MSNBC drops Imus

Steve Capus, president of NBC News, is currently on "Hardball," explaining to guest host David Gregory why MSNBC has decided to drop, for good, its simulcast of "Imus in the Morning."

UPDATE

Looking truly tortured, MSNBC's president (also president of the entire NBC News division) demonstrated the sort of anguished confusion that is becoming quite la mode these days among the upper ranks of the dominant culture when a light is shined on ideas about blacks and women that apparently continue to enjoy a sort of smirking acceptance in otherwise polite company. It was through conversations with "trusted employees," Capus said, that he came to the conclusion "that I had to make this call." Among those "trusted employees" is Al Roker, the beloved weatherman of the "Today" show, who blogged on MSNBC's own Web site that Imus had to go.

Another reason for the change from suspension to firing, Capus explained, was yesterday's press conference by the women of the Rutgers basketball team, when Coach C. Vivian Stringer asked the nation to look at her young and intelligent players to "bring a human face" to the people verbally assaulted in a sexualized fashion by radio host Don Imus.

Let me bring a human face to all of this. Ladies and gentlemen, people of the nation, I want you to see 10 young women who accomplished so much that we as a coaching staff, as a state university, men, women and people across this nation are so very proud of. These young ladies that you have seated before you are valedictorians of their class, future doctors, musical prodigies, and yes, even Girl Scouts. These young ladies are the best this nation has to offer and we are so very fortunate to have them here at Rutgers University.

They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate. They are brilliant. They are gifted. They are God’s representatives in every sense of the word.

You see what you don’t realize — perhaps some of you don’t realize — that less than a year ago five of these young ladies were preparing to graduate from high school. We have five freshmen here. And as they prepared to graduate from high school they thought about what great opportunity they were going to have to come to Rutgers University and get an education and play at the highest levels. That’s what they thought.

And before you know it, less than a year, they found themselves on a national stage, playing for the world to see, basketball at its highest level. And which I might add that this freshman class has over a 3.0 grade point average.