The Racist Returns: Don Imus Signs "Eight Figure, Multi Year Contract" With Top Radio Station

Posted by Rachel Sklar at 10:10 AM on October 16, 2007.

This post, written by Rachel Sklar, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

Yesterday, Drudge boldly declared a resurrection: That of Don Imus, who has apparently struck an "eight-figure, multiyear contract" with WABC for the triumphant return of "Imus in the Morning" to the airwaves on what, according to Drudge, is "the nation's most listened to talk station." Obviously you will recall that the disgraced shock jock (and that's an occupation with a pretty low bar for 'disgrace') was ousted after calling members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" in a double dose of racism and sexism.

You know the rest: Contrition tour with Al Sharpton; denouncement by high-profile former guests; cut loose by MSNBC on the TV side and CBS on the WFAN radio side; those last two aren't necessarily in chronological order. Then Imus had nothing left to do but slink into sad obscurity, right? Wrong -- he filed a $120 million lawsuit against CBS and settled for a reputed $20 million plus no restrictions on when he could go back on the air. Plus he couldn't say anything mean about Les Moonves. Hey, Moonves has his priorities straight.

And now, a "high-impact resurrection" -- a phrase that predates Drudge, incidentally, in a New York magazine profile by Robert Kolker titled "The Resurrection of Don Imus" and after the settlement was announced Imus' buddy Kinky Friedman* said: "He's very much like Jesus. He's coming back and boy is he PO'd." Well, apparently the meek shall inherit, albeit with a 40-second delay, just in case.

It's always interesting to hear what they have to say about it on "Morning Joe" -- the show which replaced "Imus in the Morning" on MSNBC, hosted by Joe Scarborough with Mika Brzezinski and the oft-joining Willie Geist; in August when the news of the settlement came down Scarborough went off on a tear, telling his producers to shut up when they suggested via his earpiece that he congratulate Imus on the air: "Like I've been on the Don Imus suck up train from the very beginning...Don Imus always hated my guts." Today's commentary was calmer -- less railing against th "sharks" of the TV industry -- but still fun, the video is to your right.

We're not sure exactly what Brzezinski was anticipating when she said "We're in trouble" but her hair is very smooth and shiny so perhaps she's safeThe gang also raised the big question of the day -- who would actually go back on Imus? (One wonders if it will be a question of dominoes, with one or two brave ones leading the way before everyone starts talking about bygones and forgiveness and airtime), and noted that Hillary Clinton probably wouldn't, per Drudge:

Imus is said to be particularly incensed by Senator Hillary Clinton's "shameless exploitation" of the Rutgers situation.

The senator, who Imus has called "Satan" and the "devil", traveled to Rutgers in April to praise the women's basketball team for its response to the controversy. In a campaign email, Hillary called Imus's comments "small-minded bigotry and coarse sexism."

"Hillary, prepare to meet your maker!" a source close to the host joked early Monday.

Nice to see everyone's learned from the events of last April.

The best line of the morning came later on, however, with the arrival of MSNBC pop culture contributor Courtney Hazlett: "In related news, Media Matters is hiring."

Tagged as: media, racism, radio, clinton, imus, elction08, scarborough

Rachel Sklar is the Media & Special Projects Editor for the Huffington Post and is the editor of the site's Eat The Press page.