BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, October 03, 2003
John Dennis's simian
stupidity. Yesterday I described John Dennis as the
luckiest
man in the media (second
item): he made a grotesquely racist remark comparing gorillas to
black school kids, and he got away with having to issue nothing more
than an apology.
Today, he's a little less lucky.
The management of WEEI Radio (AM 850), under pressure from the city
council and the community, suspended
Dennis for two days. Will
that be enough? Stay tuned.
This is really a mind-blowing media
scandal. It's hard to imagine what the thought process was that led
Dennis to blurt out that Little Joe, the gorilla who briefly escaped
from the Franklin Park Zoo, was "probably a Metco gorilla waiting for
a bus to take him to Lexington." Yes, Dennis has apologized, but why
did it even enter his head in the first place?
Dennis -- a former sports anchor on
Channel 7 -- is one-half of the Dennis & Callahan morning
team, which specializes in lowbrow and offensive humor. I'm not a
frequent listener, but I'm familiar enough with it. Their speciality
is crude jokes about gays and lesbians. Until now, I wasn't aware of
their having indulged in racism, but maybe I just haven't been
listening at the right time.
Callahan, a columnist for the
Boston Herald, comes across like a guy totally within his
element -- that element being cruel locker-room humor for dumbass
white boys. Dennis is more like the nerdy kid who can't believe he's
being allowed to hang out with the jocks.
Loathsome as Callahan's act can be,
I suspect his instincts are such that he would never make this kind
of mistake. Dennis, by contrast, comes across as way, way too eager
to ingratiate himself with his new buddies.
What should happen next? I don't
know. More than anything, WEEI management should stop acting like it
wants to get away with as little as possible -- an apology here, a
two-day suspension there, some public-service announcements for Metco
-- and deal with this in a serious and public way.
A Boston Globe
editorial
today argues that Dennis got off "far too lightly." I can't disagree
with that.
Meanwhile, over at the
Herald, it looks like it's going to be columnists Howard Manly
and Callahan, in the parking lot, right after work: Manly
today (sub. req.) refers to
Callahan as Dennis's "reactionary sidekick."
This isn't over. Nor should it
be.
posted at 11:06 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
