Friday, 13 April 2007
Imus is Out; Ageism is In
Just when it appears elders are gaining a little respect - when the mighty New York Times features a story about online elders and 79-year-old Peter Oakley is one of the biggest stars on YouTube, for example - along comes something so ageist, it amounts to ten steps back.
This time it is The Huffington Post – specifically, a writer there named Nina Burleigh, a Maureen Dowd wannabe described in her bio as a veteran journalist with 20 years experience covering “local and national politics, law, crime, and pop culture.”
Her topic on Tuesday was the Don Imus affair. Ms. Burleigh deplores the radio jock’s on-air utterings about the Rutgers girls’ basketball team, but she has a nasty, new take on the reason for Imus’s behavior. Are you ready? Wait for it: it happened because he is old.
Ms. Burleigh doesn't come right out and say it as directly as Imus; she's more subtle (but not by much); throughout her diatribe, she refers to Imus, his contemporary radio host colleagues and other older media pundits as “the Viagrans.”
“Speeding to [Imus’s] side are the Viagran Centurions,” she writes. “The I-Man represents something to the Viagran Centurions…” “…the Viagrans, with their extreme, can’t-you-take-a-joke ‘humor’ bolster the illusion that the safe old clubhouse in still intact…“There are of course, certain very funny jokes you won’t hear the I-Man and his friends cracking. They are the jokes that their wives and girlfriends share with each other, but quietly, in order to hang onto their icky diamond rings and the rights to the sweet little retirement ranch.
“They have to do with what those little blue pills can’t cure forever.”
Whatever is to be made of Imus and his defenders, this piece is pure ageism, and the irony is that when the entire media is waxing horrified over racism, ageism is apparently acceptable at The Huffington Post.
NBC canceled their simulcast on MSNBC of Imus’s radio program, and late yesterday afternoon, CBS followed suit, firing Imus from his radio show. Meanwhile, The Huffington Post can’t see the relationship between Don Imus and Nina Burleigh.
[EDITORIAL NOTE: Click on over to The Elder Storytelling Place for a terrific piece by a long-time reader of Time Goes By that will remove the bad odor left by this incident.]
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 05:35 AM | Permalink | Email this post
Comments
I was listening to a sports discussion on AM radio yesterday (don't ask), and the ranting commentator referred to Imus's fans as "the over-80 set."
I was yelling at the radio! I don't know anyone over 80 (or under, for that matter) who likes him or would subscribe to his brand of garbage!
~grumble~
Posted by: ronni prior on Apr 13, 2007 9:08:57 AM
It is definitely not that Imus is old. It's that he's ugly!! Now that I got that looks-ist comment out of the way, seriously, it's because he is a twisted sexist, racist, hateful fool.
Posted by: Rhea on Apr 13, 2007 9:15:28 AM
Well, bless her heart, I guess we know where Ms. Burleigh's head is at. One wonders if her comments were intended to insult the partners of these men as well as the evil men. (Is Ann Coulter a guy?)
Posted by: AlwaysQuestion on Apr 13, 2007 9:47:51 AM
It's called "Pot calling the kettle black" where I'm from.
Ms. Burleigh and her ilk gives journalism a bad name.
Posted by: Cowtown Pattie on Apr 13, 2007 10:18:09 AM
She isn't the only one who said that implying that he made the lousy comment because he had lost his discernment due to having been born in 1940. I felt the same thing you did about it-- grrrrrr.
Posted by: Rain on Apr 13, 2007 10:48:15 AM
Wasn't it just a journalist's (cheap) attempt to come up with some new angle, when all the other ones have been taken: male, white, sexist, ugly, or old? Maybe they were using all these words because there is only so many ways to say he's dumb or he's an idiot.
Why people would want to spend time or effort writing about someone of questionable qualities is beyond me. Well, at least all of the effort seems to have gotten him fired. Good riddance.
Posted by: lilalia on Apr 13, 2007 11:46:01 AM
...
I wish I thought her paper would sack her the way Imus got sacked. I really, really wish I believed that. Or even believed they would reprimand her.
Posted by: Laura on Apr 13, 2007 12:39:32 PM
I agree with all of you.
The Huffington Post? Is that Zsa Zsa Huffington who divorced her gay husband and, with no experience or background whatsoever, became a political pundit? What a country!
I don't know how old Nina Burleigh is, but, apparently, she's another one of those subhumans who will never get old.
Posted by: Susanne on Apr 13, 2007 12:46:33 PM
I read Maureen Dodd, and you, Nina Burleigh, are no Maureen Dodd.
What garbage.
Posted by: Chancy on Apr 13, 2007 3:01:56 PM
There is one consolation. If Nina is real lucky, she will be old one day. I wonder how she'll like it when someone suggests she's too old to write her column.
Posted by: Betty on Apr 13, 2007 4:58:08 PM
I couldn't agree more. I also posted on my blog about a similar article on another site.
Posted by: The Savvy Boomer on Apr 13, 2007 9:09:20 PM
Hey Imus is 66 years old. So what? What he said was wrong and he was punished. The hypocrisy over age, sex and race in this country makes me ill.
Posted by: Paul on Apr 13, 2007 9:46:43 PM
Ironically, Don Imus revealed a glimpse into his own thoughts about aging in an article by Robin Abcarian and Meg James in today's LA Times: "I plan to be on the radio. I plan to work again. I'm not going to sit around like an old woman."
Posted by: Cynthia Friedlob on Apr 14, 2007 12:17:01 AM
My thought is, if folks are sitting up and taking notice about the language at use in our society, whether or not name calling is hurtful, the hypocritical commentary, maybe...just maybe...they'll branch out and think a little more about ageism. So keep pounding away at it, Ronni!
Posted by: Joared on Apr 14, 2007 3:53:29 AM
i think the team should have just gone down to the morning show and opened a can of wop-ass (can I say that word anymore - or does that have roots?) No-----let's protest- isn't it about time for Jessie and Al to retirement? Let the girls handle it. They did just fine once the freak'n "spokemen" let them talk. They don't need your freak'n coaching Al. (Al I thought you'd a made a good President last time around. But- I think you've lowered yourself to a (substitute a PC word that a white man can utter in America this morning.) I've been the only white dude hanging out in black bands and working at night in the jail. Believe me "brooother" there are plenty of non-PC words used to describe my white a-s. Come on --- I went to desegrated school all my life. I don't think of friends as either being foremost as black or white before who they just are. The big kicker that whity didn't pick-up for the Archie Bunker sit-com, is that blacks don't want to white! ---- but- anyway--- isn't there a war going on killing 1000's of OUR kids while we are catch-up with Anna and Don? That's what sick. ---- the big question is- where will Jessie and Al's bubble heads pop up next? (Does bubble head have any slave roots --- I didn't google it.-
Posted by: scott on Apr 14, 2007 9:03:48 AM
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Where's respect and dignity gone in our culture? We seem to have confused critical debate and conversation with name-calling and demeaning language.
Posted by: Cindy on Apr 14, 2007 12:48:40 PM
I've listened to Imus since he was THE morning guy in Cleveland just before he went to New York and he's always been irreverent. And I don't think he should have said what he did. I have to go with
Voltaire when he ostensibly said,"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
That Ms. Burleigh made it and age issue makes the whole damned thing worse.
It just further proves that being old in this country is a mortal sin -- but we knew that, didn't we?
Posted by: Kay Dennison on Apr 14, 2007 3:59:46 PM
I hope you have taken the time to let Ms Burleigh know how insulting she is to us 66 year olds. That kind of language Imus used was unacceptable when I was growing up. It's more out of my grandparents generation and they are deceased.
It is aggravating to continue to find journalist writing such ageist nonsense. Thanks for pointing out the error of their ways.
Posted by: knomad on Apr 14, 2007 5:44:53 PM
...it doesn't matter your age. When you "name-call" you are being a "baby". And when you are older and being a baby, not only is it unbecoming, but it is insensative and quasi-ignorant, this includes Mr. Don and Ms. Nina. The truth is, people have been like this for centuries... I personally read, www.BabyBoomerMagazine.com They have the highest journalist integrity.
Posted by: Silver Surfer on Apr 16, 2007 12:38:11 PM
Don Imus has a very high opinion of himself. He also shows his ageism by having (big shocker) a young trophy wife and (another big shocker) a very young child. He also likes to be called the I-Man.
Posted by: Susanne on Apr 19, 2007 2:19:54 PM
The government should be persuaded to pay for all healthcare
Posted by: noninvasive mechanical ventilation on Sep 26, 2007 3:03:12 AM
