Oh, great. Just what we needed, another week loaded with proof that the world has gone nuts.
First, after firing a headline writer for his “Chink in the Armor” job vis-a-vis Jeremy Lin — a deed adjudged by ESPN to be an intentional misdeed — ESPN next went about punishing the innocent in the name of politically correct justice, the kind that demonstrates justice is blind, but only in one eye.
ESPN suspended Max Bretos, an ESPN News anchor, for 30 days for speaking the same phrase in referencing Lin’s performance in a Knicks loss.
However, in this action, ESPN acknowledged that Bretos was guilty of nothing more than the innocent but ill-timed use of an old and sustained phrase — chink, as in dent, unrelated to the use of “Chink” as a trending-dead, hateful substitute for a Chinese.
Wait a second! If Bretos spoke the phrase innocently, why would ESPN hang a “RACIST” sign around his neck, even for a minute, let alone 30 days? Why would ESPN allow that to be entered into Bretos’s permanent record and stand as a juicy biographical tidbit within Wikipedia?
Any logical shot-caller up at ESPN would have taken Bretos aside and said, “Listen, kid, we know you didn’t mean anything by that, so we’ve got your back. Just be more careful in the future. ‘Chink in the armor’ is just one of a million clichés you should avoid for no other reason than that they’re clichés.”
Instead, ESPN gave him 30 lashes in the public square. Now, there’s a team morale booster!
Not to be out-PCed, MSG Network “disciplined” Knicks play-by-play man Spero Dedes for using the same phrase on the air during the same loss.
(Does it dawn on any of these network disciplinarians that the phrase is so commonly and innocently spoken that it was regularly spoken before Lin hit the scene?)
In keeping with the Cablevision legacy for contradictory statements, policies and actions, MSG issued this whopper:
“The term Spero Dedes inadvertently used was inappropriate and inconsistent with the high regard we have for Jeremy Lin as a member of our MSG Family, as well as the Asian community. Spero deeply regrets the error and never intended to offend anyone, most particularly Jeremy, whom he holds in high esteem. We took appropriate disciplinary action.”
As Hank Stram once hollered, “What? What!” Unless we’re to believe that a Knicks announcer and Garden employee intentionally slurred Lin and his race on the air — and the Garden said that was not the case — there was no disciplinary action to take!
The only response MSG should have had — if any — was, “This is a non-issue and we’re not going to help make it one. If we thought that Dedes used that expression as a slur, he wouldn’t be suspended or disciplined — he would be fired. Now go find something better to do.”
Instead, MSG issued a public statement pointing to Dedes as innocent, adding that he has been punished for it.
The darkly comical perversity of these episodes is that at the same time they were going down, MSG roving Knicks games reporter, Jill Martin, gushing with excitement, was preparing to interview courtside celebrity misanthrope and honored MSG TV guest Mike Tyson — the convicted rapist — who then casually spoke a profanity into Martin’s MSG microphone.
And in prime time on ESPN’s Disney sibling ABC, John Anderson was co-hosting “Wipeout!,” a stunts-and-grunts show, during which Anderson engages in a relentless exchange of cheap, childish testicles and penis wisecracks, the kind that would cause a 12-year-old to be suspended from school.
Anderson is also employed by Disney as a broadcast journalist. He anchors ESPN’s 6 p.m. “SportsCenter.” But no disciplinary action is taken against employees whose inappropriate conduct is committed by design, with company approval or on orders. And if Bobby Knight hadn’t been hired by ESPN, he wouldn’t have been removed from ESPN’s “Big Reel of Inappropriate, Suspension-to-Follow Conduct.”
Saying YES to Piniella may haunt Yankees network
Too many analysts hired as attractions become distractions. Here’s hoping I’m wrong, but Lou Piniella’s addition to YES’ legion of ex-Yankees analysts — he’ll work 25-30 telecasts — seems like the reapplication of a dubious formula.
Though Piniella is a beloved former Yankees player and manager, his previous TV gigs didn’t distinguish him above those former managers and players who need to be led to water. He created forced, in-game Q&A sessions. And YES’ Yankees “Analyst of the Week” telecasts are not in need of more in-game interview sessions, not when the games are tight.
* MSG Plus tonight will carry Doc Emrick Night ceremonies, starting at 6:30, prior to Canucks-Devils. The game and postgame will be laced with Emrick tributes and tapes.
Interesting, that in 21 years calling Devils games — and before that Flyers and Rangers broadcasts — Emrick never established a “signature call,” never concocted nicknames for players, never made with any self-promotional gimmicks.
He never even considered it; he never had to. He was always there for you, not for him, and, with NBC, he remains that way.
* What may stand as the most exciting televised golf of the year — Sunday’s playoff from Riviera on CBS among Phil Mickelson, Bill Haas and Keegan Bradley, won by Haas when he sank a bomb — likely was seen by fewer than it deserved. Another case of TV having conditioned minds to regard golf that doesn’t include Tiger Woods as unworthy of their time.
* Call of the Week: Michael Kay on Monday on his ESPN 1050 Radio show, essentially called the Nets’ win over the Knicks in the Garden that night. And he predicated his prediction on Deron Williams going monster. The Nets won by eight; Williams scored 38, six assists, four rebounds.
* If Baron Davis got back on defense after hitting a 3-pointer and didn’t instead focus on self-congratulatory gestures, he wouldn’t have to worry about how those gestures are interpreted.
* Leave it to Craig Carton to actually boast about getting a gig on Spike TV. Spike’s prime time is designed almost entirely to draw desensitized young males, misfits, dopes and cleavage-droolers — those who value doo-doo jokes, skateboard wipeouts and guys being kicked in the head and groin. High-brow stuff. Carton’s a perfect fit.
* Reader Ron Goydic reminds us to remember: Whatever Mariano Rivera’s decision at the end of the season, Mike Francesa already knew it.