# Give the guy a break! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 23, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620 "2006-03-23T18:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/101 "2006-03-26T23:52:26Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > So because of the forum, it’s OK to spread rumors? Isn’t spreading rumors in any forum kind of not what these boards are about? A rumor, accurately labeled as one, can still fit in with the Dope’s “Mission Statement.” By stating up front that it was rumor, he dispelled any ignorance we may have had concerning the veracity of the conjecture in the statement. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/102 "2006-03-27T03:58:48Z")
> [@Sequent](#): > > 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. I agree with this. And when he didn’t hit his 7-second delay button to correct his mistake, he fucked up a second time. From the **St. Louis Post Dispatch** > [@](#): > > Station chief Tim Dorsey confirmed the station does broadcast on a seven-second delay, but the button used to delete questionable material was never activated. At KTRS, Dorsey said, it is the host’s responsibility to alert a technician when he wants to use the delay device. > > “When you want something dumped you would point to the board operator, indicating to hit the button,” Dorsey said. “I would say we use the seven-second delay button often. Everybody does. It’s pretty standard in the business.” > > Reached Thursday at home, Lenihan, who had been with the station a week and a half, said he was never told about the delay procedures. > > At most stations, censoring the radio personality is left solely to the show’s producer, said Roosevelt “Rick” Wright Jr., a professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Wright has 48 years’ experience in radio. > > Wright added that “bloopers” happen all the time in radio, but they are usually more comical than offensive. > > Lenihan’s misstep, Wright suggested, was that he drew attention to his mistake, repeating the word before an effusive apology. If it was indeed a slip of the tongue, a more seasoned broadcaster might have been able to talk past it, he said. > > “In this case, we had a rookie trying to get out and he caused attention to it,” Wright said. “That’s when the phone calls started to come in.” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/103 "2006-03-28T18:44:15Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > I predict Rice will call the station manager, and the guy will get his job back. Just watch. Wrong. The warmongering bitch will claim she “accepts his apology” while using the opportunity to climb up on her high horse about slavery: > [@](#): > > Rice said Sunday that the incident is evidence that the “birth defect” of slavery infuses even mature democracies with racial tensions that take generations to heal. 😕 Wha? Birth defect? Huh? I think Condi has been hanging out round the depleted uranium stocks for too long. It was a slip of the goddamn tongue! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/104 "2006-03-28T19:00:48Z")
The manager of the station’s parent company today entered this statement: > [@](#): > > We stand by our station manager’s decision to fire Mr. Lenihan as his statement, however inadvertent it may have been, was distasteful and a reversal of a century of social improvements. It is the firm conviction of this company that there are few if any American women deserving of praise and greatest respect that Condolezzi Rice. Sorry! Condolesbian… COONDOLEES… CUNNILEENZA… MRS. RICE! MRS. RICE!!! MISS RICE! MISS! WONDERFUL WOMAN!!! > > Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/105 "2006-03-28T20:52:05Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 😕 Wha? Birth defect? Huh? I think Condi has been hanging out round the depleted uranium stocks for too long. It was a slip of the goddamn tongue! I thought it was clever. The birth she’s referring to is that of the nation, with which slavery was entrenched. Thus, “the birth defect of slavery”. Whatever problems you have with Rice, I don’t get what offends you about that statement. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/106 "2006-03-28T21:04:26Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > I thought it was clever. The birth she’s referring to is that of the nation, with which slavery was entrenched. Thus, “the birth defect of slavery”. Whatever problems you have with Rice, I don’t get what offends you about that statement. What _offends_ me is that she has taken a perfectly innocuous verbal slip-up and burdened it with racist meaning that simply wasn’t intended. What the hell does a guy tying his tongue in knots have to do with slavery and the birth of the USA? Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner (heh) but I’ll never understand the American preoccupation with race. Isn’t it time to get on with life without constantly obsessing about colo(u)r? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/107 "2006-03-28T21:17:12Z")
Maybe she was referring to oversensitivity about a word that has a history of being used as a hate-filled put-down? That the scars from the past national tragedy are still easy to dredge up, if not on purpose? I wouldn’t think that a member of the Bush administration would on purpose accuse anyone in America of unconscious racism, so I have to assume she was referring to the entire brouhaha as a sad reminder of America’s legacy rather than just to the actual words uttered by the interviewer. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/108 "2006-03-28T21:22:32Z")
Colophon, the fact that the word is controversial is evidence of the fact that racial tensions are alive and well here in the US. It’s not just Condoleeza. When someone can slip and use the word “coon” and it causes no more pause than someone saying “badvantage” when they combine “advantage” with “boon”, then we will know that racial tensions are much diminished here. Honestly, I do think the US is moving through issues of race, but it is a process. I am no expert on British history, but my impression certainly is that the UK - or Europe - did not have the same level of slavery as the US, and it does make a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/109 "2006-03-28T22:36:58Z")
Listeners being too easily offended felt a need to complain. The complaints caused the station managers to fire the DJ. Firing him created a media circus. The media circus re-introduced the word “coon” into the national lexicon. Shame on the listeners for being too easily offended. I sometimes think racial tension is on the upswing because of the responses that an innocent error evokes. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/110 "2006-03-28T23:23:00Z")
By the way, in case anybody else read the “birth defect” comment thinking it was her response to this incident, it was a quote from a [speech](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030703-14.html) she made in July 2003. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/111 "2006-03-29T01:56:48Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > What _offends_ me is that she has taken a perfectly innocuous verbal slip-up and burdened it with racist meaning that simply wasn’t intended. What the hell does a guy tying his tongue in knots have to do with slavery and the birth of the USA? I thought that’s what you were getting at, but: " Wha? Birth defect? Huh? I think Condi has been hanging out round the depleted uranium stocks for too long." sounds like you’re going in the “she sounds like a nutcase” direction. Besides, what do you think the controversy surrounding the slip-up was about before she added race to it? ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/112 "2006-03-29T01:59:46Z")
BTW, just to be blunt, you are completely missing her point. I’ll help you out with a hint: she’s on YOUR side. Now re-read her apology and see if you can get it. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/113 "2006-03-29T14:11:19Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > BTW, just to be blunt, you are completely missing her point. I’ll help you out with a hint: she’s on YOUR side. Now re-read her apology and see if you can get it. Well put me down as being “my-zuld” by a very shoddy bit of reporting. Selective quoting, including, as **Sampiro** points out, an unattibuted snippet of a three-year-old and entirely unrelated speech. The way that article was written, it sounds as though she said that in response to the current situation. She’s still a warmongering bitch queen, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/114 "2006-03-29T21:51:45Z")
Maybe Condoleeza won’t come out in favor of his being rehired, but the local chapter of the NAACP has. [http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/25C60C056167F579862571400067A362?OpenDocument](http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/25C60C056167F579862571400067A362?OpenDocument) That’s the local chapter of the NAACP and its newest members – Mr. and Ms. Dave Lenihan. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/115 "2006-03-30T20:01:42Z")
Hey, what about that public official in DC being forced to resign (at least temporarily) a few years ago for using the word “niggardly” CORRECTLY because some members of the previous administration apparently thought it was a racial slur. (Not that Marion Barry’s administration had any but the brightest, most erudite, scholarly public servants in it…) ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/116 "2006-03-30T21:01:11Z")
> [@lurkernomore](#): > > Hey, what about that public official in DC being forced to resign (at least temporarily) a few years ago for using the word “niggardly” CORRECTLY because some members of the previous administration apparently thought it was a racial slur. (Not that Marion Barry’s administration had any but the brightest, most erudite, scholarly public servants in it…) 😕 Oh yeah! That incident! There was a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, smithereen of a chance that we could have ever forgotten, for one moment, the event that will be held up by racism apologists and politcal incorrectness crusaders as proof of a reverse-racism conspiracy decades after the scandal ceases to have any relevance. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/117 "2006-03-30T22:02:56Z")
…because Heaven forbid someone take a stand and risk hurting the feelings of someone supposedly helping to run a city who displays ignorance of a word most learn in high school or before, and hold him to a standard of competence? Because the truth is not as important as their feelings. What ever happened to the truth shall set you free? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/118 "2006-03-30T22:05:24Z")
From the further information it seems perfectly reasonable for the disk jockey to have been fired. Not so much for the slip as for the combination of the slip followed by failure to make use of the 7 second delay. Similarly in the current atmosphere of near-censorship it would be appropriate to fire a disk jockey who took a live call in which the word fuck was used and failed to edit it out before the clip was aired. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/119 "2006-04-01T02:49:28Z")
As of this afternoon,[he got his teaching job back.](http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/8D31BF47BEC71B7C86257142007CBD6D?OpenDocument) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/120 "2006-04-04T03:40:53Z")
Ratings Period? Has this been mentioned yet? Say the guy was planning on leaving anyway, and the station needed a boost in the ratings, and so he was “prepped” to say what he did. May not have happened that way, but let me share somthing with you about my early days in radio: It was during a time when the Atlanta Braves were losing big time (this was before the pennant victories), and I remarked about a play that Bob Horner (then a Brave) really screwed up. Not meaning to, I called him “Bob Horny”, heard laughter from my engineer and tried to recover by saying, " Of **course** I meant ‘Horner’, but maybe that is why the Braves are losing!" Got me in hot water, but it sure caused those phone lines to light up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620.md?page=7)