The Imus Fallout: Monitoring Invective in the Electronic Age

Panelists: Ann Killion, San Jose Mercury News columnist; Jean-Jacques Taylor, Dallas Morning News columnist; Pete Aldrich, DallasNews.com assistant sports editor

Moderator: Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY sportswriter

By Kelcey Zutavern
2007 AWSM intern at USA Track & Field

Don Imus’ remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team being a bunch of “nappy-headed hos” resonated as an issue of racism rather than an issue of sexism because “racism is still a bigger issue to a lot of people than sexism,” said Jean-Jacques Taylor, a columnist for The Dallas Morning News.

Ann Killion, a sports columnist for San Jose Mercury News, said she believed there should have been more outrage about the fact that the women Imus insulted were not only athletic, but also intelligent students.

“These are young women who are everything you want your young women – your daughters – to be,” Killion said.

Killion also pointed out that it is common today for female athletes’ appearances to be brought up in a conversation about their athletic ability.

“When young women grab the spotlight, people often try to marginalize them in some way and it’s often by their looks,” Killion said. “When I heard about the (Imus) incident, I thought, ‘What Don Imus said is horrible, but it’s not much different from what I hear on sports talk radio every day.’”

Despite its negative aspects, the Imus incident has brought the most attention to a group of female athletes since the 1999 World Cup, Killion noted.

Pete Aldrich, assistant sports editor for DallasNews.com, said he hoped the attention generated by the incident would be used as a platform for women’s athletics to take a step forward.

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