ESPN, Citing Safety, Says Robert Lee Wont Broadcast Virginia Football Game

[oberliner]

ESPN has removed an announcer from its broadcast of the University of Virginia’s first football game next month because he has the same name as a Confederate general memorialized in statues that are being taken down across the country.

The network announced late Tuesday that the announcer, Robert Lee, a part-time employee who calls about a dozen college football and basketball games a year for ESPN, would no longer participate in the broadcast of the Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville, Va., which became the center of violent clashes this month during a white supremacist gathering.

White nationalists and neo-Nazis flooded into Charlottesville, marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches, to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue of the Confederacy’s top general, Robert E. Lee.

After the violence in Charlottesville, which left one person dead, ESPN executives and Mr. Lee decided that for his safety it would be best to have him to work on a different game that Saturday, a network spokesman said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/business/media/robert-lee-university-virginia-charlottesville.html?mcubz=1

When I first encountered this story, I thought it had to be a parody. But now it's in the NY Times.

[burnbaby]

1. ESPN

is confused or they hate Asians and used this as an excuse. Never read anything so ridiculous in my life

[TrishaJ]

2. Yes, this is really stupid.

Who cares what the names of the broadcasters are??

[Dave Starsky]

12. I knew a Korean dude named Bob Lee.

Guess it's a good thing he didn't work in broadcasting.

This will be the second-stupidest thing I will read in the news today. The first will be a story about something Trump does.

[RhodeIslandOne]

14. Yeah, they sure rooked everyone!

"So we'll reluctantly hire this Asian dude because we hate all those assholes and then wait for a game in Virginia and strip him of his gig! Profit!"

It was a mutual decision. He'll work another game elsewhere where there is not even a whiff of a controversy.

[Proud liberal 80]

3. Dumb dumb dumb

Just plain stupid....and it gives something to conservatives to rant and rave about, while taking away from and lumping it in with the real issue of removing confederate monuments.

[oberliner]

6. Agreed

Just absolutely idiotic.

[cwydro]

10. I actually thought this was the Onion at first.

God, our country is so far down the rabbit hole...

[AngryAmish]

4. They never disappoint.

[Not Ruth]

5. I am going to need an explanation of this

Did ESPN just give in to the Nazis?

[Scoopster]

7. Their explanation is legitimate & mutual. Seems this issue came up before.

Link to tweet

[RhodeIslandOne]

13. Yup

Funny how the right gins these things up and they get dutifully reported here.

[oberliner]

16. What kind of executive writes "no biggie" in an email to a reporter?

Also, the explanation seems not at all legitimate and completely idiotic and ridiculous.

[spanone]

8. absurd.

[cwydro]

9. That is utterly ridiculous.

Wow.

[gratuitous]

11. Yeah, it's silly

But consider the mentality of the Nazis who killed and injured so many in Charlottesville. A risk-averse corporation like ESPN is being overly cautious here, but take a good, hard look at the Nazis: They're just stupid enough to do something lethally stupid, and I can't think of anyone who should die for the sake of Robert Lee announcing a college football game.

[question everything]

15. How dumb can they be? (nt)