About the Imus "surge." My theory as to why the numerous threads.

[BeHereNow]

Here is what I think:
Over all, Americans feel overwhelmed and saturated with frustration at
the numerous outrages perpetuated upon them since the theft of our
country by the global corporatists.
In their desperation to effect a change toward the positive,
people are clutching at straws, easily identified and clearly
defined as "offensive" and therefore, "punishable."
The Imus story undeniably fits the profile, but is but the tip of our
collective iceberg.
I can see no other explanation for the massive number of
threads about him on DU.
Your thoughts on the theory are welcomed.

Always attempting to see/understand what lies beneath-
BHN

[NightWatcher]

1. Exactly, we can't solve the real problems

So we rip into this punk because we know that he can be tossed. We need a little justice every once in a while, even if it is small.
We get so tired of the overwhelming problems of war, corrupt politicians, and the economy that we cannot see ourselves making any progress in. So we jump all over Imus, who did screw up, because we think that we can affect change.

I'm guilty of this as well.

[BeHereNow]

4. YOU UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF MY PREMISE PRECISELY.

So we toss the punk, and yes he SHOULD be tossed.
He is promoting hateful and discriminating views,
however, he is the LEAST of our collective problems.

Do you ever wonder whether or not they sacrifice the occasional lamb in
order to protect the sacred cow?

BHN

[NightWatcher]

8. of course, this will be the "liberal victory" that will/ should last us for a few months

...meanwhile, Alberto Gonzo comes to testify next week, 10 US troops died on Easter, and Bush has spent more than 400 days of his presidency on the ranch "clearing brush".

[Purveyor]

17. If Imus gets dumped, Rosie is guaranteed to be next. Need the lib/con balance, you know.

Be careful what you wish for people!

[TahitiNut]

29. I've called that "The Bicycle Shed Syndrome" for decades.

The Board of Directors of a multinational corporation met and there were two items on the agenda. (1) The approval or disapproval of a proposal to invest $3.5 billion in the construction of a nuclear waste recycling plant, and (2) the approval or disapproval of a proposal to invest $15,000 in construction and staffing of a bicycle repair shed in the employee parking lot to service the bicycles of those emplyess who rode bicycles to work. Each proposal included analyses and descriptions of the skills and technologies involved.

The Board of Directors spent 5 minutes discussing the proposal to invest $3.5 billion before approving it.
The Board of Directors spent 2 hours and 45 minutes discussing the proposal to invest $15,000 and came to no decision.

Why?

None of them knew much of anything at all about nuclear waste recycling and didn't wish to appear ignorant in front of the other Directors. All of them knew how to ride a bicycle and, although they hadn't ridden in years and never worked on bicycles, had no fear that anyone else knew any more than themselves.

It's not about the importance of the issue. It's about not displaying our ignorance.


References ...

Bike Shed Effect

Social dysfunction syndrome first noted by C. Northcote Parkinson in his 1957 book Parkinson's Law, and Other Studies in Administration, whereby getting permission to build a billion-dollar atomic power plant is easy, but a proposal to build a cheap bicycle shed will founder under the weight of endless discussion. Parkinson noted that, because an atomic plant is so vast, expensive, and complicated that people cannot grasp it, rather than try, they'll fall back on the assumption that somebody else checked details before it got that far. However, everyone knows all about bicycle sheds, and feels no inhibition against debating their pettiest details without limit.

E.g., most technical mailing lists spend at least half their time drowning in redundant posts, trivial quibbles, and offhand opinions of no conceivable public interest. Why? Because people can — and because it's a way for them to demonstrate involvement with near-zero effort.
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html

Bicycle shed syndrome

Cyril Northcote Parkinson is best known for his eponymous Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time allocated to it – but one of his lesser-known but equally perspicacious contributions was the definition of what has become known as "bicycle shed syndrome".

Parkinson describes the scenario of a planning committee in some tiny rural district council which has on its agenda two items for approval: a bicycle shed and a nuclear power station.

Predictably – knowledgeable as they are in the design and construction of bicycle sheds – the councillors spend four hours discussing down to the tiniest detail the shed. Only then, just as the meeting is about to break up, does the clerk remind them of the other item, and they pass the nuclear power station “on the nod”, without discussion.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2004/08/bicycle-shed-syndrome.html

The Bike Shed Effect is a syndrome first identified by the noted academic C Northcote Parkinson in his groundbreaking Parkinson's Law and Other Studies in Administration (1957). He suggested that while it is easy to get planning permission to build an atomic power plant because no one knows the first thing about it – and so everyone assumes that someone else has checked the plans – getting a bike shed built is virtually impossible because everybody knows something about bike sheds, and no one is afraid to chip in their ha'p'worth.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/10/21/babike21.xml&DCMP=EMC-art_20102006

[BeHereNow]

30. EXCELLENT POST

Thank you Tahiti-
Sums it up perfectly.
BHN

[KoKo]

2. Honestly...the way his buddies in the Media are throwing him "under the bus"

makes me think there's some bad news about his Ranch and Kids getting ready to come out. Tax breaks and other stuff that was "questionable" that's going to be investigated.

He's too close to the Beltway "InCrowd" for there to be this much on the MSMedia about him.

That's my "vibe" about it. He's going to be investigated along with his buddies who've donated for big tax breaks to that Ranch and all that selling of his brother and wife's products he does on his show.

It's a great opportunity to expose his hypocritical racism, though. What he said, he deserves to be fired for...but he's so well-connected it's gotta be worse than his latest comments for the "Powers that Be" to go after him like this. :shrug: just saying...for what it's worth.

[americanstranger]

6. Thown under a bus? Hardly.

Howard Fineman sided with him.

Jonathan Alter vowed to go on his show, post-suspension.

Russert? Nowhere to be seen.

Even James Carville stuck up for him.

Which of his 'buddies' threw him under a bus?

- as

[KoKo]

10. I must have heard Fineman slithering away as fast as he could from him

and Alter, too...very differently than you heard them. :shrug: I read between the lines that they were "distancing themselves" from him pretty strongly when in fact we know if it was someone they didn't like they would be going after them tooth and claw. They were in "non-denial, denial" mode..was what I saw and heard. Then Dan Abrams comes out and blames it on a Fox Attack when he only needed to put out a message saying: "MSNBC supports Don Imus in his apology, but have decided to suspend him for two weeks and we hope his apologies and suspension will convince our viewers that we and Don have taken this situation very seriously." END OF COMMENT. Instead MSNBC Programming Chief Danny is out there blaming Fox.

That's what I heard...and my 2 cents. I respect that you saw and heard differently.

[americanstranger]

13. I think the Fineman 'Imus should grow up' comment came later in the day.

When he was on the show this morning, he said something about 'continuing to enable' Imus to do what he does.

Maybe he thought better of it after the blogs gave him a working over. :)

- as

[MadMaddie]

3. I think you are right...I think people are sick and tired

of the Administration and their lackeys never having to accept responsibility for anything that comes out of their mouth.

This may have started with Coultergeist when she called Mr. Edwards a faggot...I am betting many, many Americans found it offensive and uncalled for.

Imus I think picked the wrong time and the wrong mood in the country to say the things he did.

Me personally, I am pissed because these girl made it to the Big Dance and then the final two. Would he have ever said anything like that about the Mens teams?

And these girls are working toward the American dream of having a college degree. How pathetic is he that he attacks Black 20 year olds so he can have ratings....pathetic..

[DemBones DemBones]

9. I think that's a lot of why this made people so mad, it's about

college women, not adult politicians. They are not public figures like pro athletes, had done nothing to deserve to be insulted like they were.

[Fridays Child]

5. If only this lit a fuse that would destroy the careers of all the bigots that populate the media.

[stillcool]

7. It epitomizes all that's wrong..

with the media and with this country. You can say or do anything you want if you have the money to back it up. The massive amount of distorted minds that can now rationalize anything, is very telling about the heart and soul that makes this country the discriminatory, war-mongering, misogynistic sick society that it is.

[BeHereNow]

19. BOYCOTT...these hate mongers have CORPORATE sponsors!

We need to hit them where they hurt-
We need a massive and organized BOYCOTT against the
people who sponsor this tripe.

My two cents.
BHN

[Canuckistanian]

11. Speaking of "straws"

I think that it's not so much Imus as it is an outrage that somebody has to pay, goddamnit.

We've put up with all the BS from RushO'ReillyHannityBeckBoortz & co. for so long, that it's reached a tipping point.

No more. That's it. We've had it.

You've got to draw the line somewhere, even while you're powerless to do it elsewhere.

[BeHereNow]

18. That's what I'M sayin!

SOMEBODY HAS TO PAY...
Unfortunately, like I said in my previous post,
a gnat like Imus is the least of our problems.
He is a cretin, no doubt, but our bigger concern is the
people who allow him to represent us.
It's not enough to smack him with the proverbial ruler.
We need to rid ourselves of the rulers who
allow people like him, and the notorious Coulters and Malkins,
of our airwaves to espouse their hate speech over OUR airwaves.

BHN

[Canuckistanian]

21. Make him an example

Hell, hasn't 6 years of the Bush example taught us anything?

You don't screw around if you want some results.

Can the bastard. Burn him in effigy, metaphorically speaking.

Let all of them know that true freedom has a price.

And that trying to curtail that freedom, however it's done, has an altogether different price.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Yes, people are angry about a great many things and Imus

sailed into the tip of the iceberg with his Titanic blunder, his racist sexist comment about successful college athletes. There was no reason for him to say what he did except pure meanness. The young women had done nothing to him, all they'd done was go out and play good basketball.

He may lose his job but you know he's got money salted away and he'll probably get a book deal to talk about all this.

I think he should lose his job and I hope it will start a brush fire to get rid of unprofessional behavior on talk shows and "news" shows.

[BeHereNow]

16. Yes, I think Amercians are growing tired of being viewed by the rest of the world as...

The new crop of "good Germans."
BHN

[MedleyMisty]

14. For me it has nothing to do with Imus himself

It's more all the covert racism in all the threads. Much like the covert homophobia in the threads about the Snickers commerical.

It's not what he said that everyone's all upset about. It's the underlying issues. Some public figure says something that brings bigotry and prejudice out into the open and all the closet racists and sexists and homophobes show up to defend the public figure and it spirals from there.

And I don't think that bigotry is a distraction from the real issues. It is the real issue. It's the root and Bushco and all their crimes are the flowers.

[MadMaddie]

15. Agreed...

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[KittyWampus]

20. You are brilliant, I bake you a batch of cookies of your choice.

:)

Bashing Imus gives a break from bashing Democrats.

[BeHereNow]

22. In that case...PEANUT BUTTER please.

Imus is an idiot and an embarassment to our society, in a cultural sense.
Along with SO many others.

BHN

[Grandrose]

23. A true tipping point!

This was outrageous because these were not public or professional people!
The press conference really brought home how innocent young people were
attacked in the furtherance of corporate greed. Imus is a well known bigot/racist.
It took a first class university and innocent victims for some to see the light.
As a AA woman, I have been outraged...but today I teared up. One of the
young ladies said: "I will have a scar from this".
They should be basking in the glow of achievement, not defending their humanity!!

:-(

[NormanYorkstein]

24. Racism in the media is a REAL and IMPORTANT issue

Why does everyone try to minimize it?

[BeHereNow]

27. No one is minimalizing it- just pointing out that the Imus travesty is but the tip of the problem.

The Coulters, O'lielly's and rest of the talking heads have gotten away
with equally offensive hate talk for YEARS.

BHN

[karlrschneider]

25. I said something similar a bit ago, not as well as you did

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=621961&mesg_id=621984

[BeHereNow]

26. You said it every bit as well..."an opportunity to bitch"

Imus, a creepy old man, attacking innocent people was an easy catch.
NOW, if we could only rally the same outrage
at the attacks on the innocent
citizens of Iraq...eh?
Not to mention the use of our innocent young people
snookered into military service to protect corpoRATe
interests, NOT national interests.

BHN

[karlrschneider]

28. So far in April we have lost one troop every five hours.

But some people would rather make mountains out of anthills. Go figure.

[mdmc]

31. kick

:hi: