"From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air..." - CBS President And CEO Leslie Moonves

The level of Les Moonves' revulsion grew as Imus' advertisers began to pull out in droves. American Express, Sprint/Nextel, Proctor & Gamble, GM, and Staples all announced that they were disassociating themselves from Imus and the fray, and Moonves' outrage grew as the bottom line began to shrink.

MSNBC - well that's a no brainer. Nobody is going to watch an elderly man and his middle-aged sidekicks sit around and tell bad jokes into a microphone. Heck, the Imus audience on MSNBC was made up of people who were too lazy to get up in the morning and turn on their radios. Instead, they rolled over, picked up the remote, and put on TV Imus. Nobody actually watched it.

Les Moonves is not morally outraged. He is financially outraged. In less than one week, Don Imus went from being an asset to CBS to a bleeding liability. CBS cut its losses and ended the relationship. When Imus moved from the plus side to the minus side of the ledger, it was over.

Don Imus made a crass, off the cuff comment that was wildly inappropriate, offensive, and hurtful. That's what he was hired to do, and he has been doing it for years. As Howard Stern moved the line of civility, Don Imus followed right along.

The conversation now centers on whether you believe Don Imus to be a racist. Some in the African-American community say that because it came out of his mouth, it must be close to the surface and are his true feelings. Others say this is how white people talk when no one else is around.

These arguments are inherently racist. To believe either scenario, one must believe that all white people are racist. That argument itself is racist. To make assertions about a group of people based on the color of their skin is the definition of racism. We assume that what Imus said is what he believes, and that may or may not be true.