One week after his career crashed and burned over what his bosses called a "degrading and humiliating" tweet, Dan McNeil apologized to the ESPN reporter whose attire he ridiculed. It's hardly the comeback his fans were hoping for, but Dan McNeil has landed a two-hour weekly football show on a radio station in Hammond, Indiana. Starting this week, "Danny Mac's Friday Tailgate" will air from noon to 2 p.
McNeil later apologized to Taylor. He has been named director of operations for BetQL Network, which provides sports betting programming for a dozen Audacy sports stations with more on the way. We are thrilled with Mitch's daily dedication to all of his stations, its people and Audacy. Zawaski to news: Jay Zawaski, who rose from intern to executive producer over more than 20 years at The Score, is shifting to co-owned WBBM Newsradio as managing editor of podcasts and multimedia.
In the newly created position Zawaski "will be identifying opportunities and oversee development of new, unique podcasts to serve all Chicagoans," according to Ron Gleason, brand manager of WBBM Newsradio. A native of south suburban Homewood and graduate of Lewis University, Zawaski also served as Blackhawks hockey columnist and blogger for The Score.
It was always met with the same dubious look. Someone on Twitter asked how I would handle this specific issue if I were in charge of my old station. Sports talk radio has a culture problem from top to bottom. The only voices that are valued are those that appeal to an increasingly older, white male demographic. Anyone who deviates from that is viewed as difficult and divisive. Last night, a bunch of guys from my old station texted me, expressing chagrin that the station was, once again, being embarrassed by a sexist comment from a host.
Few, if any, said anything publicly. I get it, they need their jobs. You know who else in radio needs jobs? Black folks. A whole host of voices that never seem to make their way into the mainstream of sports talk radio. At least not in the numbers we need. But I hope, as I hope every time something like this happens, that someone in radio will wake up and realize that cultivating workplaces that consist entirely of men is a problem in the year of our Lord Taylor wins by Twitter TKO.
Now, media companies get out in front of potential peripheral outrage by whacking offenders before the riptide sweeps an entire station out to its cultural drowning. Again, I have no problem with McNeil being fired, and would have done it myself. Well-known media types represent publicly traded companies like Entercom, and they have all been told and told and told and told that social media is not for demeaning anyone.
If they engage in the wrong kind of shaming language, the response will be dire. It used to be a kinder and gentler world for those in media who treat strangers like guests of honor at a celebrity roast. Funny at the expense of others used to be welcomed. Hell, very successful radio shows were built on that precise premise! We have learned that amusing many at the expense of the few is no longer our most treasured social currency.
Broadcasters who humiliate in order to get a laugh are not long for their profession. Rhetoric was certainly not favorable.
0コメント