How you livin', readers? Are you fine? Or are you just okay? More importantly, has your ire gone away?
Well get ready, I'm about to stir it up again. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
WUSL-FM (Power 99) conceded yesterday that an on-air routine by morning shock jocks Star and Buc Wild was "racially inflammatory" and pulled an audio clip of it off the station Web site.
Community-affairs director Loraine Ballard Morrill, who has fielded more than 130 angry e-mails and phone calls, said the station reprimanded the employee who posted the clip on the Web...
Please understand-- I'm THRILLED that mainstream media is picking up on this very important story. I'm also heartened by the fact that Power99 is...um...starting to pay attention.
They are partially correct; the employee who chose to post that clip on the Power99 site wasn't wise to do so, and it is nice to see the station doing...something.
But something is not enough.
Power99 "conceded"? I don't need concessions, I need responsibility. Honour. Integrity. If Loraine Ballard Morrill was the ideal Community Affairs Director, she'd sincerely own the station's gaffe, she'd get it, she'd make amends. But nothing regarding this incident is ideal...
Morrill said station managers have had "extensive discussions" since learning about the clip Thursday with Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, and Buc Wild, his half-brother, Timothy Joseph.
Oh! So they actually took it up with Star? That's good to hear...
"It was made clear this is not acceptable, and it won't happen again," Morrill said.
Excellent. I'm sure the entire civilized world appreciates that.
...The employee who posted the clip on the Internet will undergo sensitivity training, she said. The station also planned to post an apology.
What the--?? The employee who posted the clip gets training? Of course he erred in judgment, but what about the misanthrope who created the content? Why isn't STAR getting training?
I'm not worried about some middling employee, I'm worried about the a$$hole who influences thousands of listeners in several cities.
She said the more serious matter was posting the clip on the Web site. "That probably made it a much more - just a worse situation. Then people could click on it and hear it. That was not cool... . He made a big ol' mistake in judgment."
..."Essentially [we're] apologizing for things on our Web site that were racially inflammatory and insensitive, saying, 'We took it off our Web site and it won't happen again.' "
This is a joke, right? She's not serious, is she?
Morrill is "essentially" saying that the problem was the clip's availability. So if a racist abuses someone in the forest, and no one is there to hear it...it doesn't exist? It's only wrong because they got CAUGHT?
Well then, I'm so grateful for a Power99 employee's stupidity-- were it not for that "mistake", this unconscionable prank would have gone unavenged. They are sorry for their website? Where is their "sorry" and consummate disavowal of Star's hatred, misogyny and racism?
I think Morrill and many of the good staffers at Power99 have their heads up their sphincters. They just don't get it.
Remember "it's the economy, stupid"? Well, it's the HATRED, stupid.
Unbelievable.
This isn't over...not even close.