Discussing the controversy over radio personality Don Imus' reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as “nappy-headed hos,” News Radio 740 KVOR's Joseph Michelli and Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's co-hosts Keith Weinman and Gail Fallen parroted the overwhelming support for Imus among conservative Colorado talk radio personalities. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, several Colorado-based conservative radio hosts defended Imus while ignoring his history of racist and bigoted remarks. These radio personalities either downplayed Imus' offensive comment or attempted to shift blame away from him and onto popular culture, specifically rap music, as the source of his racial slur.

Imus made the remark on the April 4 broadcast of his show. On April 11, MSNBC, which simulcast Imus in the Morning, announced it was dropping the program. The following day, the show's producer, CBS Radio, fired Imus.

Joseph Michelli

On the April 10 broadcast of his show, Michelli responded to a caller's suggestion that the controversy over Imus' slur stems from “the blacks wanting equality so much that they want our approval” by saying, “I think there's something to what you're saying.”

From the April 10 broadcast of News Radio 740 KVOR's The Joseph Michelli Show:

CALLER: I got it figured out.

MICHELLI: You got it figured. What'd you figure?

CALLER: Yep. Here's the deal.

MICHELLI: All right.

CALLER: The blacks have been seeking equality for 60 years.

MICHELLI: OK.

CALLER: And it's the Simon Cowell theory. If you watch American Idol --

MICHELLI: That's American -- sudden Simon is now going to become a philosopher. OK. Go ahead.

CALLER: Here's the deal. They don't care what Paula says; they don't care what Randy says; the singers care what Simon says, 'cause he's the one they really respect.

MICHELLI: All right. He's the only one most likely to sink their battleship.

CALLER: He makes 'em cry, or makes 'em happy.

MICHELLI: Yeah.

CALLER: The same thing here with the blacks wanting equality so much that they want our approval. But when you turn it around, we don't care whether we give 'em their approval. In other words, you know, [caller] called in yesterday and got so bent out of shape over, to me, nothing.

MICHELLI: He was really upset with me yesterday. He was, like, so --

CALLER: He's seeking approval for being equal to us, which they are, but they don't understand that we don't really care what they think about us; they care what we think about them.

MICHELLI: Well, you know -- I think there's something to what you're saying. I don't think I've got my arms fully around it, but there is something about the fact that I don't define who somebody is, Imus doesn't define how somebody is. I have no idea why the girls at Rutgers would even want to take the time to have a meeting with Don Imus.

Michelli and the caller then proceeded to shift the blame from Imus to the women on the Rutgers basketball team by disparagingly suggesting that the women reacted to Imus' comments in a way that reveals low self-esteem:

CALLER: Because it's important to them to be accepted as full equals.

MICHELLI: I mean, I -- if, if, if people had asked me about the whole thing, I'd have said, “Don Imus doesn't know me. He's got me wrong.” You know, that's it.

CALLER: Well, you know, we've heard so much from the other side against us, that now it just bounces off; doesn't mean anything.

MICHELLI: Or maybe my response would be, “Look, I'm a member of the Rutgers girls basketball team. I played for the national championship. I don't know who Don Imus is.” You know, I mean, I think that's pretty much the end of it. I mean, my self-esteem --

CALLER: [Unintelligible]

MICHELLI: -- my self-esteem is so good that somebody I've never heard of can't really take it away from me.

CALLER: No, and I think -- I think you're saying it correctly. Our self-exteem -- esteem is intact.

The exchange ended with the caller parroting Imus' slur:

MICHELLI: I want to know how many of these girls on the Rutgers basket -- basketball team listen to Imus on a regular basis and felt betrayed by him.

CALLER: I want to know how many are really nappy-headed.

MICHELLI: [Laughs] Oy, oy, oy. That was not my comment. For the record. For all the hate mail I'll get tonight, I did not ask that question.

Keith Weinman and Gail Fallen

On the April 11 broadcast of Mornings with Keith and Gail!, Weinman and Fallen read Michelle Malkin's April 10 op-ed, “Imus vs. the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks Chart.” The conservative syndicated columnist denounced Imus' remark but then quickly shifted the blame onto black culture, asking, “Is the [Rev. Al] Sharpton & [Rev. Jesse] Jackson Circus truly committed to cleaning up cultural pollution that demeans women and perpetuates racial epithets? Have you seen the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart this week?”

After reading Malkin's conclusion that asked, “What kind of relief do we get from this deadening, coarsening, dehumanizing barrage from young black rappers and their music industry enablers who have helped turn America into a Tourette nation?” Weinman and Fallen added that rap music has made it “acceptable” to “spew anything” on impulse. The following day, on April 12, Weinman said, “We really enjoyed yesterday, and we had indications that you did too, as the conversation, the attention, the spotlight moved to a culture where the exact same language that got Imus in trouble, and, and oftentimes much worse, is allowed. Where that language actually was developed and is encouraged, and where it makes hundreds of millions of dollars. A, a culture that aims at the dollars in the pockets of your kids through music.”

Weinman and Fallen then interviewed Fox News political analyst Angela McGlowan, author of Bamboozled: How Americans are being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda (Thomas Nelson, April 2007), who also directed most of her criticism at rap music -- not Imus. McGlowan -- whose publisher, Thomas Nelson, primarily puts out Christian books -- argued that “if 50 Cent can call a black woman a 'ho,' Three 6 Mafia, Ludacris, then Imus felt comfortable in saying it. So my problem is, if we're going to take on Imus and take him out, then we need to take out all the radio stations that have played gangster rap, since Al Sharpton, the bamboozler of all bamboozlers, said that it's free over the air, it belongs to the American people.”

Weinman, Fallen, and McGlowan's attempt to deflect criticism from Imus echoes his own defense of the racist, sexist remark. As Media Matters for America noted, Imus said on NBC's Today show that the slur he used “originated in the black community.” Rev. Al Sharpton objected, saying, “We have said that we are against the degrading that is done even by blacks. ... Wherever he says this originated from does not give him the right to use it.”

From the April 11 broadcast of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Mornings with Keith and Gail!:

WEINMAN: OK, we're going to play you these examples of songs that have topped the rap music charts for the last 15 and 18 weeks. And we'll play the songs. You can try to listen to the lyrics yourself. These are the sanitized versions that play on the radio. The -- Michelle Malkin's point in her op-ed piece -- which I think is in papers around the country, it's in the Rocky Mountain News this morning -- is that is, is the Imus situation just a symptom of a problem where language much worse than that has been accepted by a portion of our culture and it has, in Gail's words, desensitized all of us in the process?

[...]

WEINMAN: I'm just trying to hold on to the point here. And, and, and that is, go back to Malkin, Michelle Malkin, who says, “Imus gets a two-week suspension. What kind of relief do we get from this deadening, coarsening, dehumanizing barrage from young black rappers and their music-industry enablers who have helped turn America into a Tourette Nation.” Tourette Nation. Now what does she -- think about what she means by that.

FALLEN: Where it's acceptable to spew anything that crosses your brain pan.

WEINMAN: On impulse, yes. On impulse to literally spew anything. And the music that your kids will buy. They'll listen to it on the radio, the sanitized versions on the radio, and then go buy it.

From the April 12 broadcast of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Mornings with Keith and Gail!:

WEINMAN: We're not going to spend the whole morning on this Imus thing. We're just going to revisit this from time to time when we feel we can add to the conversation. We really enjoyed yesterday, and we had indications that you did too, as the conversation, the attention, the spotlight moved to a culture where the exact same language that got Imus in trouble, and, and oftentimes much worse, is allowed. Where that language actually was developed and is encouraged, and where it makes hundreds of millions of dollars. A, a culture that aims at the dollars in the pockets of your kids through music. Is that culture a function of politics? Angela McGlowan is the author of Bamboozled: How Americans are being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda, saying there is no doubt that Don Imus was wrong and should be held accountable, but what of her own people. Gangster rappers and others use this language every day. To not hold these people accountable as well would be a double standard. Angela McGlowan, welcome to Mornings with Keith and Gail!

MCGLOWAN: Thank you very much for having me. And, yes, it's all about politics. Liberals are all about symbolism, and that's why I did the book Bamboozled, because we've been bamboozled. Here you've had gangster rap; 50 Cent; Three 6 Mafia; Eminem, who is a Caucasian rapper; Ludacris that have used “ho,” which is Ebonics, it's really “whore.” But Ebonics being from the black community, and the liberals have labeled that the black language, but I speak English. Anyway, “ho” had been acceptable, and you have young white males that are buying gangster rap. So, if 50 Cent can call a black woman a “ho,” Three 6 Mafia, Ludacris, then Imus felt comfortable in saying it. So my problem is, if we're going to take on Imus and take him out, then we need to take out all the radio stations that have played gangster rap, since Al Sharpton, the bamboozler of all bamboozlers, said that it's free over the air, it belongs to the American people. Well, we've been running it on the radio stations, on the hip-hop stations for years now. Corporations have been making millions on that, so why aren't we boycotting them? And, by the way, do you guys have “white entertainment television”? [laughter] So why do we have Black Entertainment Television? The bottom line is this: Liberals use symbolism instead of true policy. They use politics and broad gestures to try to say that we're creating a better America. And I say in my book, the liberals are always saying that they represent the little guy. But if the little guy stays little, then who will the liberals represent?