By MARCUS FRANKLIN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 9, 6:25 AM ET
NEW YORK - Even as he scheduled an on-air meeting with radio host Don Imus, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he still wants Imus fired for his racially charged comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
Sharpton said Sunday he intends to complain to the Federal Communications Commission about the matter.
"Somewhere we must draw the line in what is tolerable in mainstream
media," he said. "We cannot keep going through offending us and then
apologizing and then acting like it never happened. Somewhere we've got
to stop this."
Sharpton and MSNBC announced that Imus would appear Monday on Sharpton's nationally syndicated program. Meanwhile, the Rev.
Jesse Jackson planned a protest in Chicago, and an NAACP official called for Imus' resignation or firing.
The broadcaster said Wednesday during his nationally syndicated
program that members of the mostly black Rutgers team were
"nappy-headed hos."
The team, which includes eight black women, had lost the day before in the
NCAA
women's championship game. Imus was speaking with producer Bernard
McGuirk about the game when the exchange began on "Imus in the
Morning," which is broadcast to millions of people on more than 70
stations and the MSNBC television network.
"That's some rough girls from Rutgers," Imus said. "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 has since apologized, but his mea culpa has not quieted the uproar.
Jackson said his RainbowPUSH Coalition planned to protest Monday in
Chicago outside the offices of NBC, which owns MSNBC. He said Sunday
that protests were being planned across the country.
"If he has a right to use that platform to insult and degrade, then
we have a moral obligation to picket NBC and to protest," Jackson said.
"If he can violate us in that platform in the name of free speech,
we'll be picketing NBC in the name of free speech."
James E. Harris, president of the New Jersey chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, demanded Sunday that Imus "resign or be terminated immediately."
Allison Gollust, a spokeswoman for MSNBC, said the network considers Imus' comments "deplorable" and is reviewing the matter.
Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio — Imus' employer and the
owner of his New York radio home, WFAN-AM — said the company was
"disappointed" in Imus' actions and characterized his comments as
"completely inappropriate."
Imus, who has not been publicly disciplined, apologized on the air Friday.
"It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people
were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we
are sorry," Imus said, according to a transcript on MSNBC's Web site.
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