FanHouse JemeleHill

Jemele Hill was suspended by ESPN when she remarked in a column that rooting for the Boston Celtics was like cheering for Hitler (or some inappropriate Nazi reference of the sort). So, it followed that when Lou Holtz referred to Hitler and how his leadership skillz relate to Rich Rodriguez, he would be equally punished.

Turns out, um, not so much. You would think that Hill would be pretty upset at the obvious (right?) double standard that took place at the WWL over the past few months, but according to her all-flash blog, well, she's "okay" with it.

My initial answer is a story, or rather, a moment. A couple years ago, I was visiting the Poynter Institute (one of the foremost journalism think tanks in the country) and I sat in on a session taught by one of my favorite columnists and people, the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins.

A student asked her if she ever got upset when other writers were rewarded -- particuarly those writers who weren't as good. And Sally said -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- that she always prided herself on keeping her eyes on her own career. I never forgot that.

That's my answer. That's how I feel.

Okay, so I wouldn't say she's "happy" about the whole business, but she's at least willing to keep her mouth shut and move on.

Of course, that kind of maybe probably has to do with the fact that making a stink out of this whole business won't do wonders for her employment status at this point, and moving on makes the most sense. On the other hand, both of them referenced Hitler. Both of them made the a stupid public mistake; only the medium is different. So, personally, I fail to see why Lou is going to be on the moving picture screen again this Saturday.

Via AA

Jemele Hill was suspended by ESPN when she remarked in a column that rooting for the Boston Celtics was like cheering for Hitler (or some inappropriate Nazi reference of the sort). So, it followed that when Lou Holtz referred to Hitler and how his leadership skillz relate to Rich Rodriguez, he would be equally punished.

Turns out, um, not so much. You would think that Hill would be pretty upset at the obvious (right?) double standard that took place at the WWL over the past few months, but according to her all-flash blog, well, she's "okay" with it.

My initial answer is a story, or rather, a moment. A couple years ago, I was visiting the Poynter Institute (one of the foremost journalism think tanks in the country) and I sat in on a session taught by one of my favorite columnists and people, the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins.

A student asked her if she ever got upset when other writers were rewarded -- particuarly those writers who weren't as good. And Sally said -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- that she always prided herself on keeping her eyes on her own career. I never forgot that.

That's my answer. That's how I feel.

Okay, so I wouldn't say she's "happy" about the whole business, but she's at least willing to keep her mouth shut and move on.

Of course, that kind of maybe probably has to do with the fact that making a stink out of this whole business won't do wonders for her employment status at this point, and moving on makes the most sense. On the other hand, both of them referenced Hitler. Both of them made the a stupid public mistake; only the medium is different. So, personally, I fail to see why Lou is going to be on the moving picture screen again this Saturday.

Via AA

ESPN has set a precedent for suspending its writers, commentators and personalities when they make stupid references to Adolf Hitler on air or in print. So, one would expect them to at the very least suspend Lou Holtz for a week or two of college football coverage following his Hitler - Rich Rodriguez analogy.

But, per MDS at College Football Talk, ESPN sources are saying no suspension is forthcoming.

A source at ESPN tells me that the Worldwide Leader does not plan to discipline college football analyst Lou Holtz for saying, "Hitler was a great leader, too."

Per the source, ESPN considers Holtz's on-air apology to be sufficient.

I'm not so offended by Holtz' statements that I want him to get booted from the WWL for a week or two, but I wouldn't mind seeing it just so, again, people will stop doing this. (Yes, "this" means "referencing Hitler".)

Also, I'm one of those people who are really annoyed by the whole Dr. Holtz skits, so I wouldn't mind catching a break for a week or two on that as well. Oh yeah, and if I was Jemele Hill, I'd be freaking teed off that Holtz wasn't getting suspended.

In a column that was intended to explain why a Detroit Pistons fan couldn't root for the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, ESPN's Jemele Hill wrote that cheering "for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim."

Those words were quickly removed from her ESPN.com column, but the damage had been done: Hill was harshly criticized in the blogosphere and on Boston sports radio, and ESPN suspended her.

Now off suspension, Hill spoke to me by phone today. The interview is below.

Johnny Miller is sorry. He's sorry he described U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate as looking like "the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool," he's sorry for later commenting that "guys with the name of Rocco don't get the trophy, do they?", and he's particularly sorry now that he's being called on it.

"I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful," Miller said in a statement. He added that his intention was to "convey my affection and admiration for Rocco's everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage."

Meanwhile, Jemele Hill's people are feverishly mounting a "Johnny Miller defense" for her Boston/Hitler comments. You see, Jemele was just trying to convey her affection and admiration for The Hub and it's everyman qualities and it had absolutely nothing to do with an insane murderous tyrant.

According to the New York Times, earlier this week, A. Kenneth Ciongoli, the chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, sent a very well-reasoned letter to Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports:

ESPN announced today that Jemele Hill would be "relieved of her duties" (read: suspension) which, I suppose, means we are all supposed to forget what happened, move on with our lives and wait until she fires out her next column, which is almost guaranteed to be something other than edgy.

But it should at least be pointed out that while she serves her suspension, Hill herself found a similar punishment to Don Imus unacceptable enough to fill up a full column on Page Two (emphasis mine).

If it were up to me, security would have escorted the longtime radio jock out of his CBS Radio cocoon with belongings in tow days ago. But for now, I'll have to settle for a two-week suspension that doesn't begin until next week. That'll show him.

Days have passed since Imus, executive producer Bernard McGuirk and sports announcer Sid Rosenberg took turns taking cheap shots at the Rutgers women's basketball team, but I'm still boiling because too many people continue to defend Imus behind lame free-speech arguments -- remember, speech is free, but consequences are not -- and the idea that black women just don't know a good joke when they hear one.

There was nothing funny about Imus' statement. And Hill's comparison of pulling for the Celtics to painting Adolf Hitler as a victim (not to mention her pulling for the Celtics: rooting for a pedophile to escape To Catch a Predator analogy on her personal blog) is just as humorless.

We all make mistakes. But any attempt by Hill to chalk up her Hitler comments to humor, free speech or ignorance flew out the window the second she wrote this article on Imus.

FanHouse's Will Brinson noted today that ESPN's Jemele Hill wrote a column Saturday that said rooting "for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It's like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan."

That choice of words has now led to Hill being placed on leave, The Big Lead reports that ESPN issued this statement:

"Both Jemele and ESPN.com apologize. The column, as originally posted, made some absolutely unacceptable comparisons. We've spoken with Jemele, and she understands that she exercised poor judgment. She's been relieved of her responsibilities for a period of time to reflect on the impact of her words. Within hours of its posting on Saturday evening, the inappropriate references were removed from the site, but our system of checks and balances failed Jemele and our readers and we are addressing that as well."

Stating she was "relieved of her duties for a period of time" is a strange way of saying she was "suspended," but that's what this is. ESPN's most recent high-profile suspension was the one given to Dana Jacobson for her comments at the Mike and Mike roast. Jacobson got a week; no word on whether the ESPN brass considers Hill's offense to be better, worse or the same.

UPDATE: An ESPN spokesman has e-mailed me Hill's personal apology, after the jump.

If blogs did not exist, I guarantee you 99% fewer folks would have read Jemele Hill's Saturday ESPN column, which argued that cheering "for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It's like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan."

Hill's statement -- which ESPN quickly edited out of the article -- can best be classified as incoherent and stupid. Incoherent, because both analogies display a poor understanding of history (anyone who cares know that it doesn't matter who pushes the nuclear button first). Stupid, because jokes about Nazis or nuclear holocausts are usually ill-advised. If you're going to attempt either, it's best to bring your A-game. If you don't have an A-game, just keep your mouth shut.

(B-game writers like Hill can console themselves with the knowledge that society is much more tolerant of folks who make bad jokes about their own heritage. The 'Hitler Rug' above comes from a Jewish Museum. I don't slap my knees when I see it, but I would imagine that members of the Jewish faith have a different take on it than I do.)

ESPN and Hill apologized for the mistake today. That's nice, but I think the time has come to move Hill out of the "thoughtful" category reserved for capable columnists and slot her in the "desperate" category reserved for writers trying to shock people into noticing them.

I say this because Hill seems to enjoy the attention that follows making outrageous statements. That's the only way conceivable that she could have argued that Pistons-Spurs would be a better matchup for the NBA.

Bad columnists fall prey to homerism all the time, and Hill is no exception. But it doesn't take a history degree to figure out that sloppy writing and sensitive issues are a horrible combination. If a columnist can't see that, they're probably not worth your time.

UPDATE: Hill has been suspended.