC made a big mistake by firing him.
Everyone else gets a chance to redeem themselves, his case should have been no different.
He made big bucks for both corporations.
Revenge is sweet!
But good for Don Imus for letting people see the terms of the contract. And whoever the lawyer is who drew up the contract is my new idol right up there with Johnny Cochrane (Johnny strictly for his litigation strategy, not the result of OJ going free)
And can I find a couple to suggest? :}
Asking direct questions is one thing. But there's a line that shouldn't be crossed. The irony is, the only way to get the thoughtless hypocrites to figure it out is by using their own tactics. A bit of a shame, that...
Any and all sponsers that come forward to support Imus will do better than ever before because of this situation.
I'm sure Martin Luther King is turning over in his grave because in my heart I know this is not the way he would have handled this...he would have forgave and say "how can we make things better"
CBS...I can't believe you didn't stand by Imus and you caved into Sharpton...I'm sure you know Imus didn't want Hillary on his show...let's see did that help Sharpton form his lynch mob, hmmmmmmm?
Oh by the way has Sharpton ever raised any money to help anyone other than himself...hmmmmmmm oh yes the Dems...
Hurry back.
I can think of about 40 Million reasons why the crypt keeper won't care about your bluster if he's successful in his lawsuit
His firing was a lynching pure and simple by a group of race baiters who are always looking for an opportunity for face time.
you are mostly alone in your thoughts.
time someone stood up for this ridiculous firing.
I am so tired of someone saying something about a black/colored person and right away the cry is racist.... blacks/colored people talk s***t about each other, they call each other the "n" word (I have heard it alot) and they bash women in their music YET that is all ok but someone makes a comment about their hair and all hellll breaks loose... I think when the blacks/colored people decide that it's time to treat their OWN with respect and teach their children to respect each other than you have something to b**tch about
yeah, loads of money insulates people...that's my point morons hedonist... and deathtoallah Oh how original, I wonder what and how YOU think!!! You guys are the loser-morons LOL!!!
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