It Didn't Work

So he's finally back!!!

Don Imus and CBS, who let him go after the flare-up over his vocabulary back in April, have settled their breach of contract suit. Imus is now free to go, free to walk, and free to bring back his irreverent sense of humor and his great interviewing ways.

This is FANTASTIC news!!!

Yes, Imus is sometimes a little crude, and sometimes says things that polite society would wish he didn't, but, as he said in his self-defense, he's equal opportunity. I've been listening to Imus since I was in fourth grade, when I'd shiver in the car at the bus stop, listening to him with my dad. Yes, my dad is often a bit old-fashioned, but we'd laugh about this.

We'd also listen because Imus mattered. He brought in guests who mattered, people at the top of the profession who really make all the decisions or who know the inside group. It's why, even though his total audience numbers were way out of proportion to how the comments got blown up, people listened. And will listen again.

Of course, I wonder how many of his previous friends will be willing to call in and be interviewed now ... I wonder what would have happened if Imus had played the race card the way that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton did on him? Would it have gotten even uglier? Did Sharpton or Jackson ever listen to his program? But if their goal was to muzzle him and keep him away, it didn't work, and that's great news for the news business in this country and free speech.

About the only ones who came out looking good were the Rutgers women's basketball team. And now they have to ruin it by going and suing him ...