This is ridiculous. He accidentally says something offensive, immediately realizes his mistake and quickly apologizes, but gets fired anyway. He wasn’t trying to be funny or provocative. He didn’t even excuse what he did. He just says “n” instead of “p” and he’s out the door. So I guess the lesson is, if you work in radio and accidentally say something offensive, you might as well go all out, because you’ve already lost your job.
That does seem pretty harsh. The guy did apologise right away, and it was pretty clear he was sorry from that quote. He wasn’t trying to make a joke. Some sort of punishment, yes, but immediate firing? That seems like overkill, to me.
Nitpick - the “p” in coup is silent, so technically he said n instead of nothing.
I read that headline and thought “well good for him, that’s awful”. Then read the story and I have to agree, that was way, way over the top as a punishment.
This is awful. When you said he apologized immediately, I thought you meant, say, before the end of the business day, or sometime when his shift was over. But he actually apologized as soon as he said it. It reminds me of the blooper reel where the news anchor accidentally replaces an ordinary word with a term for part of a woman’s anatomy, then gets flustered and does it with two more words.
I’m pretty sympathetic to the guy, too. It doesn’t happen all that often, but once in a while a few syllables of complete gibberish will come out of my mouth in the middle of an otherwise normal sentence. It seems to me that I usually do it when I’m trying to decide between two words, and wind up spitting out some weird combination of the two.
There but by the grace of God go I, as the saying goes…
I’m sorry, but that was hilarious. Especially reading the transcript - if you read his repetition of the slip the right way, it sounds like an emphasis rather than him catching his mistake. I do feel kind of bad for the guy.
On a local radio station a couple of mornings ago, I heard a woman commit a mistake I’d heard on a radio bloopers collection decades ago, in reference to the National Honkey League. To my knowledge she hasn’t been fired yet.
Where was his producer on the 7-second delay button? Most radio stations have a ‘dump’ button that either the host or producer can hit before something offensive goes out over the air.
I agree that this is too harsh a punishment for the guy. I haven’t heard the tape, but it does appear this was a completely innocent mistake. Maybe a day suspension or something would’ve been a better punishment?
Then again, I work in radio. It’s a brutal business. And it could be that the station managers didn’t like the guy and wanted to get rid of him anyway…a slip-up like this gives them a perfect cover.
The reasoning for the firing looks pretty lame. Maybe Mr. Manager was looking for an excuse to firing him. Tim Dorsey comes off looking like a complete idiot.
Why were people calling the station? It sounds like there is more to this story.
Maybe he had a pattern of offending people.
His was a new show, just a few days old, at a station going through major on-air “talent” changes. While I agree that lots of people make a slip of the tongue and can say something offensive or embarrasing accidently, this case smells. That particular word, “coon”, must have been in his mind when referencing a black woman or else it wouldn’t have just slipped out.
Yes, it was obviously a mistake. Yes, it’s clear from the context that he meant to say “coup.” Yes, it’s clear from his immediate mea culpa that it was completely unintentional and that he regretted it immediately. Is it a hanging offense? Absolutely.
His manager was completely justified in firing him. I would have done the same thing, only faster. Because he’s a racist? No, because he’s incompetent. People: this guy’s job–his profession–is to speak on the radio. If he can’t do that without offending lots and lots of people–intentionally or otherwise–he should find a different job.
Yes, we all make mistakes, yes I could easily have done the same thing. But I’m not being paid to speak over the airwaves. And while it’s common sense to think that even professionals are allowed to make mistakes in their profession, he unfortunately made a very, very big mistake. If you don’t care to be held responsible for what comes out of your mouth, don’t open it.
This is quite possible, and I have no knowledge of the guy, and I’m one to unfairly presume that racism is present when it might not be. However, it’s also possible for people to have in mind things that they fear they might say, as in "Oh man, I hope I don’t say “x” because people might think I’m a racist. Don’t say “x” don’t say “x”…"
“And of course, that would be a real big X…” aw fuck
Though the word may have been (must have been?) in his mind, it is quite common for someone who is nervous giving a speach to think of the worst thing they could possably say, and then inadvertantly saying it. I susspect many of us hav emade similar slip ups. I once dated a very nice girl called Savanha and in my mind was carefully thinking (“Don’t call her Sahara”). I of course went ahead and called her Sahara in our first person to person meeting.
I susspect this was just used as a reason to fire someone for whom a reason was wanted, rather than the sole reason someone would be fired.
This is what I was getting at above. It’s like the “don’t look at his mole” phenomenon (moley moley moley). I remember having an awkward discussion with a guy in a wheelchair about an ethical lapse of his. I was suggesting a potential way of handling the matter that would result in his being in a more defensible position, and so of course I said, “…and then you’ll definitely have a leg to stand on.” In fact, I was having difficulty mentally avoiding such turns of phrase the whole time.
Reminds me of my very own personal racial mental meltdown. I was about 14, playing a game of chess with the African-American boyfriend of a friend of my mom’s. He reneged on a move and I good-naturedly called him on it but let him take it back. A couple minutes later my mom came up and asked who was winning and I said “the reneger,” which came out sounding like something much nastier.
I must be way out of the loop on what is and is not a racist term, but I have never even heard that word before except as shorthand for a racoon, as in the animal.