CBS fires Don Imus

NEW YORK — CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show today, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters.

Imus initially was suspended for two weeks for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his programs.

"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."

Earlier in the day, Imus flashed gallows humor and raised more than $1.3 million for charity despite losing his TV platform, while outside the studio pressure grew on CBS Radio to fire him.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson met with CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves to advocate Imus' removal, promising a rally outside CBS headquarters Saturday and an effort to persuade more advertisers to abandon Imus.

Sumner Redstone, chairman of the CBS Corp. board and its chief stockholder, told Newsweek that he expected Moonves to "do the right thing," although it wasn't clear what he thought that was.

"This may be our last Radiothon, so we need to raise about $100 million," Imus said at the start of the event, which has raised more than $40 million since 1990.

By 3 p.m., $1.3 million had been raised for three children's charities, an associate producer at the station said. Volunteers were getting about 200 more pledges per hour than they did last year, with most callers expressing support for Imus, said Tony Gonzalez, supervisor of the Radiothon phone bank. The event benefited Tomorrows Children's Fund, the CJ Foundation for SIDS and the Imus Ranch.

Imus, who was suspended by CBS Radio for two weeks without pay beginning next week, was in the awkward situation of broadcasting today's radio program from the MSNBC studios in New Jersey, even though NBC News said the night before that MSNBC would no longer simulcast his program on television.

He didn't attack MSNBC for its decision — "I understand the pressure they were under," he said — but complained the network was doing some unethical things during the broadcast. He didn't elaborate.

He acknowledged again that calling the Rutgers women's basketball players "nappy-headed hos" a day after they had competed in the NCAA championship game had been "really stupid." He said he had apologized enough and wasn't going to whine about his fate.

"I said it," he said. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't say it."

Sharpton and Jackson emerged from a meeting with Moonves saying the corporate chief had promised to consider their requests.

"It's not about taking Imus down," Sharpton said. "It's about lifting decency up."

Sheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA's Washington Mystics and, with her ex-husband Robert, co-founder of BET, called Imus' comments reprehensible in an interview with The Associated Press. She said she had called Moonves to urge that CBS cut all ties with the veteran radio star, and was worried that what he said could hurt women's sports.

"I think what Imus has done has put a cloud over what we've tried to do in promoting women's athletics," she said.

Several sponsors, including American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp., have said they were pulling ads from Imus' show indefinitely. Imus made a point today to thank one sponsor, Bigelow Tea, for sticking by him.

The list of his potential guests is shrinking, too.

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham said the magazine's staffers will no longer appear on Imus' show. Meacham, Jonathan Alter, Evan Thomas, Howard Fineman and Michael Isikoff from Newsweek have been frequent guests.

Don't look for Charles Gibson, George Stephanopoulos or any other ABC News personality, either. Although spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said there's no network policy forbidding them now, "I don't see any circumstance where (an appearance) would be possible."

Imus has complained bitterly about a lack of support from one black politician, Harold Ford Jr., even though he strongly backed Ford's campaign for Senate in Tennessee last year. Ford, now head of the Democratic Leadership Council, said today he'll leave it to others to decide Imus' future.

"I don't want to be viewed as piling on right now because Don Imus is a good friend and a decent man," Ford said. "However, he did a reprehensible thing."

Imus' troubles have also affected his wife, author Deirdre Imus, whose household cleaning guide, "Green This!" came out this week. Her promotional tour has been called off "because of the enormous pressure that Deirdre and her family are under," said Simon & Schuster publicist Victoria Meyer.

People are buying it, though: An original printing of 45,000 was increased to 55,000.

Losing Imus would be a financial hit to CBS Radio, which also suffered when Howard Stern departed for satellite radio. The program is worth about $15 million in annual revenue to CBS, which owns Imus' home radio station WFAN-AM and manages Westwood One, the company that syndicates the show across the country.

Imus still has a lot of support among radio managers across the country, many of whom grew up listening to him, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.

Yet he's clearly becoming a political liability for a major corporation — CBS. (General Electric Co. owns NBC Universal, of which MSNBC is a part.) NBC News said anger about Imus among some of its employees had as much to do with ending the MSNBC simulcast as the advertiser defection.

Redstone's remarks "could be a game-changer," Taylor said.

Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists and vice president and editor director of Ebony and Jet magazines, met with Moonves on Wednesday. It seemed clear Moonves and his aides were struggling with a difficult decision, he said. He urged them to take advantage of an opportunity to take a stand against the coarsening of culture.

"Something happened in the last week around America," Monroe said. "It's not just what the radio host did. America said enough is enough. America said we don't want this kind of conversation, we don't want this kind of vitriol, especially with teenagers."

Rutgers' team, meanwhile, appeared today on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" with their coach, C. Vivian Stringer.

At the end of their appearance, Winfrey said: " ... I want to borrow a line from Maya Angelou, who is a personal mentor of mine and I know you all also feel the same way about her. And she has said this many times, and I say this to you, on behalf of myself and every woman that I know, you make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N. You've really handled this beautifully."

Imus said today he still wants to meet with the team.

"At some point, I'm not sure when, I'm going to talk to the team," he said. "That's all I'm interested in doing."

Team spokeswoman Stacey Brann said they will meet Imus before the end of the week. Stringer is scheduled to be out of town on a recruiting trip Saturday, she said.