THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
WELL, POLITICAL incorrectness reared its ugly head last week in Washington.
You probably remember the episode when ``shock jock'' Don Imus - the Attila the Hun of bad taste - spoke at the annual dinner of the Radio & Television Correspondents Association. The meeting was attended by President and Mrs. Clinton and Washington news worthies.
Imus adheres to George Bernard Shaw's definition of good manners: having the same manners for everybody.
And he did at the dinner. Imus trashed the Clintons in references to the president's bimbo problems and Hillary's Watergate deceptions. He even made fun of Sen. Bob Kerry's wooden leg.
I find the episode revolting, myself. But my anger is not at Mr. Imus, a man whose reputation is well established. (Imus would be - to use a politically correct term - linguistically deprived if the word ``sucks'' were removed from his vocabulary.)
The host association sent the president a letter of apology, which has not been reprinted on the news wires. I would give plenty to see it. I can't imagine what it said. Uh, well, maybe I can:
Dear Mr. President,
We are shocked at what happened at the dinner the other night and are appalled at the remarks made by Don Imus, who slipped by our security guards by impersonating Walter Cronkite, right down to his shaving brush used as a moustache.
Let me assure you Mr. Imus will never address our association again, and we share your sense of shock and outrage!
Sincerely,
P.R. Spinner
President
Get out of here! Remember now, the association is composed of people whose job it is to find the stories behind the news by digging and clawing for it in obscure places.
Imus is not an obscure figure. His ``Imus in the Morning'' program can be heard across the fruited plain - as Rush says - from Maine to California. He's a talk-show shock- and schlock-meister who has hosted - I suspect - a quarter of the association's membership on his show! And trashed every one of them who appeared.
The clucking and shaking of heads over Imus' talk to the association from such notables as Dan Rather and Cokie Roberts appears to be of the sort that gives hypocrisy a good name.
Roberts of ABC - a woman of admirable integrity and mind - said she would never go on Imus' show again. ``You can't make fun of the president when he's sitting right there,'' she said.
I think I agree with her, because the office of the presidency is entitled to respect. But I wonder whether or not it is more admirable to say something bad about someone in their absence rather than face-to-face. An interesting question.
We are certainly not the only country bothered by political incorrectness
- or incorrectness in politics - although in Canada the physical joke tends to prevail. Our Canadian cousins tend to believe direct insults are taboo.
Physical jokes haunted the career of John George Diefenbaker, the Canadian prime minister during the '50s and '60s. Dief, as he was called, had shaking jowls, shaking hands and a quavering voice. It was said by Liberals, not in public, that he was suffering from Parkinson's disease.
Canadians were too polite to confront Dief and say, ``You have Parkinson's disease.'' But Liberal hecklers found a way around their problem. They played ``Shake, Rattle and Roll'' at every political rally Dief attempted to address.
And when Kim Campbell became the first woman prime minister of Canada, her large posterior was never mentioned to her directly, although she was privately referred to as ``the rear admiral.'' Still, she probably got off lighter than her mentor and ex-husband, a university mathematician with the nickname ``Toozie.''
``Toozie'' is Yiddish slang for ``a fat butt.'' It has been said of Toozie that when he leaned over while playing chess beside Lake Winnipeg, he often blocked the noonday sun.
Now that's politically incorrect - no ifs, ands or butts. by CNB