Now it’s the journalists’ turn to squirm in the Don Imus spotlight.

The many news personalities who appeared on Imus’ syndicated radio show, discussing such weighty matters as war and politics, found themselves forced recently to address the dismissed DJ’s comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.

April 15’s week-in-review shows were a parade of columnists and commentators discussing their own culpability in boosting Imus’ radio fame, despite their host’s longtime pattern of offensive comments.

Only Pat Buchanan on the syndicated “McLaughlin Group” stood foursquare behind WFAN’s former morning man.

“I would defend Imus, because I went on his show and he’s a friend,” Buchanan said. “The guy asked for forgiveness, and they hung him.”

NBC’s Tim Russert, one of Imus’ more frequent guests, was directly challenged on his own “Meet the Press” show by PBS’ “Washington Week” host Gwen Ifill, a black veteran reporter whom Imus called a “cleaning lady” in a 1990s broadcast.

“There’s been radio silence from a lot of people who’ve done his program,” Ifill said during Russert’s half-hour round-table with reporters. “Tim, we didn’t hear that much from you.”

Ifill noted on “Meet the Press” that Imus had a history of the “casual slurs and insults that I got 10 years ago, and people say ‘I didn’t know’ … A lot of people did know, and they just decided it was OK, this culture of meanness was fine, until they got caught” in the firestorm over Imus’ Rutgers remarks.

Russert expressed “sadness” for the Rutgers players but also for Imus and his family, hailing the host for “political discussions you didn’t hear anywhere else.”

“For us Washington dweebs,” admitted Time’s Ana Marie Cox on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” media review, “it’s kind of fun to be with the bad boy in the back of the room throwing spitballs. … The thing I feel bad about is, I was aware of it and was still on the show.”

“I enjoyed going on the show,” said Washington Post media writer and CNN host Howard Kurtz, moderating a “Reliable Sources” show labeled a “special edition” on the Imus controversy.

But Kurtz said, “Maybe I was too quick to overlook the bad stuff he said, though it wasn’t said in conversations with me.”

“A lot of us are enablers,” said Republican consultant Torie Clarke on ABC’s “This Week.” Clarke admitted that while listening to Imus’ show in the past, she had heard his racial remarks, “and I would run to turn it off because our African-American baby-sitter was there and I was horrified.”