It’s official, Don Imus is coming back:
NEW YORK, Oct. 9 (UPI) — Controversial U.S. radio personality Don Imus is set to return to the airwaves Dec. 1 on WABC, the New York Daily News reported.
Imus, who built a career on pushing the boundaries of taste and propriety, was fired from his nationally syndicated WFAN show by CBS Radio in April for making racist remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.
He is slated to take over the morning slot at WABC occupied by Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby.
“If he shows signs of not having changed, we will register our displeasure,” said the Rev. DeForest Soaries, who brokered the meeting where Imus apologized to the players.
“They’re hoping he’ll use his expanded platform for good. … This has caused them lots of problems they are still working through but they have no malice in their hearts.”
The coach of the Rutgers women’s basketball team said Monday, “I just want to forget the issue and move on.”
“He has every right to go back on the air,” Vivian Stringer told the Daily News. “Our business is about basketball and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
Perhaps the most sensible thing anyone has said about this whole thing.
Also, I missed this story last month, but it seems that Imus is no longer being sued by that Rutgers basketball player:
A Rutgers University basketball player on Tuesday withdrew a slander and defamation lawsuit she had filed against Don Imus and CBS Radio, among others, after the shock jock called the team “nappy headed hos.”
Kia Vaughn had contended in the lawsuit filed in August in New York state Supreme Court that the comments made by Imus had damaged her reputation. The lawsuit also named various media outlets that broadcast Imus’ show.
Marti McKenzie, a spokeswoman for Vaughn’s attorney, Richard Ancowitz, said in a statement that Vaughn had chosen to focus on her education at New Jersey’s Rutgers University as a journalism major and as an athlete with the basketball team.
“Her strong commitments to both have influenced her decision to withdraw the lawsuit at this time,” the statement said.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
