ESPN Removes Announcer Because of Name

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

If anyone tried to tell me this was happening even one month ago, I would have laughed in their face and told them to make up a more believable lie. I don't even think The Onion would have ran with this as an article topic a month or two ago. ESPN is removing an announcer from a Virginia college football game because his name is "Robert Lee", which is too close to Robert E Lee. Here is a picture of Robert Lee:

(Seen Above: The face of White Supremacy, that dirty Nazi bastard.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/business/media/robert-lee-university-virginia-charlottesville.html

Quote:ESPN has removed an announcer from its broadcast of the University of Virginia’s first football game next month because he has the same name as a Confederate general memorialized in statues that are being taken down across the country.

The network announced late Tuesday that the announcer, Robert Lee, a part-time employee who calls about a dozen college football and basketball games a year for ESPN, would no longer participate in the broadcast of the Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville, Va., which became the center of violent clashes this month during a white supremacist gathering.

White nationalists and neo-Nazis flooded into Charlottesville, marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches, to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue of the Confederacy’s top general, Robert E. Lee.

After the violence in Charlottesville, which left one person dead, ESPN executives and Mr. Lee decided that for his safety it would be best to have him to work on a different game that Saturday, a network spokesman said.

“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name,” ESPN said in a statement. “In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue.”

Mr. Lee did not return a call seeking comment. The website Outkick the Coverage reported on Mr. Lee’s removal on Tuesday afternoon.

Before the demonstrations in Charlottesville, ESPN had planned for Mr. Lee to be in the announcer’s booth for the Virginia Cavaliers’ first game of the season, against the College of William and Mary, which will be broadcast on the ACC Network. Mr. Lee will instead announce Youngstown State’s game against the University of Pittsburgh, which will appear on the same network.

Mr. Lee, whose full-time job is at a payroll services company in Albany, started announcing games for ESPN and its other networks last fall, according to his LinkedIn page. For the past 17 years, he has also announced men’s basketball games for Siena College in Albany. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1999 with a degree in broadcast journalism.

The move by ESPN drew swift condemnation online, from people who called the decision absurd and said it was political correctness run amok.

If it hadn't already happened, we have now clearly jumped the shark as a society. Time to put us out of our collective misery and try better next time.

[CageTheBengal]

Yeah that sucks plain and simple.

[treee]

Misleading title. They're just having him work a different game.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(08-23-2017, 02:45 AM)treee Wrote: Misleading title. They're just having him work a different game.

Not misleading at all. They removed him from the game. I didn't say suspended, or fired, or laid off, I said removed. I perhaps could have used reassigned, but that makes it sound too innocuous.

I mean the guy went from Virginia (ACC) to Youngstown State (MVFC) because his Asian parent(s) had the last name Lee and named him Robert.

[treee]

(08-23-2017, 03:01 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Not misleading at all. They removed him from the game. I didn't say suspended, or fired, or laid off, I said removed. I perhaps could have used reassigned, but that makes it sound too innocuous.

I mean the guy went from Virginia (ACC) to Youngstown State (MVFC) because his Asian parent(s) had the last name Lee and named him Robert.

I shouldve been clearer. I wasn't saying that you were being purposefully misleading, but that one could draw the conclusion that they were fired, by the title. That's the impression I got until I read the article.

[StoneTheCrow]

Can someone tell CBS about Confederate Lt. Daniel Fouts, Sgt. Stephen Tasker, and Maj. Phillip Simms?

[Vlad]

The looney left strikes again.

[Millhouse]

This is 100% proof of the direction that ESPN has moved towards. Rather than being neutral and trying to do what they did best in the past, they now put sports secondary to being politically correct for what I call the left California lib crowd. Brucelyn Jenner winning that Espy over Lauren Hill was another sign of this happening a few years ago, which I think was part of the reason Colin Cowherd was basically let go because he blasted it on his show.

[*jason*]

(08-23-2017, 11:04 AM)Millhouse Wrote: This is 100% proof of the direction that ESPN has moved towards. Rather than being neutral and trying to do what they did best in the past, they now put sports secondary to being politically correct for what I call the left California lib crowd. Brucelyn Jenner winning that Espy over Lauren Hill was another sign of this happening a few years ago, which I think was part of the reason Colin Cowherd was basically let go because he blasted it on his show.

He also made the "mistake" of implying that the educational system in the Dominican Republic may not be up to par... He was leaving anyway, they just hastened it.

[Bengalzona]

(08-23-2017, 07:26 AM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: Can someone tell CBS about Confederate Lt. Daniel Fouts, Sgt. Stephen Tasker, and Maj. Phillip Simms?

Just as long as they don't take announcer Joe Goebbles from my German soccer boroadcasts!

[Yojimbo]

(08-23-2017, 11:04 AM)Millhouse Wrote: This is 100% proof of the direction that ESPN has moved towards. Rather than being neutral and trying to do what they did best in the past, they now put sports secondary to being politically correct for what I call the left California lib crowd. Brucelyn Jenner winning that Espy over Lauren Hill was another sign of this happening a few years ago, which I think was part of the reason Colin Cowherd was basically let go because he blasted it on his show.

Don't give ESPN/Disney that much credit. Every decision they make has one single goal, profit.

[GMDino]

(08-23-2017, 11:46 AM)Yojimbo Wrote: Don't give ESPN/Disney that much credit. Every decision they make has one single goal, profit.

Kind of where I fall with it.  I wouldn't even make that connection to move the announcer myself, but in the end of they (or any public entity) want to play politics (whether I agree with it or not) the bottom line will be how it affects their bottom line.

I'd imagine they didn't even consider a major backlash and now will be more careful in the future.

Like I said, I'd have left the guy call the game and dealt with what would surely have been a much smaller reaction from anyone "offended".

[Millhouse]

(08-23-2017, 11:46 AM)Yojimbo Wrote: Don't give ESPN/Disney that much credit. Every decision they make has one single goal, profit.

Now they are trying to backtrack it all saying the decision was made weeks ago, so who knows. 

But yeah, profit from advertisers is what they aim for. And if they think an advertiser would pull out because of an Asian American announcer that just so happens to have an Asian last name of Lee with an American last name of Robert, they will do whatever to avoid losing that revenue.

[*jason*]

Kinda off topic, but am I the only one that wonder what happened to the last name Hitler?

[Belsnickel]

(08-23-2017, 01:58 PM)jason Wrote: Kinda off topic, but am I the only one that wonder what happened to the last name Hitler?

Saw a documentary where they tried to talk to his family. IIRC, they changed their name and it is likely that a lot of people did that would have shared it.

[*jason*]

(08-23-2017, 02:07 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Saw a documentary where they tried to talk to his family. IIRC, they changed their name and it is likely that a lot of people did that would have shared it.

That's what I figured.

Another guy in Ohio with my first and last name was arrested and convected of sex crimes with minores 4-5 years ago. I got shit via email and texts from my friends across the country for about a year... My face on his mugshot... Shit like that.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(08-23-2017, 02:07 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Saw a documentary where they tried to talk to his family. IIRC, they changed their name and it is likely that a lot of people did that would have shared it.

There's also evidence that the surname didn't even exist and was, in fact, a mistake on the birth registry.  According to this research, the last name should have been documented as Heidler, I don't recall if that was Adolf or his "adoptive" father.  The person filling out the birth certificate misheard it as Hitler (in German the second vowel in the "i" "e" combination is the one that is pronounced as the vowel sound).  So, no one had the surname until this mistake was made. 

[Belsnickel]

(08-23-2017, 02:20 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: There's also evidence that the surname didn't even exist and was, in fact, a mistake on the birth registry.  According to this research, the last name should have been documented as Heidler, I don't recall if that was Adolf or his "adoptive" father.  The person filling out the birth certificate misheard it as Hitler (in German the second vowel in the "i" "e" combination is the one that is pronounced as the vowel sound).  So, no one had the surname until this mistake was made. 

That's an interesting theory. In German, the "ei" produces the long I sound, and the "i" on its own would be a short I sound. Saying them in my head, I'm having a hard time figuring out how that got mistaken, but stranger things have happened.

Ist mir Wurst.

[*PhilHos*]

(08-23-2017, 11:04 AM)Millhouse Wrote: This is 100% proof of the direction that ESPN has moved towards. Rather than being neutral and trying to do what they did best in the past, they now put sports secondary to being politically correct for what I call the left California lib crowd. Brucelyn Jenner winning that Espy over Lauren Hill was another sign of this happening a few years ago, which I think was part of the reason Colin Cowherd was basically let go because he blasted it on his show.

Remember ESPN is headquartered in CT.

CT sucks.

[Au165]

ESPN asked him if he'd be more comfortable calling a different game, he said he would be so they switched him. I am not sure why this is news.