Mothership lets a racial slur slip in a headline on its mobile browser

You may have a point. Whitlock may harbor a hatred against minorities because he may secretly be a minority himself.

 

Writing a headline and placing it on a story requires a chain of thought. Speaking requires no thought, as we see played out for basically 12 hours a day all over talk radio. I doubt any of us has ever written a headline we don't remember writing, but everyone says something they don't even remember saying.

 

It's not writing vs. TV: it's headline vs. spur-of-the-moment slip of the tongue in the middle of a discussion. You can't accidentally write something. Now if the TV anchor started a segment with it, that'd be close to a straight-across comparison. Something like ... this:

 

Bottom line, it was wrong. The deed did not go unpunished.

 

If you keep posting every time you're wrong, Drip, you'll overtax the server.

 

The thing is, if not for the headline writer's use of the phrase, I doubt anybody would have thought twice about the way the anchor used it.

MMII's illustration is both hilarious and right on point. You can tell from tone and inflection when someone on TV is trying to get cute with a pun or whatever. That wasn't the case with the anchor who was suspended.

Another interesting point I saw made by a reader email in Peter King's column today was that no one has even thought twice about repeating the slur in its full glory when discussing the story. If they had used the common slur for African Americans or for Hispanics, not a single media outlet would have reprinted the word, yet no one has seemed to have a problem repeating the one used in the ESPN headline.

I suspect it's because the word itself has an alternate -- and, I think it can be argued, more common -- usage in everyday conversation. That also explains why it was more understandable for the anchor to use it and not the headline writer.

 

Dude who got fired by ESPN appears to be trying to milk it into a reality show appearance or something:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g2gn26

 

Sometimes you should just say, "I'm sorry."

 

He actually had it going except for the Mother Teresa comparison paragraph.

 

I feel that the kid made a mistake. I don't think it was done intentionally and if his body of work was overall good, a suspension of some sort would've been fine. I think WWL is trying to cover its ass with a small blanket.

 

Seriously. I didn't feel one way or the other about him before, but now I really don't like him.

 

Exactly. Not really the time to apply for sainthood.

Good for you for doing the volunteer work. It doesn't work as a "Get to use 'chink' free" card.