Although one has to wonder if this is racism disguised as sensitivity. Just how stupid does ESPN think some people are that they would be confused by an Asian dude named Robert Lee calling a football game?
First, I’m still not sure I believe that report. But if it’s true, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, I wish Dennis Miller was still on Monday Night Football. He could probably do some masterful trolling along those lines.
The AP has confirmed that it is true:
https://sports.yahoo.com/espn-broadcaster-robert-lee-taken-off-uva-game-034513944--ncaaf.html
:smack:
Unfortunately, not satire.
So they are saying they expect the public to be too stupid to live, ergo they’ll accommodate that… sweet Jesus on rollerskates, what an age we live in.
Not quite.
"This wasn’t about offending anyone. It was about the meaningful possibility that because of his name he would be subjected to memes and jokes and who knows what else. Think about it. Robert Lee comes to town to do a game in Charlottesville. The reaction to our switching a young, anonymous play-by-play guy for a streamed ACC game is off the charts -reasonable proof that the meme/joke possibility was real.
So when the protests in Charlottesville were happening, we raised with him the notion of switching games. Something we do all the time. We didn’t make him. We asked him. Eventually we mutually agreed to switch.
No biggie until someone leaked it to embarrass us and him. They got their way. That’s what happened. No politically correct efforts. No race issues. Just trying to be supportive of a young guy who felt it best to avoid the potential zoo."
So, basically, they expected some members of the public to be too stupid to live, and they were right.
As they say, it was not because they were worried that people would think that Robert E Lee the general had come back from the dead to announce the game, but because they were concerned that people would make fun of the name, people from both sides of the issue, and unfairly taint the guy’s career, as is evidenced by the fact that the guy’s career was tainted from the leak.
But, yeah, you (JR, not BPC) go ahead and think that it was all just an attempt to keep from upsetting the delicate snowflakes who could not stand to hear the name “Lee”.
:smack:
So they were right after all – but not about snowflakes but about asshats, gotta grant you that, k9befriender, and the asshats found a way in the end.
People, especially while anonymous, ignorantly ridicule broadcasters all the time: for their names, their appearance, their voices, etc. It comes with the territory, you have to have a thick skin to be in that business and probably limit what you look at online. Lee wouldn’t be libeled in a damaging way because of what his name is.
I don’t know how inexperienced he is, so maybe there was some rationale in wanting to limit his exposure. To me it kind of reeks of an idea hatched by a corporate exec who may be well meaning but insulated from how the real world works.
It works, but you have to do it one at a time.
Hoping to God there was a confederate general named, Joe Buck.
That’s what they’re saying.
Don’t know what kind of internal communications there are, but it is entirely possible that it was the announcers request.
“Ummm, boss, I know I was supposed to announce that game next week, but given all that’s going on there, and my name, could I maybe do a different broadcast? Not that anyone’s actually going to think that I’m The Robert Lee, but I’d rather not this be what I am known for.”
They said it was mutual, plus this guy was very recently promoted. I think it was probably a case of ESPN wanting to make the change and the new guy not wanting to make a stand on something so minor for him. After all, he didn’t lose the gig, he just got moved to a different game.
But as Vox said today, ESPN tried not to offend people and ended up offending people. It was stupid, and the very principle that someone’s NAME could be offensive is itself offensive.
Except if they’d just let him do the game there would be some good natured jokes at worst. Now it’s an example of overreaction. THEIR overreaction.
I’m not sure; there’s a LOT of people on social media looking for things to be outraged about and “OMG can you believe they let a guy named Robert Lee host this sports event show at this place???” would work pretty well for them.
In fact, I can already see the Buzzfeed headlines now; at best ESPN would be labelled “Tone Deaf” (whatever that means); they were going to get ridiculed and harangued no matter what they did.
That’s possible, but then it wouldn’t be ESPN being stupid in the eyes of the majority of the public. It’s better to piss of the idiots than the mainstream.
Idiots can make a lot more noise than the mainstream, unfortunately.
But it matters less. And I don’t think there would have been nearly as much volume if Lee had just worked the game.