GotZoom
Senior Member
It's just starting to be made public, and I admit I did not see HBO's Real Sports host Bryant Gumbel make some blatantly racist comments on the cable television network last week, but then again; apparently HBO didn't see or hear them either.
I didn't see it, but I sure did read the unofficial transcripts of what Gumbel said on the show that he hosts, a show that normally has some very interesting features.
I won't ever give it my time again, and neither should you. Take it one step further, I'm calling for an all out boycott of at the very minimum, all HBO Sports programming.
In case you missed it, which apparently a lot of people did, Gumbel delivered a commentary on the Winter Olympics. "Count me among those who don't care about them and won't watch them. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention," said Gumbel.
He went on to basically dismiss the Olympics, which are televised by his former employer at NBC, and talked about how he's looking forward to March Madness. I wonder if Gumbel would have said what he said about the Olympics if he was still working for the peacock network.
However, if you have any brains, that's not even the most damning thing Gumbel said. The comment about the Olympics not having the world's greatest athletes because of the lack of black athletes is a flat-out joke. Sure, a good deal of the worlds greatest athletes are not in Torino, but a lot of them are.
Oh, that's right. NHL players, world class figure skaters, Shaun White and Ted Ligety must not be any good because they're not black. I guess that's what Gumbel means.
You can twist Gumbel's words however you want too, and I'm sure a lot of you will. You will hammer me and call me all sorts of names because I took major offense to Gumbel's commentary.
What you can't do is ignore the absolute damning criticism by Gumbel that would never be accepted if Gumbel were white and said he would not watch the NBA because of the lack of non-black players. Imagine if I went on Sporting News Radio and said the NBA is impossible to watch because there are too many blacks, or if I said the reason why I have an incredible passion for hockey is because the player pool is overwhelmingly white. You would want my head on a platter, with knife in hand.
Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was rightfully fired by CBS, Al Campanis was justifiably fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers for his comments on ABC many years back, and Rush Limbaugh was blown out of his ESPN gig for stupid remarks about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
If we're being fair here, shouldn't Gumbel be fired for his blatant racist and ignorant comments on HBO last week?
I know every comment is different, and needs to be judged independently. I had no problem with Snyder, Campanis or Limbaugh getting shown the door, but so should Gumbel. A person of his intelligence, experience and polish absolutely cannot compare the Winter Olympics to a GOP convention, which is to say that the Olympics are not good because of the lack of blacks, and also that a huge section of our government is largely exclusionary.
Here's another issue: HBO does not air that show live. How in the world did a comment like that escape HBO's production team or upper level management? Does that mean that HBO, which has issued no response to this issue as of Thursday, agrees with Gumbel? They must, because the silence is deafening. Or maybe, it's part of a bigger problem.
That if you are black, you can say more damaging and hurtful comments, but if you are not, don't even go down that road.
I feel the same way about Charles Barkley, a player who has made some racist comments throughout the years. Everybody just laughs and shrugs it off as "Charles being Charles." It's not funny, and should not be tolerated or accepted.
I guess I shouldn't watch the rest of the Olympics, because the athletes just aren't the best in the world. Sorry NBC, perhaps you should just broadcast the summer games so that Mr. Gumbel will be entertained a little more.
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=63192
I didn't see it, but I sure did read the unofficial transcripts of what Gumbel said on the show that he hosts, a show that normally has some very interesting features.
I won't ever give it my time again, and neither should you. Take it one step further, I'm calling for an all out boycott of at the very minimum, all HBO Sports programming.
In case you missed it, which apparently a lot of people did, Gumbel delivered a commentary on the Winter Olympics. "Count me among those who don't care about them and won't watch them. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention," said Gumbel.
He went on to basically dismiss the Olympics, which are televised by his former employer at NBC, and talked about how he's looking forward to March Madness. I wonder if Gumbel would have said what he said about the Olympics if he was still working for the peacock network.
However, if you have any brains, that's not even the most damning thing Gumbel said. The comment about the Olympics not having the world's greatest athletes because of the lack of black athletes is a flat-out joke. Sure, a good deal of the worlds greatest athletes are not in Torino, but a lot of them are.
Oh, that's right. NHL players, world class figure skaters, Shaun White and Ted Ligety must not be any good because they're not black. I guess that's what Gumbel means.
You can twist Gumbel's words however you want too, and I'm sure a lot of you will. You will hammer me and call me all sorts of names because I took major offense to Gumbel's commentary.
What you can't do is ignore the absolute damning criticism by Gumbel that would never be accepted if Gumbel were white and said he would not watch the NBA because of the lack of non-black players. Imagine if I went on Sporting News Radio and said the NBA is impossible to watch because there are too many blacks, or if I said the reason why I have an incredible passion for hockey is because the player pool is overwhelmingly white. You would want my head on a platter, with knife in hand.
Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was rightfully fired by CBS, Al Campanis was justifiably fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers for his comments on ABC many years back, and Rush Limbaugh was blown out of his ESPN gig for stupid remarks about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
If we're being fair here, shouldn't Gumbel be fired for his blatant racist and ignorant comments on HBO last week?
I know every comment is different, and needs to be judged independently. I had no problem with Snyder, Campanis or Limbaugh getting shown the door, but so should Gumbel. A person of his intelligence, experience and polish absolutely cannot compare the Winter Olympics to a GOP convention, which is to say that the Olympics are not good because of the lack of blacks, and also that a huge section of our government is largely exclusionary.
Here's another issue: HBO does not air that show live. How in the world did a comment like that escape HBO's production team or upper level management? Does that mean that HBO, which has issued no response to this issue as of Thursday, agrees with Gumbel? They must, because the silence is deafening. Or maybe, it's part of a bigger problem.
That if you are black, you can say more damaging and hurtful comments, but if you are not, don't even go down that road.
I feel the same way about Charles Barkley, a player who has made some racist comments throughout the years. Everybody just laughs and shrugs it off as "Charles being Charles." It's not funny, and should not be tolerated or accepted.
I guess I shouldn't watch the rest of the Olympics, because the athletes just aren't the best in the world. Sorry NBC, perhaps you should just broadcast the summer games so that Mr. Gumbel will be entertained a little more.
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=63192
