Dec 3, 2007 5:45 am US/Central
Don Imus Returns To Airwaves
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Don Imus made his return to broadcasting Dec. 2, 2007. (File)
Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday - eight months after his firing for racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team - by introducing a new, diverse cast that included a black woman.
As he did several times in the days after the episode, Imus called his remarks "reprehensible" and said the women were "innocent people" who didn't deserve to be made fun of.
He said that every time he would get upset about how he was treated - he was fired from CBS Radio and MSNBC - "I would remind myself that if I hadn't said what I said, then we wouldn't be having this discussion."
Imus apologized Monday again to the players.
"I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me," he said. "And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn't deserve a second chance."
While saying he had learned his lesson, he added - to applause from the live audience at Manhattan's Town Hall: "The program is not going to change."
His debut, on WABC-AM, completed a comeback that seemed improbable at the height of the uproar back in April over his calling the players "nappy-headed hos."
His guests on Monday's show included historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sens. John McCain and Chris Dodd, and political analysts James Carville and Mary Matalin.
Imus joins WABC-AM hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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