Sports
Related: About this forumOne more reason to hate ESPN: Radio hosts' insensitive blast of transsexual athlete comes under fire
We've come fairly far as a sports society in blotting out bigotry and ignorance, and yet there are still instances when 2012 reeks of 1865. Case in point: The conversation had by radio hosts Steve Czaban, Andy Pollin and Chris Knoche last Thursday about college basketball player Gabrielle Ludwig.
USA Today's Eric Prisbell wrote a powerful and lengthy feature on Ludwig, a transsexual athlete who made her debut for tiny Mission College (Santa Clara, Calif.) a couple of weeks ago in a California tournament. Prisbell's story makes Ludwig's heartbreaking journey clear, with passages outlining her "one failed suicide attempt, two failed marriages; one 19-year-old daughter who insists on calling her dad, two girls who insist on calling her Momma Gabbi."
And yet the three amigos on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C. called her something besides a survivor. They called Ludwig "it."
In their attempt to make some sort of point, though it's not clear exactly what that point is, Czaban, Pollin and Knoche crossed a line. Commenting on a photo of Ludwig, one quipped, "That's a man, baby" in his best Austin Powers voice, and "That could be a Russian chick."
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/radio-hosts-insensitive-blast-of-transsexual-athlete-comes-under-fire-151500782.html
a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)One of the good things about living in Ohio is that I hate the Buckeyes so much, I never have to listen to sports jerks on the radio (my old car gets three stations).
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)to get sports updates...those stations are unbearable! The screaming, the noises, the stupidity!
TZ
(42,998 posts)They've been at this station before it was bought by ESPN. Much as I may like to, can't blame ESPN for these jerkwads who have now been suspended.
Isn't ESPN now their boss? Not sure how the arrangement works...
TZ
(42,998 posts)who suspended them on Wednesday.
although it sounded like a very lenient punishment.
Kingofalldems
(38,475 posts)And my life is much better for it. The station filled with blowhards who regard football as the only sport, so this is not surprising.
TZ
(42,998 posts)to hear this trash from Czaban who has always come accross as a dick, but I used to like Pollin and am surprised by this.