Pic of Lenihan..
Posted on 03/22/2006 3:16:47 PM PST by cardinal4
A radio personality at 550 KTRS was fired on the spot this morning after using the word “coon” on the air in a conversation about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Dave Lenihan was dismissed after what he called an inadvertent slip of the tongue. Within 20 minutes, station CEO Tim Dorsey apologized on the air to listeners and announced that Lenihan, who had been with the station for less than two weeks, had been let go.
“I don’t know what was in Mr. Lenihan’s mind,” Dorsey said in an interview. “I know what I heard. I know it was reprehensible.”
Lenihan’s comment was made during a discussion about Rice’s credentials to become commissioner of the National Football League, a topic that has been fodder for sports talk radio since the current commissioner announced he would retire later this year.
Lenihan was listing what assets Rice could bring to the league, including her tenure as a top academic officer at Stanford University and the fact that she is African-American.
“She’s just got a patent resume, of somebody that’s got such serious skill,” Linehan said on the air. “She loves football, she’s African-American, which would kind of be a big coon, a big coon – oh my God, I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that, OK? I didn’t mean that. That was just a slip of the tongue.” Lenihan later said he meant to use the word "coup."
Reached at home, Lenihan said he was still trying to figure out what happened, and was drafting a letter of apology to Rice.
"I was trying to say 'quite a coup' but it came out 'coon,"' he said. "I caught myself and apologized. It wasn't anything I was meaning to say. I never use that word.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
If she doesnt side with the guy...
I would have done the exact same thing as manager and have in the past with similar situations.
Obviously, with someone as important as the SOS on the air, you don't make mistakes that that.
After reading that, I don't have any doubt that he did not mean to say that. He thinks highly of her. He likes her. He wasn't fanning the flames of hate. I think this is a sad story.
misc ping
I spent over twenty years in radio. I am quite pleased I am no longer in radio. It, being broadcast, has become ruled by bean counters not broadcasters.
This man, a human, made a simple slip of the tongue and lost his job. How sad.
His biggest mistake was apologizing profusely, he should have just gone on with the show. If the P.D. ran the air-check and reviewed the show, then the matter could have been addressed.
I've a feeling the one who did the firing is an intensely shallow corporate broadcasting weasel that strains to reach higher levels of piety.
If I were still in station management, I'd hire this man in a heartbeat, it sounds like he really cares about people and his position.
But, thank goodness I'm not in that position, so I'll end my rant and wish the gentleman well. Condoleeza Rice is tough as nails, she doesn't need station management coming to her rescue.
"Coon" down here means "Coon Ass", which means someone from Louisiana.
My sister's husband calls himself a Coon Ass with pride, as he should.
Shuck them crawdads, baby!
20 minutes?
World record.
I also feel for the man as I have been fired myself for a crappy reason.
He learned a very hard lesson.
I imagine it will make him a much better radio host and broadcaster in the future.
Yeah, and I get screamed at and flamed every time I use it in the Cajun context - as in "he's coonie" or coon-ass anything. Otherwise, I think it's an atrocious word in the "n" word category.
Yea, and Cruz Bustamonte never utters the "n" word either.
Give it time.
I watched a whole segment one night about the starving children and didn't realize until it was all over that the "Nee-zhair" they were talking about was Niger. I say it to myself when reading "Ny-jur."
Pic of Lenihan..
There is a morning FM radio station in Philadelphia that, by contrast, is so racist and hateful it makes this incident look laughable.
The station spews the most hateful things you have ever heard, and they get away with it every single day.
It is "White a$$es" this, and ""White crackers" that every day. But, no one calls them on it.
The fact that he had that in mind while talking about her is disturbing. I think that word associated with black people is worse than n!gger.
Geez, this is as silly as that flap over Rush and his comments about the news coverage of Donovan McNabb.
I do, too. He could've covered himself and just kept on going, saying "coon d'etat" and nothing more would have come of it, but he knew immediately what he had said and what it *meant.*
I was also shocked when Star Jones Reynolds, bleecchh, titled her autobiography "Shine." Surely she did that because of her name, like "starshine." But did she not *know* that "shine" is a word just like "coon" or "n"? Or did she do it on purpose as an "in-your-face" kind of arrogant turnaround of the word?
Before his gig at WKRP, Johnny worked in Los Angeles, but he got fired for using a dirty word on the air. As Johnny recalled "I used the word 'booger' on the air. I was making about a hundred grand a year down there. Then one day I said "booger," a bunch of bozos called the station, and the next thing I know I'm in Amarillo hosting a garden show."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.