I-MAN IN WINTER Schlock jock Don Imus
For years, politicians, pundits, and power players clamored to appear on Don Imus's radio program to hawk things—be it themselves or their latest books or TV shows—to his well-heeled audience of 3.5 million. Then came Nappy-headed Ho-gate. Just over a week after uttering those now-immortal words about the Rutgers women's basketball team, the grizzled shock jock has lost not only his show, but the support of many in his gilded stable of on-air buddies.
For two days prior to CBS's canceling of Imus in the Morning, Radar kept an up-to-the-minute record of who was planning to stick around and who was jumping ship, either out of genuine moral disgust or concern about tainting their own reps. On Wednesday, we broke the news when ABC became the first major news organization to declare that none of its employees would ever go on his program again—arguably a key moment in the host's fall from grace.
By yesterday afternoon, Newsweek editor and show regular Jon Meacham had flip-flopped and announced the same policy for himself and his staffers, including Imus staples Howard Fineman and Evan Thomas.
Who stood where when the I-man took his tumble?