From the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand.
ESPN NFL analyst Sean Salisbury went on his Chicago radio show yesterday and defended himself against accusations that he made an anti-Semitic comment on Monday’s “NFL Live.”
ESPN could not provide a transcript of what Salisbury said yesterday, but his comments on Monday have been raging on Internet blogs for a couple of days. His words had failed to make their way into the mainstream media until Salisbury made it a discussion point yesterday.
The mainstream media has ignored it because it is open to interpretation if Salisbury actually said something inappropriate or not.
ESPN decided to stand by Salisbury. “It was not a slur,” ESPN VP Josh Krulewitz said.
With all due respect to Mr. Marchand, I think the mainstream media’s hesitancy to cover what may or may not be a story is slightly related to a comment like “ESPN could not provide a transcript of what Salisbury said yesterday.” However, an audio clip of Salibury’s gaffe has been in circulation for the past 2 days.
Mocking Salisbury was standard practice amongst any number of bloggers long before this incident. Much like the coverage of Michael Irvin’s ill-advised remarks on Dan Patrick’s radio program, it only figures that traditional print media are going to be way behind the curve. Who else in their right mind would be compelled to be paying such close attention to Salibury’s every word if not the blogosphere’s more dilligent denizens?
And besides, most contemporary Rudy Martzkes know better. When retribution might result in being sent a phone-cam pic of the Salisbury Tube Steak, I can empathize with those that would rather not chase this ambulance.
I was re-reading that link you posted on the last Salisbury story. There are some real crackheads on there. This is one reason why I hate the internet:
not the espn we knew : badger5bob : 1/25/07 10:50 AM
this is the lefty abc owned and run espn now. no way in the past would common trash such as michael irvin or salisbury even be employed by them. this is not the espn chris berman and others turned into the best sports network by a thousand miles. the management of espn is all gone now as they saw who was taking over. ever watch a mondasy nite mnf game with their in game conversations and video of themselves or whatever shows actor they are trying to shove down your throat WHILE THE PLAY AND OR ACTION ON THE FIELD IS GOING ON BUT YOU CANT SEE IT? salisbury and irvin are racists. they fired limbaugh who NEVER would have been hired by old espn for his comments but not for this crackhead racist? or pervert racist? what if an announcer said tony dungy makes many good coaching decisions “he must have some white blood in him” would these leftys fire him like thyey didnt do to irvin for saying romo had black blood in him for playing wekll. QUESTION OF GUILT OR NOT? WHY DID ESPN PULL THE NEXT 2 SHOWINGS OF THE NFL LIVE SHOW? AND WHY DO THEY REFUSE TO PROVIDE A VIDEO? THAT SAYS IT ALL ABOUT ANY OF THEIR CREDIBILITY. quite frankly again yeaterdays sportscenter at 6pm and at start had about 10 minutes terrell owens in august comments and wwent on with their usual bash owens morals over this time poor little parcells sadly retiring. AT LEAST OWENS AND BARRY BONDS ARE NOT RACISTS! and i dont need these holier than thou left garbage shoving the morals down my throat.
Yeah, there’s a lot of crazy there. But weren’t you’re the dude whose inability to hear things in context somehow led you to think it impossible that Salisbury — a world-class fool, regardless of the imagined political orientation of his bosses — would’ve said the word “Jew” right before “nickel-and-dimed” to describe someone eking out cheap yardage? I don’t think Salisbury’s an anti-semite, any more than I think some of my old co-workers were anti-semites for the same usage. Some types of ignorance, as Mel Brooks once said, rise below vulgarity. Ignorant is ignorant, and if Salisbury has a worldview, I think it’s better summarized by him taking a Nokia photo of his dong than it is in the comment that has raised so much furor.
David,
though I can’t get Steve Lyons on the phone this morning, i bet he agrees wholeheartedly.