Imus in the Aftermath
T he death spiral for Imus came incredibly quickly — sentence carried out a week after the — and incredibly slowly — hard to accept that his media bosses were "shocked shocked" days after the offense and after lots of counties were heard from. A very smart friend was the first to my knowledge to make the "Bonfires of the Vanities" allusion: "It's a Tom Wolf novel now," he wrote me, "not a 'conversation' about race." But let's try to keep it a conversation about race or at least a conversation about standards and the price(s) for violating them. I'm not sorry to see Imus go. But I was not a fan so I don't really count. He does have some friends loyal enough to say that the punishment did not fit his crime (and the less convincing "I know this man's heart" stuff). Bill and Hillary, Sure. But Essense and Kia? The remarks of his undoing, while typical after a fashion over the course of his career, were ...