Bigger Than Imus

April 12, 2004 — -- This goes beyond Don Imus.

His critics continue their call for his blood, but whether CBS actually follows MSBNC and fires the popular talk radio host, his characterization of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" has reignited an inescapable debate about race in the United States.

For a week, the ongoing discussion has forced Americans to think about where they stand not just on Imus but on issues of decency and civility in all sorts of discourse. In plain terms, millions of people have re-engaged on the topic of public figures acting mean and crossing the line, even in the name of entertainment.

The debate roared on today when the Rutgers women's basketball team, the original target of Imus' snipe, appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" before millions of viewers.

In contrast to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who today is protesting outside the CBS building urging network officials to fire Imus, the Rutgers women stopped short of calling for Imus' ouster.

Instead, the team seemed to want to replace rhetoric and stereotyping with a human Imus face.

"We wanted to see the man behind the mike," coach C. Vivian Stringer told Winfrey. She and her team are now several days into a media tour that has not yet included a promised face-to-face sitdown with Imus, her players and their families.

"Because he really doesn't know the Rutgers women's basketball team, and he certainly made a characterization that was defaming," Stringer said via satellite. "And we wanted him to know who we are. We certainly want to know who this man was."

The team will not reveal the exact time and place of the agreed-upon Imus sit-down, hoping to quell the media firestorm that will likely churn at least until CBS decides to either keep Imus on the radio or kick him off.

"It will happen very, very soon," Stringer said of the team's meeting with Imus. "And I think that shall be a catharsis of sorts."

For a group of NBC News employees, however, that catharsis has proved impossible to achieve.

At MSNBC, which broadcasts the Imus program, employees met with news division president Steve Capus, saying that they had had enough of Imus. At the same time, a series of heavy-hitting advertisers decided to cut and run. Capus announced the network's decision Wednesday night to drop the simulcast.