Friday, April 13, 2007

CBS Radio Cancels Don Imus, Effectively Ending His 40 Year Broadcasting Career

As a final death blow to the great 40 year career of Don Imus, CBS Radio cancelled his radio program just on the last day of his annual fundraising efffort for sick children with cancer. How CBS could cancel Imus when he said nothing untoward during this two-day annual charity for children is simply ghoulish. But so far CBS has not volunteered to replace any of the lost charity funds. If anything, kindhearted Don Imus probably feels far worse about this loss of charity funds to sick children than his loss of his career to cultural extremists.

The shabby treatment for Don Imus, an inducted member of The Broadcasting Hall Of Fame, is considered to be one of America's greatest living broadcasters along with Walter Cronkite and other landmark personalities.

Whether 66 year old Don Imus will seek a return to broadcasting via satellite like Howard Stern was forced to due to heavy FCC pressure and network censorship is not known yet. It is also not known whether Imus can seek a lawsuit against CBS or MSNBC for breach of contract or wrongful termination, it really depends the wording of each contract. But Imus had both contracts terminated by both networks although no violation of FCC, libel, indecency or obscenity standards occurred. This may leave room for attorneys for Imus to pursue some legal action against his former employers for unlawful breach of contract for bowing to political pressures from the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the absense of any legitimate legal grounds to terminate his contracts.

The CBS contract is rumored to be worth about $15 million alone, however Imus has nearly matched this figure in charitable giving in the last 12 months alone. Don Imus helped to raise $6 million for the Texas Center For The Intrepid, which offers aid to wounded veterans, with actress Sandra Bullock raising another $1 million, and CNN's Lou Dobbs and others making major contributions as well. Imus' charity efforts including a brand of ecofriendly detergents in which he donates all profits as well as annual fundraising efforts to fund his summer camp for children with cancer are also well known.

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