My hometown newspaper has come out swinging on the sports radio snafu of the week. Here’s an unsigned opinion piece worth reading:
“Bay Area sports radio host Damon Bruce should find another profession,” declared the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday. “His nearly nine-minute rant last week about how women are ruining sports was misogynistic and foolish in the extreme. It gained him national attention for all the wrong reasons.”
Bruce does football talk for Cumulus station KNBR AM in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Chron wants him fired. Here’s some of the Bruce statement in question.
“I enjoy many of the women’s contributions to sports – well that’s a lie (laughter). I can’t even pretend that’s true. There are very few – a small handful – of women who are any good at this at all. That’s the truth. The amount of women talking in sports to the amount of women who have something to say is one of the most disproportionate ratios I’ve ever seen in my frickin’ life. But here’s a message for all of them … All of this, all of this world of sports, especially the sport of football, has a setting. It’s set to men. … It’s a man’s world.”
Apparently this was all said in the context of Miami Dolphin’s lineman Jonathan Martin quitting the team after a collective assault that included death threats, racial slurs, and even worse indignities. Women (read: women commentators) should shut up about these matters, Bruce rather strongly implied in his rant.
“This is guy’s stuff,” the Chronicle quotes him as saying. “This is men’s stuff. And I don’t expect women to understand men’s stuff any more than they should expect me to be able to relate to labor pains.” To which the Chronicle responds:
“The National Football League now calculates that women account for 45 percent of its fan base, which is one of the reasons it has become America’s favorite game.
As for Bruce’s claim that women have nothing worthwhile to say about this ‘man stuff,’ we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his cave doesn’t have newspaper delivery, cable TV or an Internet connection.
A broadcaster might be forgiven for an unfortunate slip of the tongue. This was a premeditated ode to ignorance that insulted half of the station’s potential audience. If this isn’t a firing offense, then KNBR has just lowered the standard for on-air discourse in the Bay Area.”
News reports say Bruce was briefly suspended and now is back.
“It’s a privilege to return to the airwaves today,” he tweeted about 21 hours ago. “Thanks to for the support. Many, many lessons have been learned. Please accept my apology.”
Somebody quickly tweeted this response: “America is about second chances. Good luck with yours.”
