Categories: OLD Media Moves

Imus and the financial press

Forbes.com columnist Gary Weiss says goodbye to fired CBS Radio host Don Imus by remembering how he personally attacked a Wall Street Journal reporter on his show for writing a story about his New Mexico ranch for kids.

Weiss wrote, “Apart from his record of rampant racism, it mustn’t be forgotten that he personally attacked Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank in 2005 for the sin of doing his job.

“As CBS pointed out at the time:

“When the Wall Street Journal ran a story that raised questions about the operation of the radio icon’s New Mexico ranch for sick children, Imus took his beef to the 3.25 million weekly listeners of his show, ‘Imus in the Morning.’

“Imus devoted more than half of his 4 1/2 hour program on Thursday to a denunciation of the story, which he called a ‘hatchet job.’ The author fared no better. Imus described veteran Journal finance reporter Robert Frank as ‘a dishonest punk.’

“It’s not about political correctness. It’s about an arrogant SOB who should have been fired years ago.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.