ABSTRACT
In contrast to gender differences, which may be effortlessly pinpointed within any sportscast because of the division of sports by gender, ethnic differences are multi-layered, complex issues in which sportscasters have lost jobs because they failed to appreciate the complexities and sensitivities of interpreting and analyzing them. For instance, CBS National Football League analyst Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder (who, in the 1980s claimed Black slave breeding was a reason for Black athletic successes) was fired from his job because his comments were regarded as racist. In 2003, Rush Limbaugh was hired as ESPN’s political commentator for their National Football League Studio Show, only to be fired several months later for claiming that the media embraced Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback, Donovan McNabb, because they were “very desirous to see a Black quarterback do well”. Interestingly, Olympic producers and sportscasters in this research had devoted the least analytic introspection to issues of ethnic identity. For example, Dick Ebersol admitted that he had never been asked questions about ethnicity issues in the Olympics and several sportscasters indicated that visual imagery was largely left to do the storytelling, thus reducing the intricate issues of ethnicity to the observation of skin pigment. Several sportscasters indicated that ethnicity should only enter the equation if a “valid first” was achieved for an athlete of a certain race. Tom Hammond’s comment in Chapter 3 that it is “all neutral” to him reflects a general trend of avoiding, rather than addressing, issues of ethnicity.
