Imus Apologizes For Rutgers 'Hos' Comments

Don Imus

WESTWOOD ONE and CBS Sports WFAN-A/NEW YORK morning man DON IMUS has apologized for calling RUTGERS women's basketball players "nappy-headed hos" during a conversation on his show WEDNESDAY. IMUS made the apology on the air FRIDAY morning, calling his comments "insensitive and ill-conceived ... it was completely inappopriate, and we can understand why people were offended."

IMUS, comparing the NCAA runners-up to the champion TENNESSEE squad while talking to his former WFAN colleague SID ROSENBERG (now of WAXY-A [790 THE TICKET]/MIAMI) on the phone, said that the RUTGERS players are "some rough girls ... they got tattoos" before making the "hos" comment.  (ROSENBERG likened the RUTGERS players to the TORONTO RAPTORS.) TENNESSEE's LADY VOLS, on the other hand, "looked cute," according to IMUS. Executive Producer BERNARD MCGUIRK, who often makes satirically extreme comments, interjected that the game was between "the jigaboos and the wannabes," a reference to SPIKE LEE's film "SCHOOL DAZE" (recalled incorrectly by newsman CHARLES MCCORD as "DO THE RIGHT THING"). 

...we can understand why people were offended.

The comments were publicized by liberal organization MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA and drew the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS into the fray, with the NABJ demanding an apology and calling for a boycott of IMUS' show by journalists.

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