By Antonio D. French
Filed Sunday, March 26 at 4:34 PM
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has accepted the apology of Dave Lenihan, of St. Louis' own KTRS 550AM. Lenihan was fired this week after he used the racial slur "coon" when discussing the Secretary. He quickly said it was an unfortunate slip of the tongue.
From the AP: On his show, Lenihan said: "She's been chancellor of Stanford. She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."
He said he had meant to say "coup" instead of the slur. KTRS president and general manager Tim Dorsey agreed that the remark was accidental but announced the same day that Lenihan had been fired.
"My understanding is that he apologized, said he didn't mean it," Rice told "Fox News Sunday." "I accept that because we all say things from time to time that we shouldn't say or didn't mean to say."
Click here to read Jake Wagman's story from earlier this week. STLToday.com also has the actual audio of Lenihan's remarks. Look to the right of Wagman's story.
5 Comments:
It was clear from the context that nothing evil was intended. Dorsey overreacted big time. If someone on this blog writing about Clinkscales or O'Brien transposed letters and said "school broad" instead of "school board" would s/he be subjected to the same torment?
7:06 PM, March 26, 2006
I agree, Oracle. I think it was a slip, one that the station's management reacted to stronger than most everybody else. I think that might have something to do with the station's new owners and the slur-less image that the Cardinals would rather associate with.
That being said, it's their call on who to fire and why. I wish that managers at some other stations would be as quick to act when their employees get loose with their language.
7:49 PM, March 26, 2006
I'm not so sure it was unintentional. He sounded in complete command before and after he said it.
It certainly has gotten people talking as national outfits, as well as local, spent a lot of time last week talking about Dave Linehan.
6:57 AM, March 27, 2006
There is famous and then there is infamous.
Will he ever work in radio again? Of course. I think the station wanted to make a point to its listeners and Cardinal fans. They don't want to become known as the station of racists (something that the St. Louis American's Political Eye column recently suggested was already a danger).
Listening to the audio, it sounded to me that it was an accident. But the word was still hovering somewhere in his head to begin with. Does that make him a racist? That's up to the listener, I guess. But I must say that I do very much appreciate the public dialogue this incident has created.
7:27 AM, March 27, 2006
The word was definitely "hovering in his head." Of all the letters to "accidentally" tack onto the end of that word, he managed to chose the exact wrong one.
10:44 AM, March 27, 2006
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