Dit dit dit, dah dah dah, dit dit dit…
It took ESPN five days to fire this guy:
Mark Madden, who made his reputation with bold, outlandish attacks on famous people, has been permanently removed from the air by ESPN.
His dismissal, which came down from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., came five days after he made a scurrilous remark about U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on his 1250 ESPN talk show, which ran from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays.
…
At the opening of his show last Wednesday, Madden said this about Sen. Kennedy, who days earlier had been diagnosed with brain cancer:
“I’m very disappointed to hear that Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor. I always hoped Senator Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated.
“I wonder if he got a card from the Kopechnes.”
At the urging of station general manager Mike Thompson, Madden apologized over the air for his remarks about two hours later.
After initially reviewing the situation on a local level, Madden was neither reprimanded nor suspended. When asked if there would be some form of punishment, Thompson said, “No. The fact is we took action right away. Frankly, it was a comment that was stupid. He admitted that. I don’t think it requires any such thing as [discipline].”
ESPN had a change of heart, and it came from the corporate level in Bristol.
You know, I don’t think Madden’s going to have any trouble getting another job. On radio and some cable TV channels, outrageous hate speech is a career move these days. Who knows — CNN Headline News, perhaps?
Spink Nogales | 30-May-08 at 6:29 pm | Permalink
Did you see Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment after Senator Clinton referenced the death of Robert Kennedy?
I don’t watch that show anymore, but I watched the Special Comment on the internets. It makes me ashamed that I used to like that program.
Remember the stirring episode mentioned below?
Rachel Sklar Column
Huffington Post
April 25th, 2008
[MsNBC’s Keith]Olbermann was discussing the election with Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, a frequent guest. They topic was, how can a winner finally be determined in this never-ending Democratic race for the nomination? Of course, the assumption was that it was Clinton that should be shown the door (despite clearly still earning her spot in the race thanks to, um, voters). Fineman said that, all the delegate math aside, ultimately it was going to take “some adults somewhere in the Democratic party to step in and stop this thing, like a referee in a fight that could go on for thirty rounds. Those are the super, super, super delegates who are going to have to decide this.”
Said Olbermann: “Right. Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out.”
Michael Burton | 02-Jun-08 at 5:03 pm | Permalink
I think Olbermann started out okay. As a commentator who didn’t swallow all the Bush talking points, he was a breath of fresh air on cable news operations practically monopolized by right-wing talkers.
His straight talk got him an audience of Democrats starved to hear a friendly voice, and I think Olbermann decided to be Bill O’Reilly for Democrats.
He doesn’t play fair anymore. A year or two ago, CBS was threatening to sue Howard Stern when he moved from CBS radio to satellite radio. Olbermann had some supposed legal expert on the show and asked him leading questions, clearly seeking confirmation of his own view that CBS didn’t have a case. The expert disagreed, and said CBS had a strong case. Olbermann seemed to rush through the rest of the interview. The next day he had a different supposed legal expert. Olbermann asked the same kind of leading questions, but this time the expert agreed with Keith’s conclusions.
He’s not the kind of partisan hack who says the Democrats can do no wrong, but on his show, it seems the Republicans can do no right. It’s also been obvious for a while that Olbermann’s been tilting toward Obama. I’m an Obama supporter, and I think Olbermann has been unfair to Clinton recently, but he was more than fair to her when she looked like a sure winner.
Like O’Reilly, Olbermann seems to think it’s all about himself. The quickest way to get on the nightly list of “Worst Persons in the World” is to criticise Olbermann or NBC — particularly if you claim that his show’s ratings are weak. (I don’t expect to make the list for this comment, but only because this blog is too small for them to notice.)
I’d rather have an honest commentator who calls BS when he sees it from any politician. Olbermann is the kind of guy who can be embarrassing to have on your side.