PressEthic

Steve Lyons, baseball analyst for Fox Sports, was fired after making allegedly racially-charged comments Friday during game 3 of the ALCS. Evidently these remarks weren't the first offensive comments he has made on the air, though they would be the last. An article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times describes the incident:

In the second inning, broadcast partner Lou Piniella was talking about Oakland's Marco Scutaro and the success the usually light-hitting shortstop had at the plate during the previous series against Minnesota.

Piniella compared it to finding a "wallet on Friday" and hoping it happened next week.

Piniella also said the A's needed Frank Thomas to get "en fuego" — Spanish for on fire — and that he was currently "frio" — cold.

Play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman said, "The bilingual Lou Piniella."

Lyons then said, "Lou is habla- ing some Español there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now."

The three announcers laughed.

After what seemed to me to be light-hearted joking among announcers, based on the LA Times' interpretation of events, Lyons was fired. Somebody must have been offended enough to warrant his termination, but who? Were there complaints? Did Piniella express discontent? The LA Times article shows clear favor for Lyons, and does not pinpoint a specific reason for the action taken against him, save to say that the comments he made were inappropriate. The article included a quote from a surprised Lyons:

"I was shocked when I was told this was an issue," Lyons said Saturday night from his home in Hermosa Beach. "I don't know how what I said could be taken as a racial statement. My aim is to make Lou feel comfortable, and this was just another way of doing it. We were all laughing about it.

"They're trying to make it like I was saying Spanish people steal wallets. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think it reads worse than the way I said it. It was a joke."

What really happened here? While it may be difficult to determine whether or not Lyons actually meant anything by his so-called ethnic slurs, it is even tougher to understand the story with the biased coverage as told by the LA Times. Unfortunately, The New York Times' version of the story was very similar:

The incident Friday afternoon began when Lou Piniella, a guest analyst working with Lyons and Thom Brennaman, noted that the Oakland Athletics could not expect shortstop Marco Scutaro to continue to produce runs as he did when he drove in six during the division series against Minnesota.

Piniella said that expecting similar production would be "like finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too."

Four minutes later, they had moved to different subjects and Piniella said something in Spanish. "The bilingual Lou Piniella," Brennaman said.

Lyons said: "Lou's habla'ing some Español there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him and I don't want to sit close to him now." The three laughed and continued calling the game.

D'Ermilio declined to elaborate on the apparent insensitivity of Lyons's words. He said that Fox executives were unavailable for comment.

Lyons was fired after the game.

What's the missing piece? Both articles did go on to say that Lyons had said some controversial things on-air prior to this most recent incident that resulted in his termination. Apparently he was reprimanded once for making a joke about Dodger's player Shawn Green who missed a game in observance of Yom Kippur, though the Dodgers made a statement saying that Green was not offended by the comments. On another occasion, Lyons poked fun at a partially blind fan in the stands who was wearing a magnifying device, but both Lyons and his partner, Thom Brennaman, apologized on-air and neither were punished.

Both of these instances, though perhaps meant in jest, seem more offensive than Lyons' comments on Friday. Perhaps this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Fox felt that after a series of infractions he had to be fired. But why do both articles covering this story lean heavily in Lyons' favor? Where are the voices of the offended? Do they even exist?

Political correctness is the necessary language of today's media, but where is the line? When does a joke become grounds upon which to fire someone? Perhaps I am insensitive in this particular case, but I am inclined to believe that Lyons meant no harm.