From a smart Beltway friend:
On Meet the Press Sunday (with an obviously conflicted and unusually quiet Tim Russert), David Brooks appropriately pointed out that the reason Imus lasted so long was because the media elites of Washington and NYC propped him up and listened to and went on the show. Gwen Ifill, who had been called “the cleaning woman” who covered the White House by Imus made a very good case on Imus’s years of outrage that were ignored. Ifill even called Russert on the fact that he was so quiet all week – at that point she pretty much took over the moderator role from an appropriately chagrined Russert. David Brooks probably expressed the sentiment of a lot of us who rarely listened to the show when he said that he (Brooks) was genuinely surprised about a lot of the things that Imus has said over the years. And as Mark Levin has pointed out from the start – Imus had lousy ratings and a lame show. It seems his show was only propped up by the media elites like Russert, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Newsweek et al who constantly came to kiss the ring of Imus. The market worked when the elites – Imus’ only audience – abandoned him and the sponsors followed suit. This is not unlike what happened to Dan Rather when his long history finally caught up with him.
And here’s an overview of some of past outrages – it’s an admittedly liberal source but interesting reading.
UPDATE: Watch the video:
(h/t Hot Air)