Press release a few minutes ago, about an hour after a meeting between Les Moonves & Sharpton:
CBS fired Don Imus from his radio show Thursday, the finale to a stunning fall for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters
Imus initially was suspended for two weeks for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his programs.
"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision.
"That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."
Earlier in the day Thursday, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the leaders of civil rights and women's groups led protesters to CBS corporate headquarters in midtown, urging station heads to follow MSNBC's lead in firing radio shock jock Don Imus as the controversy widened.
"We hope CBS does not have a blind eye with that dot in the middle," Sharpton said, referring to the network's eye logo.
"We hope we can open up their eye with that dot, because it's not about taking Imus down, it's about lifting decency up."
Sharpton met privately with CBS CEO Les Moonves for about 30 minutes before the other leaders joined in; Sharpton later said he'd pushed Moonves to fire Imus.
Afterwards, the groups linked the Imus controversy to problems with the general media environment.
"NBC, which we met with earlier today, has clearly decided to do the right thing and they're working with us to continue developing a culture at NBC so this kind of thing will never happen again," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women.
"We're now waiting to see if CBS will exercise that same leadership."
Urban League president Mark Morial said the groups are "taking this cause for standards in the media, diversity in the media, beyond simply Imus."
"This issue is much larger and it's an opportunity for a conversation in this nation about very difficult issues".
The Rev. Jesse Jackson cast the controversy over Imus' racial slur as "a reflection on all of CBS and on all journalists that have developed a toleration for it."
"When journalists say I feel attached to him, close to him, loyal to him, but he slipped up--they are giving credence to this level of language."
Citing the lack of diversity on television and radio, Jackson called it "a culture of exclusion and not diversity. It's all day and all night all white – unrepresented."
Imus is a repeat offender, said Jackson, referencing among other comments one Imus made about tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Those comments "animalized" them, Jackson said, by saying they should be in National Geographic and not Playboy.
He also cited a derogatory comment Imus made about Sen. Hillary Clinton after she spoke in front of a largely black audience in Selma, Alabama.
"Three strikes and you're out ought to apply to this situation," Jackson said. "We would urge CBS to make a decision soon--and we get the impression they are going to make a decision soon."
A crowd of protesters gathered to voice their support for firing Imus, including Linzell Vaughn, the father of 20-year-old Kia Vaughn, a sophomore who plays center on the Rutgers women's basketball team.
