Condoleezza Rice Called "Coon" By Talk Show Host
Talk show host fired after on-air racial slurBy Jake Wagman
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/22/2006
A radio personality at 550 KTRS was fired on the spot this morning after using the word “coon” on the air in a conversation about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Dave Lenihan was dismissed after what he called an inadvertent slip of the tongue. Within 20 minutes, station CEO Tim Dorsey apologized on the air to listeners and announced that Lenihan, who had been with the station for less than two weeks, had been let go.
“I don’t know what was in Mr. Lenihan’s mind,” Dorsey said in an interview. “I know what I heard. I know it was reprehensible.”
Lenihan’s comment was made during a discussion about Rice’s credentials to become commissioner of the National Football League, a topic that has been fodder for sports talk radio since the current commissioner announced he would retire later this year.
Lenihan was listing what assets Rice could bring to the league, including her tenure as a top academic officer at Stanford University and the fact that she is African-American.
“She’s just got a patent resume, of somebody that’s got such serious skill,” Linehan said on the air. “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, OK? I didn’t mean that. That was just a slip of the tongue.” Lenihan later said he meant to use the word "coup."
Reached at home, Lenihan said he was still trying to figure out what happened, and was drafting a letter of apology to Rice.
Source & More
Terrence says...... I might not like Condoleezza Rice's politics, but she doesn't deserve to be called a "coon". She is a soulless habitual evil liar, but not a "coon".
Seriously, it's good that swift action was taken against the ignoramus. Left unpunished his actions could send the wrong message to his listening audience that it's acceptable to use the word to describe black folk.
When will these radio idiots ever learn that racial slurs are inappropriate?
posted by Terrence | 8:53 PM
13 Comments:
That's just bizarre. From the source article's transcript (which you've quoted), it's pretty evident that "coup" was the word he was after. "Coon" just doesn't work in that context.
The whole thing looks a bit Freudian to me. How discouraging.
Bizarre is right. Polimom, he said "coon" twice. A Freudian slip twice? I personally think dude was probably just trying to be funny like Rush Limbaugh's "Nayger" comment about Ray Nagin.
In my opinion, the radio talk show host's antics got him what he deserved.
Oh man... some of you people run around looking for stuff that isn't even there. Terrence, any comparison of this inicident to ANYTHING dribbling out of the jawls of Rush Limbaugh is like apples and oranges.
Lenihan was in the middle of heaping praise on Condi Rice and he misspoke. You've NEVER EVER heard anyone ever slip up and say the wrong thing?!? And he apologized right on the spot after he realized his error.
I read this story this morning and had the opposite reaction. The knee jerk PC-solabic response by the radio station was way off base. And of course, you had Johnny-come-lately NAACP lauding the station's swift action... personally, I hope the guy gets his job back (with an apology from the station). This is obviously a case of Political Correctness Gone Wild (I can't wait to buy the DVD on late night television)!
Oh please, you are now beginning to lose credibility with me.
This dude used the word "coon" twice. A Freudian slip twice? It doesn't make sense. Ray Charles and the Blind Boys of Alabama can see through that.
It's just naive if you think that was a two-time Freudian slip. I have had Freudian slips on different issues throughout my lifetime, but never repeated the same slip TWICE in one sentence. If you are smart, which I don't put much stock or confidence in a lot of radio talk show personalities, you will catch it the first time.
Don't be naive.
Again, some radio talk show hosts do stupid things which they think are comical (like Rush Limbaugh) for the listening audience - then apologize - thinking that an apology will suffice - like the fools at Hot 97 in New York. They knew that was some shit from the word go, but they did it anyway.
Pink slip time. Get your hat and coat and get the fuck out.
And if nothing else it proves that the St. Louis dimwit uses the word often enough that it would even slip off his forked tongue TWICE.
Some of you people ignore what is clearly inappropriate behavior, which I believe was deliberate, in this case. You are making excuses for an ignorant person.
In regards to getting his job - hell, no. Learn to talk FIRST.
Terrence,
I think it's the Freudian slips that illustrate the hardest things for people to deal with - the underlying and unacknowledged thoughts.
I don't agree with plez that he should get his job back, primarily because I think the station demonstrated a firm stance on the acceptable vs the inacceptable that, if more widely emulated, would shut nasty-mouths like Limbaugh down... or send them underground. Hmmm.... whole different thought process with that.
But I also don't think I agree that the announcer was being deliberate. I suspect he's appalled by this abrupt confrontation with a hitherto unknown facet of his worldview.
None of us knows, really, what was in this man's heart and mind. You could be totally right, Terrence, that he was being deliberate. But if he wasn't - if instead he's had an epiphany and can confront some internal baggage as a result, then good! great! for all of us. Because it's the subtle and innocuous that bite us unexpectedly.
Polimom, I agree with you that none of us really knows what was in his heart, but.....if I were a betting man though.....I'd say that it was deliberate.
That's not to say that I am right. It's just my hunch or intuition based on the rash of incidents similar to these that have happened over recent years and months involving radio personalities.
-Last year, Rush Limbaugh referred to New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, as "Mayor Nayger" then cleaned it up by pronouncing his name correctly THE SECOND TIME.
Hear the audio: Rush Comments
-In January 2005, a black and Latino DJ at NYC's Hot 97 made fun of the Asian Tsumani victims.
-In 2004, a Milwaukee Radio talk show host called Condoleezza Rice an "Aunt Jemima" and Colin Powell and "Uncle Tom".
-In 2004, DJ's in Oregon were fired for making fun of hostage Nick Berg's beheading.
-In 2002, Opie and Anthony were fired from a NYC radio station following an orchestrated sex stunt in St. Patrick's Cathedral.
They don't call them shock jocks for nothing. These guys are slicksters.
I'm sorry, but he can apologize until his balls turn blue, I don't buy it. "Coup" vs. "Coon" - a word that just so happens to be used inflammatorily against black people - are not even close.
You all are certainly entitled to your opinions though. I agree with you that the firing might cause him to have an epiphany. It should.
A small comment from Oliver Willis:
"How do you accidentally call a black person a “coon”? There’s no mistake there. I’ll also note for the record that the NAACP called up the station immediately to demand action be taken."
Source
Oliver Willis: A slip of the tongue?
Come on Terrence, at least give me a shred of my credibility back! I enjoy the back-and-forth on this one because there is no right answer... no wrong answer. Because not one of us knows what was in Lenihan's heart and mind when he uttered that fateful word: COON!
OK, he said it twice. I'll bet you my paycheck that he'll never use it again. Unfortunately, he probably won't get the chance to use it again in St. Louis. It is unfortunate that he lost his job ... I'm sure next week's brouhaha will be his attempt to sue the station for wrongful termination. I think they should give him his job back to save him the lawyer's fees!
Who cares what his intentions were plez. The bottom line is that HE SAID IT on air. And because of the ambiguity of the comment, he needed to be fired. Don't be silly. He certainly wouldn't be working at my radio station.
I don't care if it was malicious or not - HE SAID IT.
It is often said,
"Don't let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you."
That's right, it doesn't matter that he didn't mean to. The bottom line is he said it and the word wouldn't have been slipping out so easy had he not been thinking it. Which is where most racists are keeping their comments, all in their head and then acting on them later.
So when they identify themselves with the words that are coming out of their mouths, they should be handled right then and there.
tomorrow at work i'll start calling every white motherfucker, a crazy ass honkey cracka and call it a slip of the tongue.
PC speech has always served to play into the hands of certain political agendas. Why should I have my speech controlled by the PC speech/thought police?
He was right to call her a coon, because clearly that's what she is. A white man's coon that's white on the inside, but a coon all the same. Apparently only whites can be racist. The blacks of North America should be greatful white men pulled them out of the trees and shipped as slaves for 300 years. After finally being taught who was boss, they finally gave them good jobs, and gave them increasing representation in middle class areas. If Apartheid had continued in South Africa for another few decades, the kaffirs would learn the white man's ways, abandon the tribalism of millenia ago, and make something of themselves. What do you have instead? De Klerk/Kaffirboetie Afrikaner treachery in the 1994 capitulation to the ANC, who are subsequently ruining a once prosperous, safe country with their incompetence and vengefulness towards whites. 2000 whites farmers have been murdered in a secret program of ethnic cleansing sponsored by radical wing of the ANC.
They were right for firing a radio host for calling an African woman a derogatory remarks! I don't care if it is full African or one percent African, it is derogatory to blacks. Laurence Herman "Gus" Versluis himself is 3/20ths of 1 percent black. Versluis will roll over his grave when he calls the African-American a rude remark.
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