Look at that monkey go!
I, like most Americans, heard it live. My jaw almost hit the floor. I was also watching the game where commentator Rick Barry referred to color man Bill Russell's "watermelon smile". Russell fell silent for several minutes.
Posted on 09/09/2007 4:39:29 PM PDT by afraid
Keith Olbermann just referred to a black player on the Buffalo Bills of playing for a chicken and waffle house.
Good thing his liberal credentials give him a free pass.
Don Imus merely disliked Bush: not a good enough level of animosity.
This is not a racial comment, guys.
Hate Olbermann all you want (as I do) but he just came up with the name because the return man’s name was ROSCOE PARRISH.
Now, I guess he could have made a joke about a gun (roscoe is a nickname for that in hip hop or was...) but this one was really harmless.
Wrong is wrong. Don’t bash Olbermann over this.
Olbermann was a huge success at ESPN where he teamed on nightly SportsCenter shows with co-anchor Dan Patrick. He perfected his own quirky style of Groucho Marx-like one-liners while narrating highlights of the day's sporting events.
Fox Sports had a budding network of their own but their version of a sports highlight show was drawing yawns so they did what any competitor would do when they can't measure up - they stole the star talent of their rival, signing Olbermann to a huge contract. However, without the wisecracking deadpanning Patrick as his sidekick (and some slick ESPN writers who probably provided half the jokes) Olbermann's new show also bombed. While I didn't watch his Fox show, his ESPN stint wasn't outwardly political any moreso than ESPN's typical fare.
Fox had another problem with Olbermann that they weren't counting on. Keith is blind as a bat. The Los Angeles-based Fox Network was in a dilemma because Olbermann's eyesight is so poor that he cannot get a drivers license. (Makes you wonder what Connecticut-based ESPN did for him - chauffered limos?)
MSNBC, meanwhile, was desperate for on-air talent (it's desperate when you hire the likes of Joe Scarborough, no?). Thinking that Olbermann could recapture the old magic, NBC hired him away from Fox which was ready to unload him anyway. The Peacock gave Olbermann his own show and that's when Funny Keith evolved into Hateful Wacko Keith. Now, he considered himself important (too many sportscasters wish to be taken seriously as news reporters in the same way Playboy models wish to be regarded as serious aspiring actresses) - too important to be restricted to mere sports. But at least in NYC, he could always take the subway to get around.
It leaked out from Fox also that Keith is a rather thin-skinned guy (like many liberals in the media) and is high-maintenance. I'm sure, deep down, he's resentful that NBC is shifting him back to sports and it might be a precursor to dropping his MSNBC show either in hopes that Keith will break his contract or just to salvage some value out of his contract.
I must say his early efforts on SNF have been unfunny, at best. And NBC won't have any use for Keith after January, 2009, particularly if a Democrat wins the White House. When your whole schtick is dreaming up wacky Bush conspiracy theories, who's going to want him around once Bush is out of office?
Look at that monkey go!
I, like most Americans, heard it live. My jaw almost hit the floor. I was also watching the game where commentator Rick Barry referred to color man Bill Russell's "watermelon smile". Russell fell silent for several minutes.
My Irish grandmother, right after WWII called me (and my brother) her ‘little monkeys’, in NYC. I do not believe that it had a racial connotation. Come to think of it, cartoonists in the 19th century often portrayed the Irish with monkeylike faces, so who knows if that is related. My grandmother was born right around the turn of the century.
You can 'what if' all day long. Tell me what was racist in the statement that Olberman did make. Like I said before, there may have been some stereotyping, but he said nothing that I know of that indicated there was some inherent superiority of his race to the guy he was talking about. Understand?
I had to watch the NBC show just to see who the heck this Obermann twit is. What a loser!! I can not believe even the screwballs at NBC will keep this guy on the air. What a complete jerk and Barber doesn’t deserve to be stuck with this idiot.
In a later commentary he had to apologize for those comments, saying that was former Giants Coach Jim Fossel.
That's a typically sloppy and mean spirited attach NOT based on fact, perfectly in tune with his daily cable show. I hope he catches hell for it....from NBC, from Coughlin, and from everyone else.
Absolutely. Actually Burbank had some of the best restaurants I've been to: Alfonse's, Sorrentino's, Blarney Stone, China Trader. Oh, and Castaways!
Of course they are all gone now but I have many fond memories...Glad Roscoe's is still there!
When KTLA shuts down, I wonder if Roscoe’s will survive. Probably...
No, I don’t understand why you think “inherent superiority” has anything to do with the racist label in modern America. Was Rush exhibiting “inherent superiority” when he said the media was cheerleading McNabb because McNabb was black? And, it wasn’t a racist statement. Maybe Olbermann’s isn’t, either, but you’d be a fool to think that a conservative wouldn’t be called a racist for the same statement. You can go with your principles and defend Olbermann all day, but you really needn’t bother. There will be no mention of the incident anywhere. I’m sorry the double standard doesn’t bother you.
“With the Denver drive having stalled, Roscoe Parrish on the punt return. Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles at its finest. He could go the entire distance and does and it’s seven-zip Bills.” —Keith Olbermann, 9-9-2007, NBC’s “Football Night in America”
That is quite apparent. Thanks for trying though.
Oh, look. A graduate of the Howlin School of Freeping. Apt screen name, sweetie.
I’m not an argumentative guy, and certainly don’t need to make an enemy on Free Republic, so allow me to apologize for my last remark. We’ll have to agree to disagree on the issue at hand, but there’s no reason that has to be accompanied by anger and venom. If that’s acceptable to you, cool. If not, we’ll just go our separate ways.
Perfectly acceptable to me ... I appreciate the overture. I apologize that I was unable to present my point more clearly to you.
“Rush got fired for less”
No he didn’t.
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