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The Boston Globe Gives Us a WEEI-FM John Dennis Reminder

T

Tilden

Guest
In a continuation of The Boston Globe Spotlight on " Boston. Racism. Sports " The Globe gives a timeline:
" The Making of a racist image in sports - efforts to change from 1959 to 2017.

The Boston Globe Spotlight highlight the year 2000:

" John Dennis of radio station WEEI is suspended for racially insensitive comments involving a minority busing program. "

Of course, The Boston Globe Spotlight team was referring to John Dennis' " METRO GORILLA" racist comment.

Interesting that WEEI-FM has brought back John Dennis as a guest host this month.

Wonder if Dennis blamed his racist screed on his excessive consumption of alcohol which eventually sent him into rehab or did he learn this prejudice at his parents knee ?

Whatever, we should never forget how sports talk - especially WEEI-FM - has over a number of years done whatever they could to marginalize minorities.

Racial marginalization is not limited to WEEI-FM alone. WRKO has contributed too much in this area and not limited to any one 'talker' on that station. The old WTKK disgraced itself with the likes of Jay Severin ( who was finally fired) and Michael Graham ( as in crackers) who often came up to the line of racist remarks. Even David Brudnoy passed the line many times in his last few years which many chalked up to the affects of AIDS or the medicine he was taking to combat that disease. That was an exception to his stellar career on Boston radio but nonetheless a fact that put a blemish on that record.

Boston Radio: The Home of the Bean and the Cod...and Racial Stereotypes/
 
Tilden said:
" John Dennis of radio station WEEI is suspended for racially insensitive comments involving a minority busing program. "

Of course, The Boston Globe Spotlight team was referring to John Dennis' " METRO GORILLA" racist comment.
Click to expand...

METCO, not METRO.
 
Tilden said:
Interesting that WEEI-FM has brought back John Dennis as a guest host this month.

Wonder if Dennis blamed his racist screed on his excessive consumption of alcohol which eventually sent him into rehab or did he learn this prejudice at his parents knee ?
Click to expand...
Seems that John Dennis has a handy built-in excuse.

In my view....Minihane and Callahan have NO excuses!
 
passed the line many times

Anybody who does in the area of 20 hours a week will be accused of something along those lines. It's a part of the biz.
I don't mean name calling. I'm talking about rational discussion --such as the mentioned Brudnoy-- which thinks that lots stuff going on in media and in society with regard to race, was for the birds!

As for EEI in the AM it's not for me. I don't find anything terrible it's just not what I want to hear. Yell at someone else.
 
.......Of course, The Boston Globe Spotlight team was referring to John Dennis' " METRO GORILLA" racist comment........

Just wondering, but why would you, or anyone, think that was necessarily a racial slur? With the exception of some Olympic wrestlers and weightlifters from the Balkans and various carnival freaks, I've never seen a human being that I thought resembled a gorilla in the slightest.

Now, the animal under discussion was a gorilla, and in the moment he/she appeared to be waiting for a bus. The Metco program was all about people taking, and lining up to take, buses. If the animal in question was a stray Saint Bernard, would you have interpreted 'Metco Saint Bernard' as implying that black Metco students look like Alpine rescue K-9s? I'd guess not. So why would you immediately think Metco students look like gorillas? Unless, of course, you actually do think that....ummmm.

......Even David Brudnoy passed the line many times in his last few years which many chalked up to the affects of AIDS or the medicine he was taking to combat that disease. That was an exception to his stellar career on Boston radio but nonetheless a fact that put a blemish on that record......

BS. As someone who worked with Bruds and considered him a friend, I can assure you that nobody thought that, except perhaps you.

.......Boston Radio: The Home of the Bean and the Cod...and Racial Stereotypes/.........

You think that Metco students resemble gorillas, and broadbrush Boston radio as racist. There is a Jewish term for that kind of thinking, which I'm sure you'll also find racist.
 
You think that Metco students resemble

That would be regarded as a simian reference and totally out of bounds at a decent station. At a lousy place, IDK?
 
I worked with Bruds too but I did hear him apologize on-air for his behavior once he came to terms with his disease. I do not intend to disparage his accomplishments but I am only being honest. That was not the David Brudnoy many of us knew off the air. He was a loyal friend to all who worked with or for him.

As to Metco Gorilla and John Dennis I am afraid it was a case of " In Vino Vertas".
 
I assume this means I'm not going to find out why, for some folks, gorilla is the default metaphor for 'black children.' You can now return to your world of Italian gangsters and Irish drunks.
 
Italian gangsters and Irish drunks? Huh. Maybe you need to ask John Dennis what possessed him to discuss gorillas and Metco Busing at the same time. Is John Dennis Irish and a drunk or Italian and a gangster.....? :)
 
Btw the name of the fired Globe employee (sex harrassment) has been published by EEI's Minihane and GBH's BostonPublicRadio show.The Globe has not.
 
Herald may have three potential suitors/ buyers.
Brian Dowling tweet:
BREAKING: Three suitors have contacted the Boston Herald with interest in company since company filed bankruptcy and $4.5 million sale agreement with GateHouse https://t.co/95JngAsMDU #mapoli
 
Tilden said:
Italian gangsters and Irish drunks? Huh. Maybe you need to ask John Dennis what possessed him to discuss gorillas and Metco Busing at the same time. Is John Dennis Irish and a drunk or Italian and a gangster.....? :)
Click to expand...

What he said was reprehensible. But he was also suspended and never did anything of the kind to warrant a suspension after that. Should one mistake define a person forever? I am not a fan of John Dennis' on-air persona, but that was many, many years ago. My guess is that you have something personal to hold against him, or just are stuck in the past.
 
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