Monday, February 2, 2009

Sports Off Center

As if it wasn't bad enough to rip your name from a better sports program on a better network (as opposed to Houston's 55), this crap show found it necessary to mock both the Hudson plane landing, 9/11, and Muslims. On their "Catch of the Day" segment, they showed a picture of geese in the water, then said something about finding more information about what caused the plane to go down last month. The geese were wearing simulated turbans. "Suspicious headgear!" commented that attractive guy above. Thanks. Thanks for calling a turban "suspicious headgear," reminding us all to fear Muslims and Arabs because they're probably all terrorists. Thanks for implying that a freak disaster involving a flock of geese and a crash-landing that mercifully killed no one is similar to several crashes brought on by religious extremist nutjobs that killed thousands. Thanks for feeling, as always, that what happened in 2001 is still prime material for your bad jokes and baseless racism. And thanks, really, to all the checks and balances this little "joke" had to make it past so that it could be broadcast into my home where I really didn't need to hear it. I would love to believe that I am not the only person who saw that segment that was offended by it. But mostly I feel like this post is the most attention the ill-conceived crack will get.

RATING: BLINDIGNORANCE%

12 comments:

Chris said...

What does the joke have to do with sports?

So much for my intelligence in sports comments in the Super Bowl post. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone.

LoCo said...

Yeah, it has nothing to do with sports. But it was written for its audience, presumably local sports fans. So really they should apologize to you too, Chris.

Viking Andrew said...

I don't know if it makes his comments better or worse, but he plagiarized a photoshopped image that has been making the internet rounds since, I believe, the day after the wreck:

http://forums.bowsite.com/TF/pics/00small72680837.JPG

For the record, I don't visit the forum 'bowsite' ever. I just Yahooed "geese with turbans," because I'd heard someone on NPR mention the whole thing.

Finally, Loco, I don't like your label "The Racist South." Have we already forgot about Drunken Negro Head cookies?

laurie said...

I feel it necessary to point out the glaring distinction that we saw Drunken Negro Heads on a New York local news expose called Shame Shame Shame and that Sports Off Center was (from what I can gather) a local news comedy/sports(?) segment. Take that Racist South!

laurie said...

And who the hell "Yahoos" things? Don't they have Google in Texas?

Anonymous said...

Chris, your problem with sports media is spot-on and widely shared.

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

glad you guyz handled this one didnt wanna touch this tia

LoCo said...

I feel like, every time I get to a place where I convince myself that the south isn't AS racist as I was lead to believe, I drive through Arkansas, or see geese wearing turbans. If someone had shown the photo on a segment of a NY show, the segment would be "Shame Shame Shame" or something similar, calling it out for being racist and retarded. Not on a segment offering it up as a funny joke. And had it been offered up as a funny joke on a NY or Massachusetts or hell, even NEW JERSEY station, there would have been severe backlash. I don't think old omelette-face in the photo there will be feeling any backlash. I don't think that everyone in the south is racist or anything, but I do think it's a huge problem that people, maybe as a point of pride, maybe as a point of embarrassment, try to play down.

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

hey glen check out the youtube video on this page:

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/forum-fridays/ff02-02-09.php

Viking Andrew said...

Loco,

I never meant to insinuate that the South isn’t racist or that New York is more racist than the South or even that the South isn’t as racist as believed. After reading my initial comment, though, I see that that’s exactly what I did. All apologies. What I mean to say (intentional fallacies aside) is that I worry over assigning something as complicated as racism / hate to a region because it can lead to rationalization or evasion.

The argument that Drunken Negro Head baker was called out for his actions and Sports-Guy will, in all likelihood, not be, is valid but an altogether different issue. Drunken Negro Head guy is a New Yorker; he’s no transplant from Alabama. I’m guessing Sports-Guy is a Houstonian. And the important and scary thing is that neither man will ever realize that what they have said/created IS hateful, and this is absolutely terrifying. Prejudices abound; all of us (except for an elite group of perfect humans known as liars) have to struggle with our own set of them, and the one thing Northerners and Southerners have in common is, of course, our understanding of Canadians as pure trash.

Yours,

Crabfood

LoCo said...

...Crabfood?

LipstickMom123 said...

Thank you for giving some support to local broadcasters loco! I dated a traffic reporter for our local Fox affiliate for a few months and he always had trouble working with a liberal biased atmosphere!