Obviously the remark that got Lenihan fired had to be punished harshly, as it was dangerous. Who knows how many people listening in their cars laughed so hard they drove off the road?
Anyway, it pales* in comparison to this incident.
Sometimes announcers just screw up unintentionally. Or get help (as in the case of the rock group that invited disaster in its name forthis album).
*no racial allusion intended.
Just to clarify, I wasn’t suggesting that what you are saying was insane. Someone getting fired over this is insane, in my opinion.
I wish someone familiar with the DJ would come along. I’d hate to be defending a guy who has a history of slyly making racial insults.
The thing that the posters who are saying that the announcer shouldn’t lose his job over this seem to be overlooking is that this was during the man’s first two weeks of employment at the station. If he had made this mistake after a period of time as an employee I’d be with all those saying that he shouldn’t lose his job.
But making this kind of error on the job after only two weeks… I can see why the station choose not to risk seeing if that was his mean time to failure.
I would only agree if had a track record of making insensitive remarks. Lenihan had a show on another radio station, WGNU, in the same city, after all.
Unless, of course, you’re Oprah.
The conflating of boon and coup never occured to me. That’s a reasonable interpretation. Too bad he didn’t use that as an explanation.
“Coons? When racoons try to get on our back porch, Momma just chases 'em off with a broom.”
Forrest Gump was the only other time I’d heard “coon” as a racial slur. And I wondered if it was concocted just for the film. Shoot, if I’d been the DJ, I wouldn’t have known why people were offended.
I’m probably in the minority here, but I’ll argue that something had to be done, and really quickly. Here’s why:
According to news reports here in St. Louis, the announcer had a dump button, and didn’t use it. If he didn’t use it for his own slipup, what would he do if a caller said something inappropriate or inflammatory?
There would have been an inevitable Beavis and Butthead response – "Heh heh. He said “coon.”
Assuming it was a legitimate accident, what would the station do the next time an announcer “accidentally” used an ethnic slur or an obscenity? It’s not unheard of in the world of talk radio to have announcers deliberately push the envelope and claim innocence when stuff hits the fan.
Maybe firing was too harsh. On the other hand, the guy had been at the station for a grand total of eight days. He didn’t exactly get off to a flying start.
And there are rumors going around that it was all a publicity stunt, with both the station manager and the host in on the whole thing.
Like I said before, I wouldn’t have known either. If I had heard it I might have thought it an odd thing to say but wouldn’t have realized it was a racial thing.
The DJ on the other hand obviously did know that it was offensive as shown by his apology in the same sentence.
If he didn’t realize until he said it that he’d had a slip of the tongue, how can he possibly be expected to use the dump button?
So what? Why should someone who made an innocent mistake be responsible for idiots sniggering about it?
Then evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. Was this a firing offense? Only to the most hyper-sensitive.
Wow, god forbid any new person should ever make a mistake.
So the DJ entered into a conspiracy with the station manager to get himself fired and potentially branded as a racist? Do you have some evidence of said conspiracy or are you relying on meaningless rumors?
I grew up in Ohio, too, and I wouldn’t have recognized this as a slur if not for my husband telling me.
…which wasn’t there when I wrote the response. The hamsters took several minutes to accept my post.
Honest.
Well, I’m from the STL area and think this whole thing is a tempest in a teapot. I couldn’t believe how draconian the coporate reaction was, and Frank O Pinion sank way down in my “opinion” when he endorsed the station’s decision. I think KTRS is below contempt in how they handled this and will vote with my radio buttons. No more KTRS for me, and I don’t listen to Cardinal’s baseball so no big deal for me.
Psh. Like you’d expect rationality once the PC police show.
Who?
I call this “The Number Three” effect. (note: “Number Three” has a huge mole on his face)
I think that this is exactly what happened to Dave Lenihan. He shouldn’t be fired for it.
Because the dump button is a five-second delay. He knew what he said within five seconds. That’s what the dump button is for.
Because sniggering idiots tie up the phone lines to radio talk shows and keep an innocent mistake going for hours or days. If you’re a talk show host, and you give sniggering idiots an opening, pretty soon the only listeners you’ll have are sniggering idiots. It’s Gresham’s law applied to radio.
And I actually said “maybe firing was too harsh.” But hosting a talk show is a high-wire act, and talk show hosts know it. Also, employers aren’t known for forgiveness when a new employee screws up and there are 100 other people lined up to apply for the job.
No, I don’t have evidence and yes, I am repeating rumors which may or may not be baseless. That’s why I said “rumors.” This is The Pit, not Great Debates. But considering that the station participated in a publicity stunt a couple of weeks ago, I don’t put it past them, either.
President Clinton?
Well, this guy certainly found himself an egress.
There’s a brand of cheese here in Australia called “Coon”. I never know what to think whenever I see it.
No worries, mate. That’s named after Edward William Coon.