“The majority of Negro political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support. Although genuinely popular leaders are now emerging, most are selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources, and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of Negroes nurtures a healthy suspicion toward these manufactured leaders.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A tsunami of outrage has been blazing in the last ten days since Don Imus, Radio Shock jock and Harold Ford, Jr benefactor singled out the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team with a racist and sexist epithet. In the midst of the firestorm, Tennessee’s black prince, corporate whore and senator-in-waiting, released the following obligatory and gutless statement:
I don’t want to be viewed as piling on right now because Don Imus is a good friend and a decent man. However, he did a reprehensible thing. His comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team were hurtful and wrong. Moreover, the comments robbed these young women of an important time to celebrate a magnificent and positive moment in their lives.
I am a big believer in redemption, and I understand that Don has done many good deeds in his life. Yet, no amount of philanthropy gives anyone the license to offend innocent people—particularly when it comes to matters of race and gender. So I’m going to follow the lead of those brilliant and gracious women of the Rutgers basketball team and wait and see how the next two weeks unfold. I certainly hope Don can come to understand better the pain he has caused these young women and their families, and I will leave it to others to decide how his future in media should play out.
Is it any wonder that I have lampooned Harold as”Harold Whore, Jr” and “the Whore?”
The statement is brilliant in the way it deftly positions him as an acceptable House Negro and corporate servant, unlike Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Its brevity is telling and its faint praise and politically expedient criticism of Don Imus was not what the Anus in the Morning was hoping for. The Anus in the Morning needed a lifeline and instead, the Whore pushed his head under the water until he drowned. Harold Ford, Jr doesn’t intend to sacrifice a seat in the world’s most exclusive club for Don Imus. While grateful for the endorsement and exposure Imus provided, and God knows he enjoyed his time as Imus’s nappy-headed Ho, Harold has no use for a John that can’t pay.
Cavorting with the Anus in the Morning and his merry band of on air racists allowed Harold Ford, Jr entrée and unfettered access to the media elite of this country also prominently featured on the program as guests. He could rub shoulders with those elitist D.C. journalists and New York Media powerhouses in the green room. Most importantly, he could shamelessly appeal to a white demographic that was entertained by the Anus in the Morning’s racist satire and confirmed in their bigotry.
Before all the contretemps, everything was smooth sailing for corporate whore extraordinaire Harold Ford, Jr. After 10 years of metaphorically swinging around a pole in the House of Representatives doing nasty favors in exchange for corporate cash in his g-string, the Whore felt that his apprenticeship was done and that he was ready for the big time.
The Whore understands how power operates in this society and in whose interests. Ours is a capitalist society that comes with all of the attendant drawbacks and moral compromises, which stratify our society along, racial and class lines. He understands that for him to ascend to higher office, he must first genuflect to power and service it better than a crackhead ho on his knees. Dr. Michael Parenti, author of “Land of Idols” has eloquently written, “The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: the ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment-or at least much handicap-to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.”
Ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, and acquisitive are all adjectives, which couldn’t be better in describing the essential character of the Whore. In short, he loves the game and doesn’t give two sh$ts about anybody but himself. Ain’t no way in hell he intends to be sidetracked by compassion or pushing some good-government crap designed to help those in need.
Any whore who doesn’t understand the art of seduction is not really a professional but an amateur. The Whore is anything but amateurish; he is a consummate professional. He set his sights on Don Imus and the Media elite that surrounded him and he conquered them all. Don Imus’s unapologetic racism was a minor peccadillo that the Whore ignored because the D.C. and New York power elite shared the same views. For the Whore, its all about the acquisition of power.
Jack White of Time Magazine told TomPaine.com’s Philip Nobile, “Imus will be untouchable as long as influential journalists and politicians turn a blind eye to the tide of racism and sexism that passes for satire on his program. Their tolerance of his nauseating brand of humor raises serious doubts about the mainstream media’s sensitivity to a range of racial and social issues. The problem isn’t really Imus; it’s his collaborators, who go along with him to flack their books and stoke their egos, selling out whatever principles they claim to believe in for personal profit. To hell with all of them.”
MSNBC wants to spin what they’ve done in suspending and subsequently firing Don Imus from his morning simulcast on the network. They’ve patted themselves on the back and claimed that internal pressure from unnamed African American and female staff, and not external outrage and the termination of major corporate advertising on Imus’s program dictated the decision to discharge Imus by the MSNBC News president Steve Capus.
Parenti has noted, “With command over organizational structure, personnel, and budget comes command over the practices and content of the institution. Those who call the tune may not be able to exercise perfect control over every note that is played, but individuals who stray to far from the score, who create too much cacophony, eventually find themselves without pay or position.” MSNBC News President Capus said that his decision “…was about trust. It’s about reputation. It’s about doing what’s right.” BULL****.
The truth of the matter is that Philip Nobile at TomPaine.com has been crusading against Imus for the last seven years. Every single one of Imus’s heavyweight journalistic regulars has been contacted and confronted about his racism, sexism, and homophobia. They have been asked point-blank to disavow Imus’s bigotry and to stop appearing on the program. Objectionable content was no secret to those who regularly appeared on the program or any network executive who ever freakin’ listened to the program; they never felt the need to confront it or him.
Parenti postulates that, “One widely accepted myth is that we have a free and independent press in the United States. In truth, the print and broadcast media are giant profit making conglomerates, owned and controlled by powerful banks and rich, conservative individuals. The reporters and editors who work for them learn to see the world with much the same blinders as owners, advertisers, corporate heads, and White House and Pentagon officials. Journalists think twice before delving into sensitive areas. They worry about having their copy cut and rewritten, and about being removed from choice assignments, passed over for promotion, or fired. The consequence is that coverage is limited and certain questions never get asked….”
Don’t let anybody fool you about the Anus in the morning’s tactics and battle plan. He intended to do his show his way and anybody who believed anything different was delusional and as far as he was concerned and could kiss his ass. After too many over-the-top skits and one of his producers calling the Williams sisters “animals” more suited to National Geographic than Playboy, he needed a good little sycophant and lawn jockey like Harold Whore, Jr to chat up, promote, and serve as window dressing. After being called out in 1997 for using the N-Word by Mike Wallace on 60 minutes, you’d think the Whore woulda steered clear. Naw, because the Whore ain’t got no shame. Never had and never will.
Skeptical Brotha 