WAY OF BASE
Network’s over-the-top attempt at being PC offends almost everyone
IT’S the biggest unforced error of the week — and in this political climate, that’s saying a lot.
ESPN became a laughingstock Wednesday for pulling veteran announcer Robert Lee off Virginia’s football season-opener because his name is too close to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general dead for nearly 150 years.
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding,” an ESPN spokesman said, “simply because of the coincidence of his name.”
Simply because of the coincidence of his name. This is the height of C-suite media condescension, though it’s unclear who’s being condescended to: Is it red-state Trump voters? Does the network regard them as lumpen, half-wit knuckle-draggers who might take Lee’s presence as a tacit endorsement of white supremacy? Or is it the coastal, liberal elite that the network regards as babyish, too hyperattuned to triggers and identity politics, ready to take offense at the inoffensive?
What if Robert went by Bob?
Within hours of ESPN’s announcement, their Robert Lee was trending on Twitter. Democratic Congressman Rick Larsen weighed in. “If this isn’t the same Lee that led the Confederate Army,” he tweeted, “ESPN needs to reverse this idiocy.”
Lee is Asian-American. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has extensive ex- perience in both business and broadcasting. He graduated Syracuse in 1999 with a B.S. in broadcast journalism. His most recent location is Albany. He speaks Mandarin. He describes himself as a “team player … who meshes well with cowork- ers, customers and clients.”
This is hardly the stuff of controversy. The network’s overreaction only reminds us of its sad downward spiral: The bloodbath of more than 100 employees fired in April; the flight of 10 million subscribers since 2011; the belief among liberal viewers that ESPN panders to conservatives and the belief among conservatives that ESPN is too liberal.
In trying to offend no one, ESPN has offended just about everyone. The network’s tone-deafness ex- tends to its statement: “It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue.”
Indeed. If only they knew who to blame. maureen.callahan@nypost.com