planetdan

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 :::

Oh dear.

Either racism runs deep, or some people have had some very unfortunate slips of the tongue lately. From Wired:

If you have to make a racial slur on television, at least wait till after Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Weekend television weatherman Rob Blair, of Las Vegas' KTNV, egregiously goofed when delivering the extended forecast Saturday morning: "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s." Blair apologized during the station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday newscasts, but his mea culpas weren't able to save his job. Said the vice president and general manager of the ABC affiliate, "This kind of incident is not acceptable under any circumstances, and I'm truly sorry that this event occurred."

I honestly don't see how that could be considered a "mistake". That's almost as bad as when someone accidently engraved a plaque with the name James Earl Ray (Martin Luther King's assassin) intead of James Earl Jones when they were presenting him an award on Martin Luther King Jr. Day a few years back:

"Thanks James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive"!!?!?? Man, that engraver was having the worst... day... ever.

::: posted by dan at 5:54 PM :: [ link ] :: (4) comments

Comments are Closed On this Post

4 previous comments:

OOps,I don't get how you let a horrific racial slur slip? Martin Luther coon king Jr. doesin't exactly roll off the tougne.People freak me out.

By

Stacy, at 6:59 PM

*out of anonymous mode*

Something that specific could NOT be just a slip of the toungue. No, that's the inability to turn off the good ol boy "porch talk" while at work. Kinda how, on a MUCH less evil scale, you have to remind yourself not to adress the boss with the cleaver nickname you have created for them.

By

elcynic, at 11:54 AM

This looks really awful in print, but I saw the weather report in question and it really sounds like a slip of the tongue. Watch the video and decide for yourself. He does not say "coon", it is just a brief stumble and he quickly corrects himself and moves on.

Also, consider this: It was a pre-recorded statement. If it was so awful, why did the producer let it air when it easily could have been re-recorded?

By

Anonymous, at 3:41 PM

Maybe this is a stupid way of thinking about it, but James Earl Ray actually does keep the dream alive. I mean, if he hadn’t assassinated Martin Luther King Jr., the historic speech we associate with him, would have most likely been forgotten. He would have survived, continued to fight for equal rights and then some torrid something or other would have been exposed by the media and he would have lost his integrity amongst the community and we’d be far less of a civilized, politically correct community that we are...So to speak.

But now don’t you feel like the whole “c*nt improvement” thing not such a big deal?

By

Anonymous, at 10:00 PM

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