Kurtz: "Imus made fun of blacks, Jews, gays, politicians. He called them lying weasels. This was part of his charm"

On April 12, during a report on the controversy sparked by Don Imus' remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, ABC's World News aired comments by Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, in which he said: "Over the years, Imus made fun of blacks, Jews, gays, politicians. He called them lying weasels. This was part of his charm." Kurtz's quote aired shortly after CBS Radio announced it would discontinue broadcasting Imus in the Morning.

Despite Imus' propensity for incendiary remarks, Kurtz has previously been a guest on the Imus program, a fact he acknowledged in his April 12 Washington Post column. Kurtz wrote: "Journalists like me who have gone on Imus's show have done so because we enjoyed the opportunity to talk about politics and media without the stuffiness of so many other programs. And it's probably true that too many of us looked the other way when he went over the line with some of his cruder comedy bits." Yet, as Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting documented, Kurtz wrote in his 1996 book, Hot Air (Crown) that "Imus's sexist, homophobic, and politically incorrect routines echo what many journalists joke about in private."

As Media Matters for America documented, Imus has a long record of bigoted remarks. He has previously described CBS Radio's "Jewish management" as "money-grubbing bastards." On the March 6 edition of the program, executive producer Bernard McGuirk said that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) was "trying to sound black in front of a black audience" when she gave a speech in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march. He further stated: "Bitch is gonna be wearing cornrows."

From the April 12 edition of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson:

KURTZ: The pressure on CBS -- just as it had been with NBC -- from this national eruption over Imus' racial remark simply proved to be too great. He became the symbol, the poster boy, for all of the anger in the country about radio hosts and television hosts who go too far and, in the end, he couldn't survive.

DAVID MUIR (World News Saturday anchor): Imus and his radio show had a long history of off-color remarks. Just last year, he called his own bosses "the Jewish management," and he used other words to describe them, as well.

KURTZ: Over the years, Imus made fun of blacks, Jews, gays, politicians. He called them lying weasels. This was part of his charm. But when he went too far, he became his own worst enemy.

—A.I.