Controversy?

So I know I promised a Sox preview against the Cards but something was brought to my attention by my friends Toucher and Rich (afternoons 3-7 on WBCN Boston).

I guess an ESPN columnist named Jamele Hill made some inappropriate comments about the Celtics, well more specifically about Hitler and Nuclear War. Here’s the quote:

“Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It’s like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan.”

Jemele said this when Kelly Tilghman was fired from the Golf Channel:

“…those who, like Woods, believed this is a “non-issue” would understand that the word “lynch” is off-limits to most blacks, just as joking about the Holocaust is off-limits to most Jews.”

She was also one of the people spearheading the firing of Don Imus for his Nappy headed hoes comment:

“If it were up to me, security would have escorted the longtime radio jock out of his CBS Radio cocoon with belongings in tow days ago. But for now, I’ll have to settle for a two-week suspension that doesn’t begin until next week. That’ll show him.”

If you’re really Jones-ing for more you can read the whole article here.

So I’m trying to wrap my mind around the whole thing. You live by the sword, doesn’t that mean that you should die by the sword?

If you’re one to get your panties in a bunch because Don Imus made a racist comment or that a Golf Channel employee makes an off color joke you probably should avoid the Holocaust as a subject of fodder. Especially when you referenced the Holocaust as off limits.

So I encourage everyone to take a minute and write to ESPN that this girl get the axe. It’s OK when you’re attacking 100 year old white guys on the radio and cute, white broads on the Golf Channel
but the same can’t apply to a black woman?

No fucking way. Same rules for one and all.

Fire her now!

3 Comments

Filed under Celtics

3 Responses to Controversy?

  1. Jay

    So I emailed ESPN, here’s the response I got:

    Hello Jason,

    Thank you for contacting us.

    Both Jemele and ESPN.com apologize. The column, as originally posted,
    made some uncharacteristic, but absolutely unacceptable comparisons.
    We’ve spoken with Jemele, and she understands that she exercised poor
    judgment. She’s been relieved of her responsibilities for a period of
    time to reflect on the impact of her words. Within hours of its posting
    on Saturday evening, the inappropriate references were removed from the
    site, but our system of checks and balances failed Jemele and our
    readers and we are addressing that as well.

    Here is Jemele Hill’s Apology:
    “I deeply regret the comment I made in a column Saturday. In expressing
    my passion for the NBA and my hometown of Detroit I showed very poor
    judgment in the words that I used. I pride myself on an understanding
    of, and appreciation for, diversity – and there is no excuse for the
    appalling lack of sensitivity in my comments. It in no way reflects the
    person I am. I apologize to all of my readers and I thank them for
    holding me accountable. This has been an important lesson for me and
    illustrates that, like many people, I still have a lot of growing and
    learning to do.”

    Thanks for visiting ESPN.com.

    For live assistance with this or any other issue, please call Customer
    Care at 1-888-549-3776 (ESPN) between 7:00 am and 2:00 am EST.

    Regards,

    Corey
    ESPN.com Customer Care

  2. Please dude, you have too much time on your hands. Just another fraud getting caught without the proper identification.

    But I’m willing to bet, it was all taken out of context, and incredibly overblown!!! Freedom of speech my asshole. We’ll see what happens…

    It is a wonderful thing, to be liberated from terrestrial radio. Its almost like being human again… imagine? Last time I checked, I was damn sure I could take a cuss word here or there… but acctually expressing emotions is taboo to the FCC.

    Inspired by your slideshow thing you did there on the day,… I decided to attempt to make my own. Check it out here. I think its pretty good for a rough draft…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glkfa0LCc3M

    -CheChChCheck It Oouuuttt!

  3. Pingback: ESPN is Starting to Piss Me Off « Jay’s Sports Blog™

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