Bias in the Booth: An Insider Exposes How the Sports Media Distort the News by Dylan Gwinn

Author:Dylan Gwinn [Gwinn, Dylan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: social science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781621573883
Google: DIgVBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2015-03-02T20:23:33.265538+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

BLACKLISTING LIMBAUGH

Anyone’s first time on air is nerve-racking, especially in radio. It’s not like television, where you can blame the hair guy for making you look bad, or the graphics guy for having the wrong backdrop behind you. With all due respect to my brethren and sistren on the television side, I think radio is better. Simply put, it’s all on you. If you fail, it’s all you. If you succeed . . . it’s all you as well. But no matter your venue, the first time on air is hard, especially when you know you’re going to be diving into something controversial. It is one thing to say cutting, provocative, and insightful things to your steering wheel and quite another to say them into a working microphone with real people listening, people who might be genuinely angered by what you say.

And so it was, in October 2009, in the eye of the sharknado of controversy swirling around Rush Limbaugh’s effort to purchase a share of the St. Louis Rams, that I was given my first shot at sports talk radio. The cohost I auditioned with that day, for reasons that are known only to him, had no interest in talking about Rush and told me not to bring it up. But there was a two- to three-minute gap in the show where he had to leave to do an update on one of our sister stations, and I knew that was going to be my chance. I was angry, and I wanted people to know why. And as soon as my cohost left, I let fly. I let fly about how hypocritical the players, specifically the black players, were for their condemnation of Limbaugh. Several black players had recently said they would not play for Limbaugh, citing quotations attributed to Limbaugh, some out of context, others completely fabricated, that they found to be “insensitive” and “disrespectful.”

Though, interestingly, none of these players had ever said they wouldn’t play alongside Michael Vick, who brutally maimed, tortured, and killed hundreds of dogs. None of these players had spoken harshly of Ray Lewis, who, although never proved guilty of murder, had certainly been hip-deep in a situation that resulted in the stabbing deaths of two young black males. Nor had anybody been this vocal about a player like Leonard Little, who through his own drunken negligence had killed an innocent mother of three with his car.

I then spoke of how different (read: better) a world we might live in if the black players angry at Rush Limbaugh saved their anger for the players who create the “thug” stereotype of black athletes in America. Maybe if the players made a point of disavowing the thugs, “thug life” wouldn’t seem as cool as it does to too many kids.

Within seconds of that rant, all five phone lines lit up with callers, most of whom questioned my ancestry, and one guy announced that he would never listen to our station ever again. Soon after, I found out that I got the job.

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