Joseph Planta's Commentary - thecommentary.ca

Tuesday, 29 March 2005

Taking on kids and cowboys: Exposing the Imus Ranch

By Joseph Planta

VANCOUVER - When you smear Don Imus, the shit really does hit the fan.

Since Thursday, Imus has devoted much of his program railing against an insidious front-page expose in the Wall Street Journal. Here were some of the telling headlines coming out of Imus's rant-filled programs on Thursday and Friday. New York Post: "Imus Has a Cow." NewsMax.com: "Imus Vows Revenge on WSJ, Author." From CBS News: "Ranch Accusations Rile Imus." BusinessWeek: "Citizen Imus Under Fire. But It's the Critics Who Will Get Burned." New York Daily News: "Imus explodes at expose on his ranch." And in a more measured slug, the New York Times: "Radio Host Criticises Report on Charity."

Whatever the headline, sanitised or not, the gist of all stories was this: Don Imus, combative, irascible, and obnoxious radio jock, used his program to lambaste, threaten, belittle and maim, Journal reporter Robert Frank, who penned an offending article. Thursday, Frank wrote about the 4000-acre working cattle ranch, which Imus and his wife Deirdre run for sick children. He reports that New Mexican locals dub it the "Cowboy Taj Mahal." Moreover, that the New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office had questioned the Imus's about supposed personal use of the ranch. Frank reported that expenses for the ranch were surprisingly high, considering that, only a hundred or so children are at the ranch per year. Expenses for the ranch in 2003 totalled $2.6 million dollars, but Imus contends that some $800,000 is not actually an expense, rather an accounting depreciation allowance. Still, the cost was high as Frank compared the Imus Ranch's costs (some $18,000 per child) to other charities like Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Camp. As well, he quoted a 2000 ruling from the San Miguel County, NM assessor's office, that stated that the ranch not be granted full tax exemption from local property tax because its facilities were used but part of the year.

It was the allegation that the Imus family-Imus, his wife Deirdre and their son Wyatt, were using the ranch and its facilities for their own personal use, when children were not there; and that, "tax filings show that the ranch hasn't collected any rent or service payments" from Imus, that pissed off the I-Man. And Frank's tone was egregious enough when he quoted Howard Stern's infantile ranting, saying Stern attacks the ranch as nothing more than a summer home for Imus and a "big scam." Wow, when did Howard Stern become credible enough to quote? As well, Frank notes it cost more than $20 million dollars to build the ranch, and in passing notes that a Steinway grand piano adorns a room in the ranch, and that the Imus have a master-bedroom suite, arranged according to Chinese feng shui principles, replete with Asian and American-Indian rugs, and a screened-in sleeping porch.

Well, as expected Imus went on a warpath. Thursday and Friday's programs were rant-filled diatribes with occasional commercials in-between. (Monday wasn't different, though it seemed he was beginning to tire of it, when he learned that Frank had received threats from zealous fans, whom Imus has correctly disavowed.) As for the Spitzer enquiry, they were but routine and informal. In fact, Spitzer's office had closed the inquiry on Thursday, with the same Wall Street Journal reporting on Friday that a letter had been sent to Imus on Thursday evening saying, "No further inquiries concerning the Ranch are needed at this time." Fine, but guess where that article ran. On page three of the B section. The old adage is apt: accusations linger, denials evaporate. Imus blasted the report, saying by virtue of the fact that children who go to the ranch have their lives completely changed, it was worth the expense, and he would spend $1.8 million each if he could.

Last spring, in this space, the book The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys by Deirdre Imus (Rodale, 2004) was reviewed. It's a cookbook of vegetarian recipes of the grub served at the Ranch. The first third of the book was an essay on the ranch and its mission, while the last two thirds were devoted to remarkable vegan recipes that were beautifully photographed. I had given it a favourable review not because I'm a fan of Imus, and I happen to think the ranch's philosophy-of promoting self-esteem by instilling a work ethic to children suffering from cancer, sickle cell, or siblings of SIDS victims-is one that is needed and appropriate, especially in today's overly litigious, overly-coddled society. I had given it a favourable review, as since it was a cookbook, the recipes were at once unique, as they were accessible and easy to comprehend, as well as the photography. The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller, in no small part to Imus humping it on his radio program, which is simulcast on MSNBC.

After I had reviewed the book, I was in receipt of a letter from one Suzi Kirschner. Her son, Daevin had brain cancer and was at the ranch one summer. She wrote of how wonderful a place the Ranch was, and how meaningful it was for her, as a parent, to see the life of her son change forever. She wrote in the Imus book: "At the Ranch, he was treated like a normal child and received no preferential treatment because of his illness. He did his chores like the other kids, and he had his own horse that he took care of . . . I will never forget when he came home, wearing a cowboy hat and boots walking up the stairs. I opened the door, and he said, 'Howdy, Mama.' At that moment, I knew that in those 10 days at the Ranch, my son had changed: He had made the transition from being a boy to being a man." Daevin Kirschner died less than a year later, but in the two notes that Suzi sent me, she made it so obviously clear how remarkable and special the Imus Ranch is. And despite the pain of having to tell her son's story, it is well worth it considering how many lives are changed thanks to the work of the Imus's and the Imus Ranch in New Mexico. Robert Frank should have done a story on that instead of focusing on how much the whole experience costs.

I suspect that when Imus has his telethon this year, many more will donate considering this hatchet job done by the Wall Street Journal. It is perhaps vindication that life-affirming and life-altering experiences like that had at the Imus Ranch can't be appropriately measured in dollars and cents. As well, the Wall Street Journal and Robert Frank showed little sense in the blatantly offensive article they have done.

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