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Apologizing For An Error In Judgment [ESPN Writer]
ESPN ^ | 24 Jun 08 | Jemele Hill

Posted on 06/24/2008 5:36:25 AM PDT by PurpleMan

I know where to begin. I just don't know how to explain.

The beginning is easy: I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for being thoughtless and insensitive.

I'm sorry for making a casual reference to something that should never be construed as casual.

Real apologies don't mix with rationalizations, so I won't insult your intelligence by offering you any.

This is about my living up to a standard I expect of everyone else -- respect, awareness, honesty and accountability.

(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: apology; celtics; espn; slur
Nice to see there is non of the usual "I apologize to anyone who I have offended" pablum often seen.

She "man's up" and take responsibility.

BTW: After over 3,300 views at the previous articles (below), it's appropriate to post her response to what she wrote.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032716/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032686/posts

1 posted on 06/24/2008 5:36:25 AM PDT by PurpleMan
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To: PurpleMan
a moronic comparison between a man who was responsible for killing millions to Detroiters who root for the Boston Celtics.

She's right - it was moronic. As far as I'm concerned, nothing more need be said.

2 posted on 06/24/2008 5:39:50 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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To: PurpleMan
In the Tilghman column, I wrote, "While I don't believe [Tilghman] is a racist, I certainly wouldn't classify what she said as a 'slip.' A cussword is a slip. This was a constructed, racial scenario that is a frightening reminder for some people in this country."

The moment I put "Hitler" and "victim" in the same sentence, I did the exact same thing.

Yeah I'm going to have to call BS on her "apology." But first, where and how did she reference "hitler" and the "victim," origianlly? Her writing is so sophomoric you can't tell what she's talking about if you don't already know.

At any rate, Jemelle is a hack and had a habit of placing her foot squarely in her mouth back when she was a columnist for the Orlando Slantinel. The last one I remember, before she was plucked out of the blue by ESPN for a try at being a minority-girl-sports-teleprompter-reader, was when she disparaged the fans of the Orlando Predators, comparing them to hooligans or something like that. She upset a lot of people on that one.

But it is kind of funny when leftists get PC-slammed.

3 posted on 06/24/2008 5:49:17 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: Tax-chick
I'm not going to stop writing about race. It's just that the next time I do, I'll be carrying an enhanced perspective.

She kept her job while people like Imus, Jimmy the Greek, Limbaugh (on the nfl show) and a host of other white folk lost theirs for saying stuff black people were offended by. Please enhance my perspective on that Ms Hill/espn.

4 posted on 06/24/2008 5:51:36 AM PDT by Snurple
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To: Tax-chick

This was nothing compared to Dana Jacobson and her F-— Jesus drunken rant. IMUS will be fired again before anything
ever happens to these women.


5 posted on 06/24/2008 5:54:40 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus (( commander of the simian host))
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To: Snurple

It appears that she’s trying to fill her role as a token minority/female, but she’s just not very smart or competent.


6 posted on 06/24/2008 5:55:27 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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Im from pittsburgh and there is a nitely call in sports show on the tube, at 10:30 a.m. Good show and the host had a local sports writer on as his co-host.

The latest don imus comment was brought up and a caller wanted to know why all the hub-bub over imus when comments by charles barkely about ‘hating white people’ and Dionne “i never knew how to tackle” Sanders’ comment about Tony Romo being white, were not given the same scrutiny as Imus’ comments...and both the host, Jory Rand and the co-host, pittsburgh sports writer, bob smizik, both gave the lame-azz excuse how blacks and their terrible past with slavery and racism basically entitles them to pop off to us white folks for ‘keepin them down’ all those years..

i almost puked up my sandwich when i heard that...

what a freakin joke....


7 posted on 06/24/2008 5:57:26 AM PDT by raygunfan
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To: Dr. Ursus

In my opinion, none of these people or their reportage means a thing. I only clicked this thread because I was curious about the latest manufactured “outrage.” If all the offended people just said, “What an idiot!” and went about their business, this dingbat wouldn’t have got all this extra attention.


8 posted on 06/24/2008 5:59:29 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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To: Tax-chick

I agree but its’ only white males who ever suffer consequences.


9 posted on 06/24/2008 6:01:59 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus (( commander of the simian host))
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To: subterfuge

Affirmative action hire. Plain and simple.


10 posted on 06/24/2008 6:05:07 AM PDT by Ron in Acreage (McCain or Obama-Either way we're screwed.)
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To: Dr. Ursus

Yes, that’s true. There’s a lesson, here, but I’m not sure what it is. Maybe that white males should stop supporting all these media outlets, sports leagues, and so on, and do something else with their time and money? As in other cases of media bias, such as TV programming and commercials, the economic power is there to be used.


11 posted on 06/24/2008 6:06:26 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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To: Tax-chick
If all the offended people just said, “What an idiot!” and went about their business, this dingbat wouldn’t have got all this extra attention.

Really. We spend far too much time apologizing to "victims."

12 posted on 06/24/2008 6:07:56 AM PDT by HoosierHawk (Hypocrisy does not apply to liberals.)
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To: HoosierHawk

I think both the “journalist” and the “victims” should apologize to the rest of us for wasting scarce oxygen. They’re in it together - the people who perpetrate these “outrages” and the ones whose lives are devastated by their hurt feelings ... and us, too, for even bothering to discuss them :-).


13 posted on 06/24/2008 6:10:58 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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To: Tax-chick

: )


14 posted on 06/24/2008 6:13:24 AM PDT by HoosierHawk (Hypocrisy does not apply to liberals.)
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To: HoosierHawk
Really. We spend far too much time apologizing to "victims."

Indeed!

What we have here one of the best-executed apologies I've seen in a long time (except it went on too long and got all preachy) absolutely wasted on a non-issue by someone I've never heard of.

Swine casting pearls in the slop.

15 posted on 06/24/2008 6:17:32 AM PDT by Palmetto
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To: Ron in Acreage

Why do you say that? Because she’s a black woman? God knows ESPN (As ABC in general) is chock full of morons, white and black, male and female. Keith Olberman is a white man. She’s a commentator on basketball. Where do you ever think ESPN dug up a black basketball fan?

(wait... damn, this PC stuff is hard! How about we all just be a lot more forgiving about violating PC?)


16 posted on 06/24/2008 6:28:52 AM PDT by dangus
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To: All

All is not forgiven. This idiot should lose her job immediately. The only way to get rid of the PC-facist mindset is to punish those who use the PC card so often, when it is indeed their turn to make a slip (yeah, poor sentence structure).......


17 posted on 06/24/2008 6:38:02 AM PDT by Maverick68 (w)
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To: Snurple

She has been suspended.


18 posted on 06/24/2008 6:58:21 AM PDT by Shade2
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To: Dr. Ursus

Play that race card Doc. Play that race card.


19 posted on 06/24/2008 7:01:30 AM PDT by Shade2
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To: PurpleMan
Race is the only subject that Jemele can write about. She has been off-base for a long time. She attempted to write for the Orlando Sentinel and I stopped reading her columns because they were always tainted with racial positions that do not belong on the sports page. She might “man up”, it takes only words “blah blah blah”. So now ESPN should take their responsibility to the public and dump her. By the way, the Sentinel is on the way out..circulation is down and they are the only game in town. Say good bye to Jemele
20 posted on 06/24/2008 7:22:24 AM PDT by BatGuano
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To: Shade2
"Play that race card Doc. Play that race card."

"...Dr. Richard Lapchick, who directs the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics..."

This guy probably has the whole deck...

21 posted on 06/24/2008 7:34:05 AM PDT by Positive (Nothing is sadder than to see a beautiful theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts.)
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To: Snurple
"..for saying stuff black people were offended by..."

ESPN occasionally skims cultural and political issues...having said that, it is a for profit entertainment business and as such it would be good business to dispose of anyone who offends any significant segment of their audience.

22 posted on 06/24/2008 7:40:16 AM PDT by Positive (Nothing is sadder than to see a beautiful theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts.)
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To: PurpleMan

THe funny thing is, even Tiger Woods had the common sense to take the comments as “a non-issue”, but sports “journalists”, ever-eager to enter the idiot fray, won’t take his word for it, and can’t resist defending what doesn’t need to be defended. THEN , just to get a little extra mileage out of it, when they become aware they’ve gone too far, they issue a “make nice” statement, designed to make their readership stand back in awe of their fair-mindedness, even though none of it was necessary in the first place. Ask Tiger.


23 posted on 06/24/2008 7:58:00 AM PDT by supremedoctrine (Time is the school in which we learn that time is the fire in which we burn.--D.Schwartz)
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To: Tax-chick
Maybe that white males should stop supporting all these media outlets, sports leagues, and so on

Why pick on white males in general? ESPN's target audience is the 18 to 39 year-old male.

24 posted on 06/24/2008 9:10:34 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: subterfuge

The poster to whom I responded observed that white male journalists/broadcasters were the only people who lost their jobs for “offensive” speech. If that’s the case, and the white male demographic objects, then my point was that they have significant economic clout and could use it.

As you’ve pointed out, ESPN’s audience, and sports audiences in general, are not only white or only male. They choose to treat one faction of the audience differently from others, and apparently this is acceptable to most.


25 posted on 06/24/2008 9:58:33 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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To: Tax-chick

I understand. Wasn’t disagreeing with you, necessarily.


26 posted on 06/24/2008 10:50:06 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: subterfuge
But first, where and how did she reference "hitler" and the "victim," origianlly? Her writing is so sophomoric you can't tell what she's talking about if you don't already know.

BINGO!!!

27 posted on 06/24/2008 10:59:10 AM PDT by lonestar
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To: subterfuge

I just wanted to make my point clear, if I hadn’t already. I can get garbled in the summer.


28 posted on 06/24/2008 12:09:44 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Tax-chick's House of Herpets. We're basking - how about you?)
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