Christian groups will gather Friday afternoon for a demonstration and prayer vigil outside the headquarters of ESPN over their disapproval with how the television network has responded to the anti-Jesus remarks made recently by one of their anchorwomen.
Though news anchor Dana Jacobson has been temporally suspended for one week for her Jan. 11 tirade – which reportedly included “F*** Jesus” – many Christian groups feel that ESPN has been slow and reluctant to claim responsibility.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue noted that when late sportscaster Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder made disparaging remarks about blacks during a 1988 interview, he was immediately fired by CBS.
"It is obvious, then, that neither Jacobson nor ESPN is dealing with this matter in a professional way," Donohue said in a released statement.
The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, which plans to lead Friday’s demonstration, also holds a similar view and believes that there is a double standard in the media towards Christians.
"Imagine the outrage if Ms. Jacobson said, 'F*** Mohammed,' 'F*** Jews,' or 'F*** African Americans,'” he said in a released statement. “We would simply ask that the parent company of ESPN, ABC, treat this incident the same way they did when Isaiah Washington publicly used the word 'fag' when referring to a cast member. A week suspension is simply not enough and sends a message that ESPN tolerates this kind of behavior and speech."
Jacobson made her anti-Jesus remarks during a Jan. 11 roast in Atlantic City.
She was reportedly intoxicated during the incident, talking vulgarly about Jesus and a colleague’s alma mater, Notre Dame.
The Press of Atlantic City described Jacobson during the incident as “… swilling vodka from a Belvedere bottle, mumbling along and cursing like a sailor.”
Both ESPN and Jacobson have apologized for the incident.
“Her actions and comments were inappropriate and we've dealt with it," ESPN spokesman Josh Drulewitz said.
Jacobson also released her own statement.
"My remarks about Notre Dame were foolish and insensitive. I respect all religions and did not mean anything derogatory by my poorly chosen words," she explained.
Despite the apologies, some Christians are not yet ready to put the incident behind them.
“Although the faith community can forgive and extend mercy to Ms. Jacobson, she still must assume full responsibility and accept the consequences for her hate-filled rhetoric," Mahoney stated.
Jacobson, a graduate of the University of Michigan and co-host of ESPN's “First Take,” joined ESPN as a regular news anchor in 2002. Per her suspension, she has not appeared on TV this week.
Friday’s demonstration outside the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., was scheduled to begin at noon.
Comments
Anyway, I am not going to re-post my refutations of ebc's points, I think the average person can do that without my help.
Well I do wish that they would have some system where you can report obsessive flaggers and get your comments unflagged. Besides that I didn't do anything and my responses were flagged for no reason! They ought to have a system that doesn't allow just anyone to flag, but where you request that a comment is flagged and then some administrator checks to see if it desrves the flag or not.
Quecat,
Yes I agree, censorship needs to stop. give someone the thumbs down thing if you don't agree with them or engage them in dialog to express you point. others here (seedplanter and chris333 have talked with me and I am fairly certain they haven't censored me as we have back and forth discussing our points.
I think BobCu's is responsbile for flagging NOTW posts, and I think both were flagging eachother and perhaps even chris333 as mine for the most part weren't touched till over the weekend. My discussion with star was entirely educationally based anyone can look.
Agent Orange - apparently you misunderstood my post. I haven't flagged anything other than BobCu's obnoxious behavior two days ago.
My point is that someone appears to be roaming the pages deleting my and NOTW's posts on every page that they occur, in retaliation.
I don't know for sure who is doing all the improper flagging, but they need to cut it out. It's very chilidsh and irritating. And the problem seems to be spreading - I see a lot of posts that are flagged that I recall having previously read and I know that there was nothing in them that deserved being flagged. Evidently someone has taken to deleting posts that they don't agree with.
Not that it impacts me greatly, because I keep copies of all posts that I make and can easily re-post them.
Quecat,
“The flagging is because there are a couple of users that are all torqued off about ME AND A COUPLE OTHER flagging their abusive language, name-calling and intentionally offensive language on another topic. “
What ‘abusive language, name-calling and intentionally offensive language’ ? Look at my recent posts last night (Monday) which I had to repost AGAIN b/c someone felt the need to censor all my work over and over from the previous nights on Sunday and Saturday. I reposted them to show THEY CONTAINNED NO SUCH HATE SPEECH and were wrongly censored to begin with.
www.christianpost.com/article/20080123/30947_Why_Darwinism_is_So_Dangerous.htm
“ good conversations are being destroyed because you can't see the question or response.”
Yes, they sure are. Look and how much time Star2 and I were in dialog and for someone to come along and to flag them all is gross misconduct and pathetic. Just b/c you don’t agree with someone comment doesn’t give you the right to censor them, if you disagree with them make your case why they are wrong.
”These two or three folks are posting on the "Why Darwinism is So Dangerous" article and continued posting the same long list of pro-evolution off-site URL's over and over again. Pretty annoying stuff for those of us who were actually trying to have a conversation.”
If one looks they won’t find my earlier human chromosome 2 and ERV messages till WAAAY further back and way before the most recent messages over Saturday and Sunday that were flagged. You know what’s annoying, engaging in dialog with Star2, over the weekend, providing evidences, examples for evolution (which she asked for mind you) and demonstrating and then to come back and see them ALL flagged for no reason. That is annoying.
RE: "all the flagging"
The flagging is because there are a couple of users that are all torqued off about me and couple other folks flagging their abusive language, name-calling and intentionally offensive language on another topic. Now he or they are running around all of the pages deleting our comments wherever they find them.
Unfortunately, I don't see any way of reporting abuse of the system by a particular user, so alot of really good conversations are being destroyed because you can't see the question or response.
These two or three folks are posting on the "Why Darwinism is So Dangerous" article and continued posting the same long list of pro-evolution off-site URL's over and over again. Pretty annoying stuff for those of us who were actually trying to have a conversation.
Again, no way to report abusive users. :(
why were ebcdics kept?
why were my comments flagged?
I think something is missing here.
Her intoxicated state was enough to influence the verbal tirade, but not enough to be a warning to keep her off the stage.
Responsibility folks. We have designated drivers, why not designated speakers?
I assumed you meant the ones used in Germany during WW2, in anycase my statement still applies in that it was not based upon Christian ethics.
There were pogroms long before Darwin was born.
Ebc, pogroms were not based on Christianity, they were based on Nieztschean and Darwinian philosophy (atheist), who cares about what Pat Condell says? The thing we find a problem with is public organizations like ESPN allowing derogratory remarks about Christianity, but then apologizing and kissing the ground whenever some anti-muslim comment slips out. Who cares about what an angry atheist says? But yeah, keep talking, maybe eventually, if you say enough, then you will say something that makes sense and actually applies to this situation, but I am not holding my breath.
I see AgentOrange is on the warpath and now flagging all my comments as inappropriate regardless of the content, in retaliation for my flagging his abusive language on another topic.
I will repeat: The difference between how Christians and Muslims respond to intentionally offensive comments, is that Muslims would have the offender killed for their offense. On the other hand Christians are merely pointing out the double-standard that exists in our society.
Being meek and forgiving does not mean being unnecessarily silent in the face of inequities.
"how many atheists have the guts to do it to Muslims"
Maybe Christians should chop off heads and burn down buildings when somebody says an unkind word about Jesus. That would teach the atheist some manners.
All religions are equally false. In the contest for most violent, the Christians had a good head start, but now that Christians are becoming more civilized (no more pogroms), the Muslims are catching up.
Pat Condell, an atheist whose hobby is making videos about the insanity of all religions, talks about Islam in this YouTube video:
More demands from Islam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHh0NdR5Jh0
By the way RBB, Ray Comfort does not have to worry about atheists demanding an apology. Atheists don't have demonstrations like Christians, or burn down buildings like Muslims. It's a free country, and everybody can say anything they want about anything. Religions are not off limits to criticism. Maybe people used to respect other people's strange beliefs, but because of the 9/11 attacks, and because of the Christian war against science, there is no longer any reason to respect any religious belief, including Mohammed and including Jesus.
I'd like you refer everyone here to this article. http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/2990/Ray_Comfort It's called "Atheists Evolved From Chickens". It's easy to bad mouth Christians, but how many atheists have the guts to do it to Muslims.