Imus Only the Tip of the Media Iceberg of Shame

By Lisa Bennett, Communications Director

April 13, 2007

The fact that MSNBC and CBS Radio removed repeat-offender Don Imus from the public airwaves is a real victory -- but it's only a small step in the ongoing efforts of NOW and other feminist and civil rights groups to diversify the images we watch, and the voices we hear, and make public misogyny, racism and bigotry unacceptable.

Make no mistake, the vile invective directed at the outstanding young women of the Rutgers basketball team by radio host Imus and Executive Producer Bernard McGuirk were worthy of the outrage that followed. In fact, NOW and our leaders worked overtime to make sure Imus and McGuirk would be held accountable -- generating over 30,000 emails from our supporters, participating in demonstrations, conducting countless interviews with the media, strategizing and speaking out with allies and more.

On April 12, NOW President Kim Gandy traveled to New York City to take part in meetings with the CEOs and top executives of NBC and CBS. Although you wouldn't know it from media reports, there were women at the closed-door meeting: Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Hazel Dukes, president of the New York NAACP; and Rutgers professor Dr. Nancy Boyd Franklin, in addition to Gandy.

"We discussed Don Imus, but we also focused on the paucity of faces and voices that were not white and male, particularly in the evening news shows and the Sunday morning political programs, and the need for more diversity in hosts, producers, bookers and guests," said Gandy.

Today, Gandy spoke at a large press conference, led by Dr. E. Faye Williams of the National Congress of Black Women and Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. The broad range of women leaders echoed the sentiment that they had gathered not to celebrate Imus' demise but to rededicate themselves and their members to creating a media environment that respects and includes the voices of women and people of color, instead of denigrating and marginalizing them.

Gandy noted in her remarks that if you watched the TV coverage of the Imus controversy over the last week, "You would think the only people working on this issue were men."

Indeed, the imbalance of male and female commentators has been undeniable. Producers, hosts, reporters and editors have relied almost exclusively on male guests to address Imus' offensive slurs and even on the larger issue of sexism and racism in the media and popular culture.

In the struggle for women's equality, the media play a critical role. For decades, NOW has been working to increase our representation in the media - in front of the camera, behind the camera, in the executive suites and as owners of TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and other outlets.

Negative and stereotyped portrayals of women in the media will only end when we succeed in changing the culture and the society. In the meanwhile, there is much to be done: monitoring media content, demanding respectful treatment and more thorough coverage of women's issues, educating the public on media reform, and opening doors to more diversity in media ownership and employment at every level -- one victory, one step at a time.