Wouldn't be a bad open

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“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

Promote em all I say.

I bet I've been called a bitch by at least 34,000 people and I could not care less. Some view Mac as an egotistical, hot tempered ass and some lick his ass. People will take his statements for what they are worth.

I don't agree with him saying it on air. It was wrong. I agree with those who say he can give his opinion of anybody. She's not and ESPN employee. I don't think it's much different than when they say things about past program managers.

I guess no one got this.

I don't get this whole thing. Teddy G. states that the Mickey Mouse stations have different standards than CBS radio, et. al. What applies to North or B&B is different? So he called someone a bitch, BFD.

PC, Conservatives, Family Values mopes....c'mon what is this 1957???

Here's the thing: If you find his work offensive, turn the dial to 820!

Maybe we need to come up with a substitute for Mac- as in burrito for g.a.y.
Bitch could be????

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

Taco?

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My Maserati does 186.

Make it fish taco.

Just by itself -- without the past suspensions -- Mac might have deserved just a fine (serving as a warning).
But that's not the case. Like it or not, this comment was going to be lumped in with everything else that has happened during Mac's time on the station.
Multiple-time offenders are going to be treated differently than first-timers for their actions.

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club

Substitute black, Jew or any other minorioty of your choosing. Would you still say this?

I interpret your point to be that everybody ought to be able to take shots. You believe that taking shots is part of the deal for white guys and thus it ought to be part of the deal for anybody? Because some white guys don't complain, then it's fair to make personal attacks on anybody else? You really think that anybody ought to be able to say whatever they want to whomever they want and people just have to take it? And that there should not be any recourse to those making offensive statements?

Do you really believe this...or did your fingers and emotions get ahead of your brain?

Say anything about anybody? No. You shouldn't be able to make up things or use racially inflamatory words. Bitch doesn't qualify in my mind. I was just using this specific example.

This is sounds stupid, but maybe Mac who was going to be off for two weeks, maybe he just wanted to leave earlier, that said this thing sounds stupid. If people wanted to voice their displeasure, during their event just have people chant during the show WE WANT MAC, WE WANT MAC!! Just keep chanting when there talking and take breaks during their breaks, that could do something, or if you want to ask Harry or Jurko, just call the show and say you want to talk about the Cubs streak or game and just ask about it, you keep getting calls about it they will have to say something, I mean I don't think this will happen but if the Brewer sweep, any talk starts Tuesday. White Sox fans, won't get much talk about them and it will be all Cubs.

After this suspension of Mac for calling a women a name, I just read on USAToday.com that a women is claiming that Woody Paige and Jay Crawford from Cold Pizza make sexual comments and they probably will be on t.v. tommorow and this probably happened.

I have to say this Justin Craig just sounds like a big dick, kill everybody's fun. First he gets rid of the dead pool, and bascially you say something bad about ESPN and you get in trouble, and now won't stand up for it;s radio hosts.

Wondering if the husband of this women will confront Mac when he has a chance. I don't think any guy here would allow someone to call their wife a "Bitch" in public and let it pass.

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"lET ME , Worry about Luca Brasi"

Maybe Doug...

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Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Reents, the situation with Paige and Crawford is "alleged". If they did these things, they should be suspended.
We all know what Mac "said" because we heard it.

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President of Blake Shetlon fan club

Well stated.

Thank Bigguscatus on the allegations, I can't see Crawford, I kinda of hope it's true about Paige, that guy is a clown. To Espn Radio

FREE MAC!!!!!!

Ok, let me try and figure out what is and isn't acceptable.

There is nothing wrong with saying the word bitch on the radio in many situations. There is nothing wrong with calling a male a bitch or hinting at the fact that someone is gay, or is a fairy, or has no balls. You can talk about bitches in rap songs(even though it may be censored by some radio stations).

You can call someone out on the radio. You can say someone is a bad person. You can complain about people. You can call a man almost any name, unless it is burrito. You can call a woman a bad person. You can say thing like "the blank part of ______willow".

On the score, you can call someone a bitch or a whore(as Mike North may have said around 9 o'clock this morning in reference to Barry Bonds ex-wife but he may have not, that should legally protect me). You can say that all women golfers and WNBA players are lesbians(Here I am not talking about anyone in particular). You can attack the character of coaches and players. You can write in the media that an unnamed player in the yankee clubhouse is a homosexual. You can write that a different player in the yankee clubhouse enjoys transexual-like strippers.

You cannot say "nappy headed hos". You can't say the word bitch in reference to someone, but you can say "rhymes with witch". You can make jokes about women being fat or ugly, unless they are well connected to a Chicago sports organization.

If you are Sean Salisbury, you can get away with allegedly using a term with the word Jew in it, as long as you then deny it.

You however, cannot use certain combinations of words with certain people if they are well connected. What you actually say, which may have offended a small portion of your audience, is not important. What is important that some person was offended.

I honestly didn't think twice about any comments I heard. I'm not a chauvinist but I also understand that sports radio can sometimes approach the edges of poor taste. Someone is going to be offended by most things said on the radio. Since I broke my XM radio, I was stuck listening to over the air music. I switched to Q101 and someone called in and said that white people couldn't dance, then a guy who sounded black(who knows on the radio) and talked about how black people can't swim. I can guarantee that both of those comments offended someone(not me).

This rant has gotten long and had very little focus so I'll try and reign it in. If ESPN doesn't want people using the word bitch, then ban it from your airwaves. Bleep it when it comes on. Tell your hosts and producers to avoid it. If it is that big of a deal, then drop it. If he had called her a witch, or said she was a bad person, he wouldn't be dealing with this. If he had said that she bitches a lot, he wouldn't be dealing with this.

I'm not really posting this to suck up to or defend Mac. He's a big boy and this will blow over eventually. I'm just so sick and tired of all this crap that started the day that 2 square centimeters of my CBS station had a boob on it for 2 seconds and people used it as an excuse to make everything on tv and radio be put under a microscope.

If there is more to the story than what I have seen, then I'll take back any part of this post defending Mac, but either way my point still stands.

Sorry for the long and probably incoherent rant.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

No. I get your point. I think it also has to do with proximity. For example if Mac called some women celebrity a bitch he wouldn't have been suspended. Even if he called a PR women for say the Oakland A's a bitch he wouldn't have been suspended.

But the fact that he called a local TV producer a bitch made ESPN 1000 management mad. Maybe because they know her or maybe because she's in their business in the same market. It's weird but that's what it comes down to. It's just random.

I agree, and that does have a point. The problem I have is that this needs to be spelled out. Reinsdorf got real mad at Silvy and Carmen(I believe) and told them he'll never be coming on again. I would assume that Reinsdorf is more important than anyone involved in this. Supposedly Kenny Williams has refused to come onto the MJH show. They make fun of Ben Gordon for being a really boring interview. They attack people and make some people upset all the time. Sports talk radio is not meant to be all happy talk.

It sets a terrible precedent. Will they be able to call the draft pick of Noah idiotic? Will they be able to call Lance Briggs a "______willow"? I just find it funny that some person I've never heard of is grounds for a week long(or more) suspension.

This whole incident should have been handled with a private and public apology. If Mac refused to do that, then his suspension is deserved.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If they did those things, they should be fired-not suspended.

Rick, I don't think Mac was suspended solely because he used the B word. He was suspended because he leveled a personal attack at a non-public figure, which happened to include the B word. Even the most vulgar comedians of the world - who attack people as part of their comedy act -- restrict their attacks to public figures. Radio hosts are free to criticize athletes and have pretty wide latitude in their language because professional athletes are public figures. Criticizing an athlete or any other public figure -- and even calling them names -- is very different than an on-air personal attack of a private person. The fact that the woman being attacked in this case is a producer in no way makes her anything close to a public figure.

Radio hosts have had this spelled out for them in detail by their legal people. They know the guidelines, but some guys apparently like to push the boundaries. You can't possibly make a list spelling out every possible word or situation that would or would not result in discipline. Context is very important to any communication. For example, I don't think the B word has necessarily been banned from all use; it just can't be used with malice directed toward a private person.

I don't follow you. There is no defamation here. Defamation lawsuits are based on false claims presented as facts, not the use of an insulting term.

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Coast,
Where is that line drawn? I assume the president of Comcast is fair game. What about the board of directors? What about the director of programming? What about a producer of a radio show? I think that it is a lot more of a gray area than that. She is in the television industry. She produces television shows.

Like it or not, she is a member of the media. She may not be interviewing guests or asking questions but she is a public figure as much as Brian Bauer is. If he was calling out by name the girl who sold him his Starbucks I would agree. If this was a secretary or an auto mechanic, I would agree with you.

I guess I don't get how an athlete who chooses to go into sports is a public figure, but a person who chooses to work in the media is off limits. I don't think Bartman chose to be a public figure but he was attacked with words much worse than what Mac said. He made a stupid mistake that was blown way out of proportion. This comcast producer made a conscious decision to enter the media.

You don't get to decide if you are a public figure or not, but going to work for a television station puts yourself in a position where you may get called out. If you don't want to have your name in the media, then don't get a job in the media, even if it is behind the scenes.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Rick, if you need to understand where the lines are drawn on the definition of a public figure, then you should read the US Supreme Court cases of NYT vs. Sullivan and other media case law where the definition of public figure was established and then expanded and further defined. It isn't who someone works for, but what one does or the situations one is in that defines their public figure status. The people on air at Comcast may be public figures, but a behind-the-scenes producer likely is not.

However, I think you are still missing the point. To me, it's not the public/private figure issue that is the core thing here. The key point is that his employer found his speech objectionable (perhaps due in part to the fact that they viewed it as a personal attack on a private person). Media guys can criticize public or private figures all they like (with different rules applied to each), but they are always subject to control by their employer for it. And as I previously suggested, these guys know their own company's guidelines very well...even if you or I don't. As it is for all of us. I know what my company's rules are for my behavior and speech, but I have no idea what your company's rules are. I have seen other people do things in their jobs that I know would have gotten me fired. (Here is an example: I have heard radio hosts admit publicly that they drove a car intoxicated. If I ever drive intoxicated or admit it publicly that I did, I will be fired on the spot. That obviously is not a rule at WSCR.) Different companies have their own rules of behavior and speech. And I have no idea about the specific rules at the media companies, but I do have some sense that the rules for personal behavior and speech at the Trib are somewhat different than those of ESPN and those are different from WSCR, etc.

This is really stupid. Even a public figure has the right to complain to a station's management about crap coming out of the mouth of some dumbass radio personality, and in this case, Mac's big mouth.

I didn't hear what was said on-air, I have read various accounts here and elsewhere. If Mac repeatedly called this woman a bitch, he crossed the line. This isn't his first offense, which means that he is more likely to be scrutinized for his actions.

Hopefully, a formal apology will suffice for any hurt feelings, because the suspension by his employers opens him/them up to a lawsuit for slander.

[quote="No Clever Moniker"]I didn't hear what was said on-air, I have read various accounts here and elsewhere. If Mac repeatedly called this woman a bitch, he crossed the line. This isn't his first offense, which means that he is more likely to be scrutinized for his actions.

Hopefully, a formal apology will suffice for any hurt feelings, because the suspension by his employers opens him/them up to a lawsuit for slander.[/quote]

No, it doesn't.

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I don't see how a slander lawsuit is very possible here. As Midge noted, defamation (of which slander is one form) is, by definition, a false statement made under certain conditions. Statements of opinion that cannot be proven true or false don't qualify as slander. I'm not saying a sharp lawyer might not try to find another possible cause of action, but it won't be a slander suit. This case has nothing to do with slander or defamation (or the First Amendment, the FCC or any other media law). I think it is simply a case of an employer enforcing their corporate rules of behavior.

...my new favorite.

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