St. Louis sports talk DJ gets fired for using a racial slur

[Toddzilla]

Seems this guy Dave Lenihan was new to the station, hired for a sports talk show gig. During the show, he was talking about Condoleeza Rice and the NFL Commissioner's job. A caller said he'd rather Rice run for president, and the DJ was basically gushing in praise of Rice. He tried to say, unlikely as it were, having Condolezza Rice as comissioner would have been a coup for the NFL. Well, he stumbled on the word coup and the rest is history. And so is Dave Lenihan.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/AD472B79A45C0CEB86257139006ED837?OpenDocument

[Ksyrup]

Seems like a bit of an over-reaction, given that he caught himself immediately and it was clear he was stumbling over the words. It's not like it was an off-color joke gone bad. I guess the worst you could infer is that he's a subconscious racist?

[Toddzilla]

I heard the actual audio this afternoon, and it was as innocuous as a mistake as I guess you could make like this. I mean, the slur he used didn't even fit into what he was trying to say. He probably sealed his fate by stammering over it and drawing attention to it, but I would have hoped the station would have recognized it for what it was, a mistake, and let the guy keep his job, but then again I wasn't offended.

[MizzouRah]

I've been working too much. Didn't hear much about that. Since 550 now carries the Cardinals, the firing was predictable.

[Draft Dodger]

what a fucking joke of an overreaction.

[CamEdwards]

agreed. I saw an online poll in the St. Louis area where 80 percent of those responding also agreed this was a huge overreaction.

I feel bad for the guy. Broadcasting gigs are hard to come by these days.

[Toddzilla]

Radio-type folks:

Why in the world didn't the DJ or someone in the control room just dump the audio? Don't they have a 7-second delay? Holy shit I'd be all over the dump button in a case like this - because you KNOW that guy saw his career flash in front of his eyes in the split-second after he screwed up.

[Hawglaw]

The latest is that it was a combination of coup and boon. Getting... what you got.

Ridiculous.

Plus, he has now been suspended from his other job, teaching at a chiropractic school

[russiaboss]

every year white radio DJ's make the mistake of saying racial slurs by accident. It's the White American way

[Havok]

what a shocker :rolleyes:

PC lunacy at its finest.

[Bubba Wheels]

Couple of years ago some cabinet member used the word 'niggardly' to describe something in the strict dictionary sense during a speech. And the outrage was, of course, tremendous and completely misplaced.

Another thing occurred on Detroit WDIV channel 4 news also a couple of years ago around Valentine's Day. Emory King was one of the anchors along with a relatively new blond weather babe. Can't remember the other anchor, some other female.

King does a story on women looking for companionship. One black woman on camera states she wants someone with 'chocolatey skin." Much mirth commences within the newsroom.

Next the female anchor does a story on a gorilla at the zoo. Cannot remember anything more about it, not really important. Might have been about him being 'lonely' or something. Back to the newsroom.

Weather babe, leading into her bit, asks 'does that count as 'chocolatey?" Camera zooms in on King who looks like he was in the elevator when someone farted. Dead silence for about 10 seconds. Babe finishes her weather report and her career at the same time. Blurb in next day's paper she was canned and 'not quick enough.' Some thought overreaction, but weather babe probably still doesn't know what hit her.

[BYU 14]

Stern had this guy on today as well and played the tape. Total mispronunciation and huge overreaction. Fired him during one of his breaks with an hour still left in his show.....He talked about how he has met Condeleeza and is a huge fan which makes him feel terrible about the whole incident.

[terpkristin]

Meanwhile, The Onion thinks Condi should be the NFL commish... http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46644


<big>World Leaders Urge Condoleezza Rice To Take NFL Commissioner's Job</big>

March 23, 2006 | Issue 42•12 (http://www.theonion.com/content/index/4212)
WASHINGTON, DC—With longtime NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue recently announcing that he will retire in July, political leaders across the globe have taken an uncharacteristic interest in the sport of football, urging one potential candidate—U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—to accept the high-profile position.
http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Condoleezza-Rice-new.article.jpg
"I have had the…singular…experience of working with Ms. Rice on more than one occasion, and believe she is perfectly suited for this position," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of many prominent political figures who held an impromptu press conference upon hearing that Rice, a longtime football fan, had expressed interest in eventually becoming commissioner. "Although I am in fact ignorant of the particulars of American-style football, I am sure its sporting league is one that Condoleezza is perfectly capable of managing."
Rice had publicly commented several times on her ambition to become commissioner, most notably in a televised interview during the Super Bowl XL pregame show. However, international interest in installing Rice in the position, while always high, peaked last week with the news of Tagliabue's impending retirement.
"We live in uncertain and chaotic times, and America never needed Condoleezza Rice more," Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in an international radio address Tuesday. "With radicals in the NFL Player's Association demanding a new collective-bargaining agreement, and instability threatening the very revenue-sharing structure that professional football was built upon, she is clearly a stabilizing figure who must help unify this sport."
Aziz was then called away to deal with escalating nuclear proliferation in the Kashmir region, during which he repeated through his aides that Rice's leadership and diplomacy was desperately needed in professional football.
"Secretary of State Rice owes it to the world to take this bold step forward in her career," said Sonia Gandhi, the president of India's National Congress Party and the widow of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. "If she was named commissioner of what I understand is America's favorite sport, it would not just be a great moment for America, but a great moment for women in politics worldwide."
"Ms. Rice would finally be in a position where she could positively impact the lives of millions of Americans," Gandhi added.
Support for Rice's appointment to the NFL commissioner post has poured in to the State Department from prominent statesmen worldwide, including several letters of recommendation from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has worked closely with Rice since she took over the State Department from Colin Powell; a televised message from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has dealt with the U.S. primarily through Rice since his election; affirmations from almost every diplomat Rice met during her recent 10-day trip through Chile, Australia, Samoa, and Indonesia; and a letter co-written and signed by both acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, prime minister-designate of Palestine.
Although the State Department has not yet officially responded to the overwhelming outpouring of support for Secretary Rice's career change, Rice issued a short, tersely worded statement formally thanking the over 85 diplomats, heads of state, and religious leaders who spoke in her favor on the issue.
In a press conference late Tuesday, however, President Bush announced that he is strongly against Rice leaving her current post, saying that she is a valued Cabinet member who excels at her position, and that "if anyone from this administration should get that job, it should be me."

[kcchief19]

From personal experience, it's my opinion that slips of the tongue like that are more likely if it's a word you might say in an off-air situation. That certainly might not be the case here, but it could be.

Regardless, obviously you can make a compelling case for it being an overreaction. Assuming it was nothing more than a slip of the tongue and not an accidental revelation of personal bigotry, I think it was more bad luck than overreaction. If you're a broadcaster, some mistakes are small and insignificant, but it's a risk that you might make a mistake that costs you you're job.

That said, I think this is is a natural by-product of the lax quality of a lot of talk radio. Too often there is yakking without thinking and little attention paid to make sure you don't make a mistake like that.

[panerd]

St. Louis radio is crap. Drove me to Sirius over a year ago. Basically the Cardinals bought a local sports station, fired a bunch of long time respected personalities, and brought in a bunch of laugh it up morning zoo type programs. I don't know anything about this guy in particular, but I am pretty sure he was just brought in to replace someone else who was fired about 2 weeks ago. Regular radio is really at a sad place right now locally.

[JeeberD]

The latest is that it was a combination of coup and boon. Getting... what you got.



I've done that before...start saying one word then decide to switch to a different word mid-thought and wind up mixing them. However, I've never done it three times in a row...

[EagleFan]

every year white radio DJ's make the mistake of saying racial slurs by accident. It's the White American way

Who the hell is this moron?



Anyway....

PC behavior is out of control at times. This is a major over-reaction to a spoken mistake. I would like to find one person who hasn't slipped on a sentence at some point and the mistake made the sentence completely opposite of it's intent, or just no sense at all.

Hell, I remember meaning to tell a friend who was going through a rough time "Don't hesitate to give me a call" or "feel free to give me a call" but it accidentally came out as "don't feel free to give me a call". I didn't even notice it when it came out, it was a good thing that he had a sense of humor about it and understood what I actually meant; though he did bust my balls about it for a while.

[EagleFan]

I've done that before...start saying one word then decide to switch to a different word mid-thought and wind up mixing them. However, I've never done it three times in a row...

I've had it compound itself like that. Pressure gets you when you realize that you stubbled and by the time composure is regained it's been butchered a couple more times.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, I slip racial slurs into random conversations by accident all the time when I talk.

It's an honest mistake. Gee, I don't know why people are so damn sensitive. Get a grip, it's 2006. The media is the most diverse institution in this country, anyway. And besides, nationally syndicated black radio stations make all sorts of comments all the time that go completely unnoticed.

The double standards are abhorrent.

:rolleyes:

P.S. Why I was being a smart-ass, it is very true that a few of the nationally syndicated black radio shows downright irritate me (not that I listen to the radio often, but on road trips sometimes they're a contrast from all my music). They are frankly pretty embarassing and I wonder how some of these people get to be on the radio at all. But that's obviously not just something that afflicts "black" radio, but talk radio in general these days.

It's unfortunate what happened to this guy, but you'd think with all the national attention that someone will give him a 2nd chance once this thing dies down. Still, I think he has to be more careful. Being on the radio broadcasting to an entire city isn't the same as having a casual conversation or even a phone convo where you might slip up.

He handled it poorly and I think he got what was coming to him.

[EagleFan]

Yeah, I slip racial slurs into random conversations by accident all the time when I talk.

It's an honest mistake. Gee, I don't know why people are so damn sensitive. Get a grip, it's 2006. The media is the most diverse institution in this country, anyway. And besides, nationally syndicated black radio stations make all sorts of comments all the time that go completely unnoticed.

The double standards are abhorrent.

:rolleyes:

P.S. Why I was being a smart-ass, it is very true that a few of the nationally syndicated black radio shows downright irritate me (not that I listen to the radio often, but on road trips sometimes they're a contrast from all my music). They are frankly pretty embarassing and I wonder how some of these people get to be on the radio at all. But that's obviously not just something that afflicts "black" radio, but talk radio in general these days.

It's unfortunate what happened to this guy, but you'd think with all the national attention that someone will give him a 2nd chance once this thing dies down. Still, I think he has to be more careful. Being on the radio broadcasting to an entire city isn't the same as having a casual conversation or even a phone convo where you might slip up.

He handled it poorly and I think he got what was coming to him.

Lighten the fuck up. It's a slip of the tongue. A slip of the tongue happens all the time to everyone. It just so happens that this time the combination was a "slur".

Please tell me of how this "happens all the time". There is a huge difference between saying something stupid on purpose and a slip of the tongue.

As I said before, that person I previously quoted (in the wuote of mine that you responded to) is a freaking moron. If that was you hiding under another screen name than add pussy to it as well.

[Hurst2112]

Dumbass of the year so far. And he probably won't be getting unemployment either.

http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/lenihan.jpg

[Havok]

I wonder if the mayor of New Orleans will get whats coming to him?

highly doubt it, and he didn't slip.

Hello, im Mr. Double standard.... may i take your order please cracker?....errr, opps....i mean whitey...errr, i mean sir.... huh, yeah sir. Sorry i slipped ;) ;) ;)

[Antmeister]

Maybe it's just me, but that seemed like a small mistake. Unless the guy has a track record of saying racist remarks, I don't see how this mistake can end one's career.

While growing up in San Diego, I would always listen to what was called "The Mighty 690". This is where Jim Rome started his career. Anyways, Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton was one broadcaster that slipped a racial slur not once, but three times in about 5 years.

However he was a damn good broadcaster and he had to apologize publicly on the show each time he did it. What the station did, though, was genius. In a lot of their promos, they would play a random phone call about someone calling him a racist. He hated the promos, but eventually he was confronted by a number of people calling him out and it got to the point when after the "venting" period was over, he was way more respected by the community.

By the way, this is the guy that used to do play by play for the Chargers and he was the best radio broadcaster they ever had.

[Toddzilla]

He thinks this is all to do about nothing:
http://wmet1160.com/artman/images/greaseman.jpg

[albionmoonlight]

Couple of years ago some cabinet member used the word 'niggardly' to describe something in the strict dictionary sense during a speech. And the outrage was, of course, tremendous and completely misplaced.

Actually, that was a member of the D.C. City government. And, yes, the over-reaction to his comment was laughable and sad. But, it was also par for the course in local D.C. Government, which is one of the worst run municipal orgainzations that I have ever seen. When you live in D.C. for a while, you can see how it almost makes sense that they keep electing a crack addict to be mayor.

In fact, the whole niggardly flap was motivated by the "outrage" of two City workers who were holdovers from the Marion Barry administration. Last I heard, cooler heads finally prevailed and Mr. Howard got offered his job back (not that I would want to take it back if I were he).

http://www.cnn.com/US/9902/04/dc.word.flap/

[Ksyrup]

He handled it poorly and I think he got what was coming to him.

He handled it poorly?! Really? He caught himself a millisecond into saying it. It didn't fit into the context of what he was saying about her at ALL; in fact, it was 180 degrees from what he was saying, which was that he was praising her. It wasn't meant as a joke, it wasn't part of an overall comment talking bad about her, and he immediately caught it and apologized before he even finished the sentence. He got fired 20 minutes later.

How can you possibly say he handled this poorly, unless you mean that he should never have accidentally said something inappropriate as he stumbled for the word he was trying to say and apologized for it immediately. Which is absurd.

Either there's more to this story (either something happened off-air or he has some history we don't know about), or this is just a terrible over-reaction to what appears to be an honest, but unfortunate, slip of the tongue.

[JonInMiddleGA]

St. Louis radio is crap. Drove me to Sirius over a year ago. Basically the Cardinals bought a local sports station, fired a bunch of long time respected personalities, and brought in a bunch of laugh it up morning zoo type programs. ... Regular radio is really at a sad place right now locally.

You just did a pretty damned good job of summing up my take on the whole affair. This particular station has been run like crap for quite a while (before the sale) and this is about par for their course (albeit with a much higher profile). The station was apparently founded by a jackass and hardly anybody sticks around for long (except for Tim Dorsey)

One observer of the situation also sums it up pretty well
http://tcalhoun.blogspot.com/2006/03/business-vsthe-golden-rule.html
It begins to look for all the world like someone in the hierarchy is saying..."Hey, let's milk this for a while since it looks like the rest of the media is enjoying making us look bad. As long as we're getting our call letters on TV...what the heck. And think of all the radios being tuned to 550. We can slough off all the blame on the guy we fired and ride this 'til it dies for a possible spike in the ratings". It sure appears that they are willing to allow the incident to become a ratings-getter, which would eventually mean a money-maker. If that's anywhere close to being true, someone should be ashamed.

Lenihan, meanwhile, isn't completely blameless here ... he violated one of the most basic of all radio rules:
http://tcalhoun.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-did-he-say.html
he only made the problem worse by apologizing and calling attention to what he had said. Back in Broadcasting 101 you are taught that if you make a mistake...you've made a mistake...you can't take it back...you keep going on and DON'T CALL ATTENTION TO IT. By calling attention to it, you only make it worse. That's what Lenihan did. If he had just kept on talking and acted as though nothing had happened, someone may have called him on it...but most of the audience would have realized it was a legitimate error and forgotten about it

[Young Drachma]

Lenihan, meanwhile, isn't completely blameless here ... he violated one of the most basic of all radio rules:
http://tcalhoun.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-did-he-say.html
he only made the problem worse by apologizing and calling attention to what he had said. Back in Broadcasting 101 you are taught that if you make a mistake...you've made a mistake...you can't take it back...you keep going on and DON'T CALL ATTENTION TO IT. By calling attention to it, you only make it worse. That's what Lenihan did. If he had just kept on talking and acted as though nothing had happened, someone may have called him on it...but most of the audience would have realized it was a legitimate error and forgotten about it

This is what I was trying to say in terms of him handling it poorly.

[John Galt]

My problem with this situation is the role of the apology. I'm a big fan of people making a mistake, owning up to it, and apologizing. Apologizing is how we improve as human beings and how we heal wounds. I worry in any zero-tolerance situation where we don't afford an opportunity for redemption. From my understanding (which could be wrong), this guy apologized right away and seemed genuinely remorseful about a slip-up. If that's true, I think his behavior should be encouraged and not discouraged.

[JonInMiddleGA]

This is what I was trying to say in terms of him handling it poorly.

I wondered if that might have been what you meant.

The very first rule I was taught many years ago was "Dead Air Is A Sin".
The second rule I was taught was "If you say the wrong thing, just keep going. 95% of the audience never notices ... unless you call attention to it."

Lenihan clearly didn't manage to grasp Lesson #2 ... although I have sincere doubts that anyone ever took the time to teach him that one, given the tragic lack of Radio 101 or even Radio 001 that is taught anymore.

[Young Drachma]

Here's a clip of it, although the comments are bleeped. (http://www.kmov.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.kmov.com/060322_KTRS.wmv)

[MikeVick7]

I wondered if that might have been what you meant.

The very first rule I was taught many years ago was "Dead Air Is A Sin".
The second rule I was taught was "If you say the wrong thing, just keep going. 95% of the audience never notices ... unless you call attention to it."

Lenihan clearly didn't manage to grasp Lesson #2 ... although I have sincere doubts that anyone ever took the time to teach him that one, given the tragic lack of Radio 101 or even Radio 001 that is taught anymore.
Right, or in other words, just be a classic radio schmuck. Ahh, good ol' radio.

[Toddzilla]

That's why I'm completely flabbergasted that neither the DJ nor the producer hit the DUMP as soon as he screwed up.

[JonInMiddleGA]

That's why I'm completely flabbergasted that neither the DJ nor the producer hit the DUMP as soon as he screwed up.

It's not always that easy, and especially not if it's something totally unexpected.
I mean, seven seconds is a long time in radio but at the same time, it's like a blink when it comes to reacting to something out of the blue. By all accounts the on-air guy got flustered, he was likely so busy trying to recover himself that the dump button never crossed his mind. A producer, meanwhile, would likely have been so busy thinking "umm ... WHAT did he say ... did he just say ... nah ... but ..." and the whole time the 7 seconds are just ticking away.

Likely, by the time the dump crossed either of their minds, it was too late.

[Bubba Wheels]

St. Louis radio is crap. Drove me to Sirius over a year ago. Basically the Cardinals bought a local sports station, fired a bunch of long time respected personalities, and brought in a bunch of laugh it up morning zoo type programs. I don't know anything about this guy in particular, but I am pretty sure he was just brought in to replace someone else who was fired about 2 weeks ago. Regular radio is really at a sad place right now locally.

This is the model being used by sports franchises in general now. Chicago and Detroit are two other examples. Franchise owners have alot of money tied up into their toys and they finally got the bright idea that buying up the local radio stations at a fraction of the costs gives them pretty much a 24/7 propaganda machine.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Franchise owners have alot of money tied up into their toys and they finally got the bright idea that buying up the local radio stations at a fraction of the costs gives them pretty much a 24/7 propaganda machine.

You're pretty much on target here & it's a trend I pretty strongly believe is one that's going to pick up steam quickly over the next 2-3 years. The one addendum I would make is that while team owners are indeed "buying up the local stations" they're doing so from "station owners who are equally or even more eager to sell them".

[BrianD]

He handled it poorly?! Really? He caught himself a millisecond into saying it. It didn't fit into the context of what he was saying about her at ALL; in fact, it was 180 degrees from what he was saying, which was that he was praising her. It wasn't meant as a joke, it wasn't part of an overall comment talking bad about her, and he immediately caught it and apologized before he even finished the sentence. He got fired 20 minutes later.

How can you possibly say he handled this poorly, unless you mean that he should never have accidentally said something inappropriate as he stumbled for the word he was trying to say and apologized for it immediately. Which is absurd.

Either there's more to this story (either something happened off-air or he has some history we don't know about), or this is just a terrible over-reaction to what appears to be an honest, but unfortunate, slip of the tongue.


Sadly, this seems very much like a situation we've seen around here a few times. Since this guy was new, it is very easy to can him quickly and make a show of zero tolerance. You can't do this as easily with an established individual. Longevity and reputation go a long way. New people have to be careful and toe the line until they have built up a reputation.