Fox Fires Lyons for Insensitive Comment

[Sirrich3]

DId anyone catch this????


Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons has been fired for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League championship series.

The network confirmed Saturday that Lyons was dismissed after Friday's game. He has been replaced for the remainder of the series by Los Angeles Angels announcer Jose Mota.

Piniella had made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases during Friday's broadcast.

Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" butchering the conjugation for the word "to speak" and added, "I still can't find my wallet."

"I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit too close to him now," Lyons continued.

Lyons claimed he was kidding.

http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ap/20061014/116087592000.html

[MikeD]

He should definitely have been removed from the booth for the remainder of the playoffs. Fired? Meh, I dunno...

[Memo]

I don't think it's something worthy of being fired for, but I guess the network would rather just not have to deal with it if some guy decides to make a big deal out of it :shrug:

[Houdini]

I don't think it's something worthy of being fired for, but I guess the network would rather just not have to deal with it if some guy decides to make a big deal out of it :shrug:

I can't see why he would say he didn't want to sit next to him. Doesn't make much sense. To fire someone over poor conjugation of his non-native language, though, seems over-the-top. I agree that they should look into it. Maybe consider suspending him, especially in this ratings-controlled era, but fired? I dunno.

[LPMiller]

You guys need to read the whole thing. He was fired for being stupid. And having a history of it, which I think is the important thing.

[ArkiStan]

As insensitive I am toward racial jokes and stereotypes, I find those comments of his quite derogatory and offensive, especially to be said over the air. With or without the history, I'd have seriously considered firing him myself.