MSNBC Drops Imus's Show

Imus has also lost ad support from American Express, Procter & Gamble, Bigelow Tea, Staples Inc. and drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

Imus -- who earns $8 million annually under his recently renewed five-year contract with CBS -- also got a strong rebuke yesterday from Bruce Gordon, a director of CBS Corp. and a former head of the NAACP. "He's crossed the line, he's violated our community," Gordon told the Associated Press. "He needs to face the consequence of that violation." CBS declined to comment on Gordon's statement.

Imus is scheduled to begin a two-day fundraising event today for several charities, including his organization that runs a New Mexico cattle ranch for children who have cancer. Although MSNBC and CBS had delayed his suspension until next week so the telethon could proceed, the fund drive will now be heard only on his radio network, which includes WTNT-AM (570) in Washington.

In a separate announcement, CBS Radio said former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle would replace Imus during his suspension. Barnicle, who left the Globe in 1998 after questions were raised about the existence of his sources, has his own troubled broadcast history. In 2004, while hosting a radio program in Boston, he described the interracial marriage of Janet Langhart and former defense secretary William Cohen as "Mandingo," a reference to a 1975 movie in which a black male slave and a white woman have sex. After the NAACP protested, Barnicle apologized on the air.

On Opie and Anthony's show, which is also syndicated by CBS, hosts Greg Hughes and Anthony Cumia fired back yesterday at Imus's critics, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has helped lead the campaign against Imus.

"Opie and Anthony" sidekick Jim Norton read the lyrics of hit rap songs containing multiple crude references to women. With the hosts' assent, Norton repeatedly called the anger over Imus's comments "phony outrage."

Staff writer Frank Ahrens contributed to this report.