FACTBOX: Don Imus, veteran broadcaster

Thu Nov 1, 2007 7:06pm EDT
 
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(Reuters) - Fallen shock jock Don Imus, who was fired by CBS Radio in April for an on-air racial slur, has signed a deal with Citadel Broadcasting Corp to return to the airwaves on December 3, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Following are some facts about Imus.

* His "Imus in the Morning" show was canceled in April after he referred to the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" -- an insulting phrase that combined an antiquated term for coarse, curly hair with a slang word for whore. Imus later apologized.

* The National Association of Black Journalists said Imus had had a history of racial insults on his program, having called journalist Gwen Ifill of the Public Broadcasting Service a "cleaning lady" and referring to columnist William Rhoden of The New York Times as "a quota hire."

* A pediatric doctor sued Imus in 2005 for slander, alleging Imus had defamed him by calling him "one of the worst doctors in the world" during his "Imus in the Morning" show.

* Imus was sued by his son's former nanny in 2004 over an on-air outburst in which he called her a "terrorist" after firing her.

* The White House in 1996 denounced a "fairly tasteless" skewering of President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, by Imus. With the Clintons looking on uncomfortably at the Radio & Television Correspondents Association dinner, Imus joked about allegations of the president's marital infidelity.

 

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