I generally listen to ESPN radio in my office in the morning, because I like the Mike & Mike show. Unfortunately, they're followed by Colin Cowherd, who is a world-class pinhead.
He's currently holding forth on the death of Sean Taylor, with his basic position being that Taylor had it coming because he had a checkered past. If you were reading back in April, you can probably guess how happy I am to be hearing this line of argument.
In support of this brilliant insight, he's just touted his track record in correctly assessing high-profile public legal cases by noting that he didn't believe the accusers in the Duke lacrosse case, and he didn't believe the excuses offered by Michael Vick, and he doesn't believe people who are saying that Sean Taylor had reformed and was turning his life around. And as much as I hate to throw around casual accusations of racisim, I can't help noticing the pattern here, namely that in all of these cases, he didn't believe things said by black people.
Maybe it's time to turn the radio off...
"Uncle Al," if you're reading this in order to comment, don't bother.
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ESPN has an ombudsman
http://sports.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=le+anne+schreiber…
I have seen a couple of things that make me think that ESPN actually takes this seriously, so it couldn't hurt.
I'm lucky - In Chicago we don't have to listen to Corp knuckleheads, we have our own home-grown sports guys, and they are pretty darn good. I would drop a dime on this guy though - he's probabaly tring to kick up some ratings, or he is a racist, so either way he's an idiot, and we have enough of those in government and at the DI.
The Boston sports radio guys were saying the same thing yesterday morning. And I will throw out some casual accusations of racism at them. The morning guys at that station are absolutely awful. They always portray black and latino players as preternaturally talented without trying, while mediocre white guys are the devoted, leaving-it-all-on-the-field heart of the team. And if that is too subtle, they got suspended a few years ago for comparing black children to an escaped gorilla.
He probably doesn't believe Barry Bonds either.
I heard that and turned it off. No matter his past, noone can say he should be gunned down in his home. I like Colin for the most part, but think he's wrong on this one for sure.
As an update, the Onion provides some helpful context here.
"He's currently holding forth on the death of Sean Taylor, with his basic position being that Taylor had it coming because he had a checkered past."
I was listening, too, and Cowherd made it pretty clear that he wasn't saying that he "had it coming", but rather that Taylor's checkered past made it a not unreasonable inference that the killers knew Taylor, and that the killing may have been personal, and not a random robbery. He was pretty emphatic about emphasizing that he was not saying that his checkered past made him deserve being killed.
Like you, I like Mike & Mike a lot more than Cowherd, and I dislike Cowherd's bogus "libertarian" political stance, but in this case I think you missed his point.