The coverage yesterday of Duane Chapman, star of TV's
Dog the Bounty Hunter and the 'N-word'-spiked tape from his cellphone conversations about his son's black girlfriend seemed familiar. Dog wasn't the first to put his foot into his mouth. Here's a quick look at media celebrities who did it before Dog.
Arts and Entertainment Network immediately announced that production of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" had been suspended. Later news clarified that the show hadn't been canceled, only pulled off the air. Chapman said that he was "sorry" and wanted to meet with black leaders to "make things right". The rehabilitation began for Dog.
There is a template for this type of incident:
1-commit a faux pas;
2-discovery of said remark;
3-media amplification;
4-public remorse by the personality;
5-meetings with "leaders" in the offended community
6-drop out of sight for awhile; sometimes enrolling in some sort of counseling.
7-and finally, rehabilitation.
Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Dog was only the latest media personality to fall victim to political correctness. Some of the incidents listed below are people saying in public what is said more privately. Some are reprehensible. All are revealing looks at what the personality says when the microphones are switched off.
The physically-difficult act of inserting the foot in the mouth is much more easily done in the media spotlight.
1-
Don ImusShock jock Imus had his 'Imus in the Morning' show canceled by CBS for his "nappy-headed hos" remark. Imus followed the template will soon be back on the air.
2-Kramer (Michael Richards)Richards' use of the 'N-word' at a comedy club in an on-stage tirade wasn't so funny. The former "Seinfeld" star is staying out of sight and hoping the public forgets the image he presented that night.
3-Jimmy "The Greek" SnyderFormer bookie and NFL analyst Snyder said in 1988 the black athlete is "bred to be the better athlete because, this goes all the way to the Civil War when ... the
slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big black kid." Snyder later apologizes for the comments but his career as a broadcaster was over.
4-Howard Cosell"Look at that little monkey go!"
In September 1983, referring to wide receiver Alvin Garrett of the
Washington Redskins; the statement was denounced as racist, but it was
pointed out that Cosell had regularly used the same term to describe
small players of all races, as well as his grandchildren.
5-Ken HatfieldAny major college football coach could be fairly lumped into the 'media personality' category. Rice University football coach Ken Hatfield has found himself in a
swirl of controversy for recent comments attributed to him about
homosexuals in The Chronicle for Higher Education, a weekly newspaper
for college administrators and faculty members.
In a story about gay athletes in the Nov. 1 issue titled "The
Loneliest Athlete," Hatfield is quoted as asserting homosexuality
clearly conflicts with his religious beliefs and that he would
consider removing a player from the team if that player said he was
gay.
The article's author, Jennifer Jacobson, writes: "(Hatfield) says that
while he would not necessarily kick a player off the team for being
gay, he probably would think hard about it."
6-Mel GibsonGibson, arrested for speeding last year and obviously intoxicated, berated the arresting officer with anti-Semitic slurs. It was an odd look at history, but Gibson put his worldview on display. Gibson received universal condemnation after apologizing and entering rehab.
7-Halle BerryHalle Berry has apologized after allegedly making a Jewish joke –
which was then edited out for broadcast – at a taping of The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno last Friday.
Berry was involved in a segment with Leno in which she showed
computer-distorted photos of herself. According to the New York Post's
Page Six, Berry showed one image in which she had a large, distorted
nose and said, "Here's where I look like my Jewish cousin!"
When the program aired later that night, the word "Jewish" was cut,
and a laugh track was inserted in its place.
After she made the remark, Leno said, "I'm glad you said it." Berry,
41, then said, "Oh my God, have I just like ruined my career.."
David Brooks, writing in the New York Times last year in "The Death of Multiculturalism", detailed the apparent passing-away of Political Correctness. In it, he lists some of the reasons for its demise. He remarks about the Democrat Party's move away from a champion of PC.
In 1994 multiculturalism was at its high-water mark, and Richard Bernstein wrote ''Dictatorship of Virtue,'' describing its excesses: the campus speech codes, the forced sensitivity training, the purging of dead white males from curriculums, the people who had their careers ruined by dubious charges of racism, sexism and ethnocentrism.
Then two years later, the liberal writer Michael Tomasky published ''Left for Dead,'' which argued that the progressive movement was being ruined by multicultural identity politics. Democrats have lost the ability to talk to Americans collectively, Tomasky wrote, and seem to be a collection of aggrieved out-groups: feminists, blacks, gays and so on.
Brooks' noting of the shifting of emphasis among Democrats is worth noting.
Goodbye, Jesse Jackson. Goodbye, Gloria Steinem. Hello, Harry Truman.
There are other media personalities that have revealed more of themselves to the public than they would have wished. We couldn't list them all. The ones we listed were the ones that occurred to us.
They won't be the last.
by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn[photo:rockin'rob]
Sources:Dog the Bounty HunterWikipedia on Don ImusKramer on TapeCBS NewsSports IllustratedWikiquoteUHWikipedia on Mel Gibson
PeopleNew York Times
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