“During Homerun Derby, your announcer said, ?It?s a sad night to be an Atheist.? He was referring to the turnaround in Josh Hamilton?s life as an alleged result of religion. This was hurtful as all beliefs or disbeliefs should be equally respected. Would you allow, ?It?s a sad to be a Jew? It?s a sad to be a Catholic? Of course not, for those statements are hurtful and disrespectful. This statement against non-belief must not be ignored by your network. The right thing to do is an on-air apology!”Bright Regards, Larry http://www.the-brights.net
Did anyone hear this? If so, you may want to give ESPN an email.http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/contact
As an atheist… YES! I would allow those things to be said! Freedom of speech should never be sacrificed for any reason. Do not stoop to their level of whiney idiocy.
But being a jew or a catholic is sad! they are death cults.
Lynn, isn’t it our freedom to object to speech that attacks us? We’re not talking about a Constitutional Amendment banning free speech, we’re talking about a slur against us on a national network. Would you suggest we never respond to stuff like this?
Oy. First I had to find out who the hell Josh Hamilton was. Then I tried to find a video or a recording of the quote. I actually sat through a boring 5 minutes of Hamilton hitting his 28 homeruns with the announcers wetting their pants and the crowd going wild. I used to be a baseball fan, but, really? And the quote wasn’t even included.
Anyway, the dipwad announcer should be allowed to say what he said. Free speech, all that. Of course, replace ‘atheist’ with any religious group or minority, and the guy gets canned.
Besides, as someone on another site pointed out, it was kind of ironic, that if it was god pulling the strings, it was funny how he set Josh up to break the previous record, but still lose the Derby. Also that you get more attention if you use drugs, quit, use drugs quit, use drugs quit, then hit a bunch of homers than if you never use drugs, then keep on never using drugs, then hit even more homers.
Let the gob-smacked losers have their little moment of fantasy. It’s never a sad night to be an atheist. We don’t need imaginary friends to help us hit a ball with a stick. Or go through rehab-8 times.
Damn, I’m a Rangers fan, and I cringe every time hear Hamilton talk (He’s preachy, surprise surprise). It’s too bad the announcers have to validate Hamilton’s point-of-view by slamming those that aren’t like him.
Has anybody determined the name of the announcer that said such a stupid thing?
lynne
Excellent!
And why would objecting to such speech be “whiney idiocy”? And why would you choose not to exercise YOUR freedom of speech and teach this pinhead the lesson he needs to learn – that there are a lot of us rational human beings that don’t subscribe to his fantasy and are not going to put up with his hateful speech.
Hateful speech, yeah right! lets pick our battles better than the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue.
All Kinds of Corn
It was some guy named Reilly. If I read the first name, I’ve forgotten it. The consensus I read was he generally sucks as an announcer, but the folks holding that view had pretty much the same opinion of all ESPN announcers.
Dave
Yes, We’re free to object to speech that attacks us. I’m not sure that’s the case here, or if this was just an idiot making a dumb remark, an attempt at a bad joke maybe.
Would you suggest we never respond to stuff like this?
No, I wouldn’t suggest that at all. But nor would I suggest we be hyper-vigilant to every time the word atheist gets used and in what context to see if we need to get all hot and bothered by it. We don’t need to nurture a persecution complex of our own. Leave that to the sheeple. Calling more attention to a stupid remark through an email campaign seems to me almost like feeding a troll. And you know the preferred policy on that.
What an opportunity some of you would elect to pass up. Make an example of the slime ball.
The scum bags name is Rick Reilly and according to reports of ear-witnesses what he said was “It’s a lousy night to be an atheist.” Make an example of the jerk and demand for his head at:
http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/contact
Sad night to be an atheist? Tell that to Annika Sorenstam and all of her success all while being an atheist.
Here’s my submission to ESPN:
Josh Hamilton attributes his turnaround to a god, and Rick Reilly supports and validates it by suggesting that this somehow makes Atheism look bad? Let’s see some balance. Let’s see Reilly insult religion every time a god worshipping athlete performs poorly or does something stupid or immoral — certainly no shortage of examples. Josh Hamilton has the right to worship as he sees fit; but for Rick Reilly to use that as an opportunity to publically insult Atheism is inexcusable.
I sent a friendly note, not accusing anyone because I haven’t verified the quote in question.
I let them know that we Atheists are okay people afterall. I don’t think any of us want to shut them up, or censor anyone.
Just educating someone about their mistake isn’t the same as trying to shut down their free speech rights. I wish everyone would try to understand that. The antidote to free speech you don’t like is more free speech – from you.
It’s okay to respond.
OT Good News
MA lawamkers overturn ban on out of state gays getting married in their state:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage;_ylt=AslKFZgB9rMyOX8EFAJy2h2s0NUE
What pisses me off about this whole thing is that when another announcer (Dana Jacobson) said something bad about Nazi Bitch (Notre Dame) -not on air and not even at work (at a roast, where your SUPPOSED to say obnoxious things, she was instantly suspended for a week (and lucky to keep her job), while ESPN won’t even acknowledge us.
Make the same statement about a catholic and they’re bending over backwards to kiss that Nazi scumbag William Donahue’s ass. Say that about a Musilm or a Jew and it’s instant firing. Say that about an Atheist and it’s high fives all around during the commercial.
The only thing it did is make me pay attention to what is otherwise a piece of fluff to fill TV time during a lull in sports and make meroot HARD for Justin Morneau in the finals, who, by the way , mopped up that junkie for the title. And laugh at their obvious distress when, once again, their jesus couldn’t provide the goods.
We should bombard ESPN with as much commentary (and I’ve kept mine PG, so far)as we can and at least make them ignore us.
I disagree with the original poster’s assertion that all beliefs should be respected, however I am against what ESPN said merely because it was ignorant.
I don’t think there is a problem with bringing it to their attention. I’m not going to demand an on-air apology. If they get enough complaints, maybe they’ll send out a memo telling their announcers to be more careful. I definitely don’t want atheists to be seen as whining bastards. My complain letter follows:
I sent them a (fairly) polite comment. Will it make a huge difference? Probably not. But I’m long since past just letting this kind of thing get a free pass. If it makes just one person actually THINK before opening their mouth, I feel I’ve accomplished something.
Anyone have any video or audio of this? I just searched YouTube and found nothing there. I would like to respond to ESPN, but I would like to hear it first for verification.
I was watching and heard the comment. It made me cringe a bit. Almost as much as when Rick Reilly said about the HR Derby lineup, “We have 8 white guys here. It looks like a Kiwanis Club meeting.” The funny thing is that he was questioning the choice of Justin Morneau, the eventual winner over several Black and Latin players.
subflea
Yeah. So I’m thinking any comments to ESPN should include references to the racial remarks also.
It should be pointed out to the mass media (if you can make them listen) that this not just comparable, but worse (because intent is far more evident) than anything Imus might have to say.
Here is video of the Kiwanis Club comment. They do a fine job of steering the discussion elsewhere.
http://www.faniq.com/blog/Video-Rick-Reilly-Is-Not-Happy-With-The-AllWhite-Guys-Home-Run-Derby-Blog-10275
Karen,
This is why we love you, Karen!
We are free to tell him “It is a sad day to be an intollerant bigot” also.
OK, so ESPN had the replay on last night and I have it on the DVR. Hopefully today I can get through it and find the comment.
I had some problems with these two long URLs:
http://www.faniq.com/blog/Video-Rick-Reilly-
Is-Not-Happy-With-The-AllWhite-Guys-
Home-Run-Derby-Blog-10275
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/
ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage;_ylt=AslKFZgE
These versions do all right in my browser.
My reply? It’s sad to be moron who thinks like that.
Well, the replay I have was cut short, so I didn’t get to see it. They stopped the telecast short of the Hamilton interview.
Sucks living in a country where the only group it’s OK to slander are the atheists, and people who know how to think for themselves.