Fox Made Mistake by Firing Steve Lyons
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by user Joebook
Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons has been fired for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League championship series.
The network confirmed Saturday that Lyons was dismissed after Friday's game. He has been replaced for the remainder of the series by Los Angeles Angels announcer Jose Mota.
Piniella had made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases during Friday's broadcast.
Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" -- butchering the conjugation for the word "to speak" -- and added, "I still can't find my wallet."
"I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit too close to him now," Lyons continued.
Lyons claimed he was kidding.
"If I offended anybody, I'm truly sorry," Lyons said in a phone interview. "But my comment about Lou taking my wallet was a joke and in no way racially motivated."
Is this for real? Lyons is a respected analyst and brings a flavor to the booth not often matched. Maybe I'm insensitive, but did he say something that offends the Hispanic community? Did he use a slur or degrading term? I don't think so. The guy was trying to have a little fun, and spice up an otherwise boring series.
Somehow, the broadcast media needs to collaborate on a consistent policy for the standards that talent is held to. Harold Reynolds was a little too touchy for a young girl, and he gets canned. Lyons makes a reference to Piniella's hispanic heritage and gets canned. Michael Irvin can smoke as much dope as he wants, and keeps his job. What does this say?
Freedom of speech is waning, and there is no better current example than this situation.
source
AP wire
yahoo.com
