OT: ESPN fires writer who authored "chink in the armor" headline
A follow-up to last night's web fail - ESPN has fired the writer responsible for the infamous "chink in the armor" headline. What's truly amazing is that apparently this wasn't the only instance of ESPN using this slur as they have also suspended anchor Mike Bretos who said the same thing on air Wednesday and then apologized for a third reference to a "chink in the armor" made on ESPN radio regarding Lin Friday night as well.
Sounds lo me like they had this pre-written and ready to go the first time Lin had a bad game given how many different people used that phrase from the same network in a short period of time. Which is truly amazing to me given that this is 2012 and believe it or not ESPN it is NOT ok to make fun of people of Asian descent.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/19/sport/espn-lin-slur/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
February 19th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^
While it is certainly possible, you can not say it for sure. If this guy is not around people that use this term in a racial way, it is quite possible he did not get it. This is a very commone saying that is used without racial undertones. Also, if he did know, he would also know that it was certain to result in his firing. Given the economy, especially for writers, I find it hard to believe he would knowingly give up a job with ESPN. I could be wrong though.
Either way, ESPN did what they had to do.
Sorry, this was meant to be a response to the statement that the writer definitely knew what he was doing when he wrote it.
February 19th, 2012 at 2:41 PM ^
February 19th, 2012 at 3:17 PM ^
Even if it is a word that, as a slur, seems to have fallen out of fashion and a fair number of people did think of the more innocuous meaning of the headline first, as a news organization, you cannot let things like that stand and to preserve some credibility, typically, a person or people end up getting canned as a result. That seems to be fairly common after miscues as egregious as this one.
We hashed this out some back during Paterno's passing, but as a writer and editor working on a story that is augmenting a current, hot national news item, you basically get one shot at getting it "right". In the case of this headline, getting it "right" meant thinking very carefully about the wording of the headline and getting an idea from others about how well it would be received.
Even if we knew what it meant, regardless of whether we caught the pun or not, given the history of one word in the phrase, somebody at ESPN definitely should have known better before letting this fly.
February 19th, 2012 at 2:45 PM ^
Too many people were squinting to be able to see that this reference should not have been used.
/s
February 19th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^
I normally think that when slight racial references get said on the air (or written) it gets way overblown and that the guy should be talked to but not fired. It normally just doesn't seem like a huge deal and isn't a direct racial slur. This on the other hand was way too far. I'm glad he was fired...
February 19th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^
was in terrible taste and not very well edited. That said, I think the reason ESPN is so quick to punish is because they, along with the NBA, are desperately trying to maintain a hold on their asian fanbase. Since Yao Ming retired there have been a lot of news stories about the NBA. (see this as an example.)
I think this was an incredibly dumb thing for ESPN to do, and I think they are desparately trying to move past this so they don't hurt themselves in asian markets.
February 19th, 2012 at 2:48 PM ^
February 19th, 2012 at 2:55 PM ^
The Freep should hire that guy. No, seriously, he's better than anyone they have and I don't know anything else about him.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:01 PM ^
Not "Mike" as in the OP.
I remember him fondly from the early days of FSC (or FSW or whatever they called it before it became Fox Soccer). They only had about three announcers (Bretos, Allen Hopkins, and a Chilean who's name I can't remember and haven't heard in a long time) who had to work long hours calling everything they had on their program. It could have been a disaster--imagine listening to Tommy Smyth 24/7--but it wasn't
As an on-air slip it could possibly have been inadvertent. A headline writer plenty of opportunity to think through his wording--it's a loss less excusable in print.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
I saw the video clip of Bretos, and I absolutely think it was a case of never connecting the common phrase to his subject-- it's very easy to throw out a phrase that is entirely non-offensive when applied to 99% of most situations a sports anchor is ever going to run into. I could have easily not even noticed the connection myself watching the clip if I hadn't been on alert for it to begin with. But the guy who wrote the headline for the website, and whoever approved it, had the time to think it over, and that's all it said. "Chink in the Armor." I mean, that takes an eyeblink to realize it's a problem. Unfathomably stupid.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:50 PM ^
Max Bretos' wife is Asian according to his twitter account, so I seriously doubt there was any sort of malice in what he said.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:03 PM ^
My father fought in WWII and was stationed in Northern Africa. He shot at Germans and had Germans shoot at him. Fortuntately for me they didnt kill him so I got to be born. To the day he died at age 87 my dad always had a fondness for German people and liked travelling there. Also, to the day he died my dad HATED Japanese people and everything about Japan.
I asked him once why that was the case given that no Japanese had ever tried to kill him yet lots and lots of German people did.He really couldnt answer that question. I asked my brother once why dad was that way and he thought about if for a while and then answered "probably because they look different". We had some German ancestors - we have no Asain blood. Look at the WWII propaganda - the Japanese are dipicted as virtual cartoon characters...not people at all.
I wonder if that doesnt underpin a lot of racism.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:14 PM ^
I think it has to do with people being unwilling to recognize that people are individuals who should be judged on whatever merit they have.
For whatever reason, it seems like many people are inclined to group whatever they see from a particular race/country/religion into their ideas for anyone who can be included in that group.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:24 PM ^
Look up the term "Hun" or WWI propaganda and you'll see that Germans weren't immune. HOWEVA, it certainly helps that Germans make up a significant portion of the population and pretty much most European-Americans (and many other groups) have a German ancestor. Perhaps this can partially explain the internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese during WWII by FDR but almost no repercussions towards Germans. Can't we all just get along?
I do wonder if this was just a stupid oversight, I didn't "see" the connection until it was pointed out to me (granted I usually skip titles to get to the good stuff), but it reminds me of the Macaca controvesy in 2006 when a Senator used the term (in an insensitive, though actually incomprehensible way) and there was a sudden media uproar. Well, as was news to the Senator and the majority of Americans, the term was in fact a racial slur.
So can you be racist(/racially insensitive) even if you don't know you're being racist?
February 20th, 2012 at 10:17 AM ^
There was internment of Germans during the two World Wars - though it affected only a small percentage of the total German-American population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_internment
It's true that most propaganda during WWII was directed against Japan (which I suppose makes sense - they had attacked us, not Germany). It seems like Hollywood likes to downplay that, probably because there was a lot of ugly racism that accompanied it.
February 19th, 2012 at 3:59 PM ^
If it was an innocent mistake, it means the person isn't smart enough to work there. If it was intentional, it is racist "humor" in the national media. Either way, the term turned those responsible into debits instead of assets.
I'm old and somewhat "crusty," and don't get surprised very often, but this is a stunner. This is the kind of stuff that was supposedly ended thirty or forty years ago. If I could talk to any of them, I would only ask one question:
"What the fuck were you thinking?"
February 19th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^
I agree with the termination, even though I'm sure it was not intentionally racist. The fact that nobody at ESPN caught that is what most amazes me - everyone who saw it immediately thought it was offensive.
February 19th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
to apologize to Jeremy Lin in person also IMO, not some apology written by his lawyer either. I mean I know this guy thought it would be funny and if he says any differently I still would not believe him. It just had poor taste written all over it.
February 19th, 2012 at 7:41 PM ^
Lin is not a chink in NY's armor. he is a valuable part of the Knicks.
this reminds me of the P. Hoekstra ad during the Super Bowl. Just like the kid who cried wolf one too many times, the "that's racist," is being used too many times and has lost its impact. this is an issue that will never be settled because of how the world is viewed through different sets of eyes that have been conditioned based on different realities from childhood-adulthood.
February 19th, 2012 at 10:58 PM ^
it's hard for me to understand how a professional writer could create a headline like that and not know what it implies. I work for a major cable tv news outlet and if one of our people wrote that as a headline or banner, there would be hell to pay. If it got on the air, someone would be fired and several other people would face reprimands. I have no doubt.
When I saw this headline first reported, my first reaction was "that writer should be fired". I don't think I've ever said that about a mistake in the media. Mistakes happen. They're not pretty, but they happen. This ESPN headline could not have been a mistake. If it really was a mistake, the writer should not be a professional writer.
February 20th, 2012 at 9:50 AM ^
but this sounds more like a very unfortunate choice of words than a racial joke.
I wouldn't consider myself a racist person at all. I have friends from many differnt ethnic backgrounds and don't consider any one race to be superior to another. I don't endulge in passing along racial jokes or laughing at them if I am presented with one. I do have an issue with how damned PC the world is getting though.
In this economic environment a person losing their job is a terrible thing for anyone, and it is entirely likely that this poor sap used a very old cliche (one much older than the slur people are attributing it to) that was very fitting under the circumstance except for the fact that the person he was referring to was asian. I can see getting a a reprimand of some sort, but losing your job for something that could have easily been an unfortunate oversight is sad when it is driven by over zealous PC advocates.
I am not one who watches a lot of reality TV but I did watch some of the first season of the apprentice. I remember one episode where a particulkary obnoxious african american female got into an arguement with another lady on the show. During the dispute the white woman used the phrase "pot calling the kettle black" and the african american woman claimed she was being racist. The phrase fit the context of the arguement very well and had nothing to do with the other woman's ethnicity, but there was a big uproar about it.
Soon there will be words and phrases that have been part of the english vocabulary for centuries that will be completely off limits for no other reason than they can be somehow construed as racist, regardless of context. For some words that is a good thing, for others it is ridiculous.
Again, I wouldn't consider myself to be the least bit racist, but this whole PC movement has gone way to far IMHE.
February 20th, 2012 at 10:20 AM ^
I agree with this to some extent, and I don't think that the expression "chink in the armor" should necessarily be retired completely, but in this case it almost had to be a deliberate racial joke. The headline doesn't make sense otherwise.