The skit prompted Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich to pull out of his weekly call-in session with the show.
Producer Fired Over Racist Allen Iverson Skit
Last Edited: Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 2:34 PM MDT
Created: Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 2:26 PM MD
SAN ANTONIO -- The producer of a sports radio talk show that aired a parody about Denver Nuggets guard Allen Iverson with references to drugs, seeking sex from Mexican women and the shooting of a homeless man has been fired.
KTKR-AM producer Eric Gray was dismissed, the San Antonio Express-News reported, citing internal e-mails.
Matt Martin, a Clear Channel Communications Inc. vice president and market manager for KTKR, wouldn't confirm the firing Tuesday. He issued a statement saying the April 25 parody "included content that could be viewed as insensitive. KTKR does not condone or approve of inappropriate content or language."
The skit, with an Iverson impersonator answering questions on air, had him seeking sex from "Mexican" women on the River Walk and the accidental shooting of a homeless man who was an "illegal alien."
"For them to put out something like that is awful," said Iverson, who is black.
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The Problem
I think a large part of the problem is when the terminated employee's former employers describe his or her actions as being "insensitive." Don Imus' and Bernard McGuirk's comments about the Rutgers basketball team were not insensitive. They were racist.
Nobody would or could have said a thing about Imus and McGuirk if they had given the team a bad time about its poor defensive rebounding and awful shooting in the game against Tennessee. The team, their coach and supporters might not have liked it but so what. It would have been insensitive but the team's performance was fair game.
Lenny Bruce who was screamingly funny at times was enormously insensitive on stage but he was never a racist and he did not pick on the powerless.