ESPN Responds, but Its Leaders Hide By Richard Sandomir, N Y Times, October 6, 2003

October 6, 2003
SPORTS MEDIA AND BUSINESS
ESPN Responds, but Its Leaders Hide
By RICHARD SANDOMIR

[I] t was an extraordinary joint mea culpa, the four remaining panelists of ESPN's "Sunday N.F.L. Countdown" offering their regrets yesterday for failing to comment last Sunday on Rush Limbaugh's absurd contention that the news media wanted Donovan McNabb to succeed because he is black.

"I'm angry for the hurt it's caused African-Americans," the host Chris Berman said. "I'm angry for the hurt it's caused all people. I've never looked at Donovan McNabb as a black quarterback. Ever."

He added: "I missed it. I shouldn't have missed it. I've been kicking myself all week. In truth, we all missed it."

McNabb is the fifth-year quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Tom Jackson, who is the program's senior analyst and who is black, took the brunt of the criticism for not rebutting Limbaugh. Yesterday, he looked the most aggrieved. "I've seen replay after replay of Limbaugh's comments, with my face attached, as well as that of my colleagues," he said. "Comments that made us very uncomfortable at the time, although the depth and the insensitive nature of which were not fully felt until it seemed too late to reply."

Jackson said that "it was not our decision to have Rush Limbaugh on this show" and that he "broke the trust" he had with the show by veering into the type of social commentary he had said would not intrude into the program.

Limbaugh resigned Wednesday, maintaining he was right all along.

Steve Young and Michael Irvin, the show's two other regular panelists, added their thoughts, but one crucial element was missing: an ESPN executive.

Yes, not replying promptly last Sunday demonstrated a breakdown in the way the program should work. If Berman, Jackson, Irvin and Young missed the race-related nature of Limbaugh's remarks, the producer and director should have quickly pushed them to reply.

But more important, where was George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN, or Mark Shapiro, the executive vice president, who has led the company's headlong leap into entertainment? Undoubtedly, Limbaugh's hiring was done for entertainment's sake, to get more writers to take notice of the program outside the sports realm. It is reasonable to assume that ESPN believed people would tune in to find out what wacky thing Limbaugh would say next.

It was decent and correct for the stars of "Countdown" to take the blame for their failure to address what Limbaugh had said. But it was unfair for them to sit alone, without Bodenheimer or Shapiro to discuss why they hired Limbaugh and why they did not know, or ignored, his history of racial statements. Bodenheimer's and Shapiro's presence on that set would have given viewers a chance to see who orchestrated Limbaugh's hiring.