Tom Morris stood down over comments in group chat

[Pies4shaw]

^ A recording was available on Google when I first posted on this subject. I listened to it. I expect it is still floating about on the Web.

[#26]

^ Found the homophobic comment. I havent found the racist commrnt yet

But this comment made me laugh:.

"Tom probably regrets not verifying the identity of Buke Leveridge in the group chat"

[think positive]

[think positive]

[think positive]

aside from politaclly correct, etc, how $£$%^%%$ boring would conversations be if there was no gossip!

[stui magpie]

My 10 cents,

The comments about the colleague being attractive wouldn't have been that bad if he hadn't referred to her <snip - the discussion can be had without setting out the detail here. Thanks, Pies4shaw for BBMods>

My view is that it was the remark about not being black or Asian so don't treat me like shit is what got him sacked.

As TP said, objectifying a physically attractive person isn't exclusive to heterosexual males. Making comments about someone being attractive is not mutually exclusive with having professional respect for them.

[Bucks5]

Women also say things like "what a waste' when they find out an attractive man is gay. How is that different to saying she's a no-go for the same reason?

[Pies4shaw]

1. That isn't what he said. Either you haven't listened to the recording or you are deliberately misconstruing it.

2. Entertaining and all as counterfactuals are - and as useful a strategic purpose as they have always served for conservative views ("we can't do this, it's a slippery slope - the next thing will be ...."), we don't actually have a situation, in this case, where a female sports journalist has been recorded saying such things about a male colleague, so it doesn't really matter.

3. Even if there were such a recording of a female journalist saying such things about a male journalist, that isn't actually an answer to the question "what should be done about this male journalist who has said these things, on this occasion?" There are reasons to defend/ignore it (David has set out his position helpfully, above) but saying "other people do it" is a description, not an answer. If it were, there wouldn't, eg, be murderers or drug-traffickers in prison.

I would certainly prefer it if, as a society, we stopped allowing people to be, in essence, shunned for inappropriate expression by sacking them from their jobs (save, perhaps, in limited circumstances where the "transgressive" behaviour is inappropriate for the line of work). But, as I mentioned above, that sort of thing has always happened. That doesn't make it right, of course - but let's not pretend it's new or because of some "Woke" thing. I don't think any "Wokes" or "Progressives" were hanging about Salem in 1692, either.

[stui magpie]

[Pies4shaw]

I can't even begin to imagine why you would think reference to witchcraft trials was "snarky" in this context? What social function do you think is performed by sacking this journalist?

[stui magpie]

Not a lot, other than demonstrating that private conversations are only private until someone makes them public and cancel culture is going strong.

[Pies4shaw]

In that case, you're entirely missing the important questions - about why such responses happen.

Let's assume that there is such a thing as "cancel culture". What acually is it in this specific context? What motivates it? Why does it resonate? How is it effective? In my view, using the content-free slogan "cancel culture" just obscures the issues. It provides some sort of description (insofar as people who hear the expression may have some - albeit limited - shared understanding of what they're discussing) - but no explanation.

[stui magpie]

Well how about you provide your view? I have no interest in responding to your leading questions or reading your recollections of the Salem Witch trials.

As I stated earlier, my view is that the racist remarks are what got him sacked. Not going to work for the average schmuck who no one cares about their private conversations even if made public, but for a high profile journalist on a common law contract he was a dead man walking as soon as the comments were made public.

Where "cancel culture" comes into it, is his employer could either sack him quickly or stand by him and endure weeks of negative publicity. They chose the former.

[stui magpie]

After tolerating dancing with the Stars, I put on the replay of the Pies game. My 83 year old mother straight away said how good looking she thought Nick Daicos was. "He's gorgeous" .

I decided against lecturing her about objectifying people and just replied with, "Yeah, good looking kid"

[Pies4shaw]