Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

[Kalifornyakid]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291796,00.html

I don't get it. The sports commentator made the comment that Vick would have had less trouble for rapeing a woman than for the current dogfight issue, and he gets fired? His comment was in no way inflamatory, he said,

"It's really a sad day in this country when somehow ... Michael Vick would have been better off raping a woman if you look at the outcry of what happened," Zeise said. "Had he done that, he probably would have been suspended for four games and he'd be back on the field. But because this has become a political issue, all of a sudden the commissioner has lost his stomach for it."

So was he fired for suggesting dogfighting was not as bad as rape? I personaly can't see anything wrong with his comment. I don't like vick, and I don't condone dogfighting, but I certainly don't think the sports commentator said anything to warrant being fired.

 

[JB]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

Well, I see his comments as belittling the crime of rape. If he worked for me he would be fired.

Re: Vick. I see no attempt by anyone to "presume him innocent until proven guilty in a court of law". I think he probably is guilty, but if it turns out to be a frame there are gonna be a lot of people looking very stupid.

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

I think the commentators comments were offensive. I'm with JB.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

I would rather "look stupid" than be unemployed. Also, I heard the same thing on my radio Tuesday morning from a different host. Relating the crime of animal abuse to child abuse and murder.
It's not nice to kill dogs that wont fight for your enterainment, but apples/oranges.
My opinion is ;
Given his celebrity and the growing popularity of amateur dog breeding for sport fighting, this clown, (if found guilty of course), should be sentanced harshly. As harshly as if it were your OWN four-legged children (pets).
IOW, he should set as much of a role model for this, as he is for playing a game well to our youth. Micky Mantle was not a nice person. He was a degenerate thug. And yet, how is Mantle remembered? And if you own a card with his image on it that you retireved from a pack of gum in your youth, you are a millionaire without a dollar in your pocket! It is wrong. But then, it has never been right -- but it is what it is.

 

[freddyray21]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

He would be fired if he worked for me also. I think I knew what he was getting at but it was a poor choice of words to put it that way.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

The issue a lot of folks have here is not to belittle rape or child abuse. but rather the elevation of animal abuse to a status of equal or greater measure. IF guilty, Vick could face greater ramifications than a whole host of other convicted felons and that to me is not right. And I don't even like MV. That said, it's not always what you say, but how you say it and media folks need to be held more accountable for how they say or write things.

 

[darrklim2]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

The issue a lot of folks have here is not to belittle rape or child abuse. but rather the elevation of animal abuse to a status of equal or greater measure. IF guilty, Vick could face greater ramifications than a whole host of other convicted felons and that to me is not right. And I don't even like MV. That said, it's not always what you say, but how you say it and media folks need to be held more accountable for how they say or write things.

I agree.

 

[Mike722]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

The one that gets me is hate crime laws. If you kill someone the punishment should be the same, no matter if it is classified as a "hate crime" or not.

I also think that people are no longer free to say what is on their minds for fear of being hurt, fired, etc. Somethings should not be said, but I think we're at the point of suppressing good ideas from people who are afraid to stay anything. We have all said things that we wish we could take back, or in the old days we said we are sorry and were wrong for saying it. Now, they are "stoned" in the public square before the facts are learned.

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

If found guilty of the horrendous acts of torture and cruelty to animals he is accused of, as i'm sure that the sob is, justice would be served by turning his blood smeared carcass over to those very dogs in a bullpen.
Lowlife's as such ought not to be dignified as anything other than the pond scum that they truely are.

 

[jasonh]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

I support smearing that gangbanger wannabe with bacon grease and turning loose some starving pits on him after he is found guilty. Which, unless he makes a personal deal with Satan like OJ did, he will be found guilty.

That being said, the choice of words were poor. There are some words a sports commentatorh should avoid saying at all cost and "rape" is one of them.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

I also think that people are no longer free to say what is on their minds for fear of being hurt, fired, etc. Somethings should not be said, but I think we're at the point of suppressing good ideas from people who are afraid to stay anything. We have all said things that we wish we could take back, or in the old days we said we are sorry and were wrong for saying it. Now, they are "stoned" in the public square before the facts are learned.

Amen. Mike.
If anyone is still under the illususion they have "freedom of speach" in this country, go downtown on a crowded street and scream at that top of you lungs the "N-word"... See? I can't even say it omline

 

[RCSConstruction]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

If found guilty of the horrendous acts of torture and cruelty to animals he is accused of, as i'm sure that the sob is, justice would be served by turning his blood smeared carcass over to those very dogs in a bullpen.
Lowlife's as such ought not to be dignified as anything other than the pond scum that they truely are.

Spot on..

 

[Kalifornyakid]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

JB, Rubberfrog, et all,
I can't see how the statement belittles rape. He starts it off with "it's a sad day in this country when...". His statement bemoans the fact that the crime of rape brings less outcry than the dogfighting thing. If anything, it's calling attention to the rediculousness of PC. If he worked for me he would have been congratulated for having the cajones to call an apple an apple.

 

[Mike722]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

12Footer that is not actually what I meant. People who would run out and yell the N-word for no reason other than to cause a problem are stupid. I do not believe freedom of speech is a blanket free for all.

Good ideas from good people are being left unsaid because they are afraid to say them.

My feeling (put simply) is that people should be able to do and say what they want as long as it do not endanger or physically hurt anyone else. You can not yell fire, if there is no fire, because the chaos could hurt people.

The sports commentator should have used a better choice of words to make their point. They should not have been fired. People miss speak all the time. If they were doing this over and over, then I would know that they are just a bad commentator and then they should be fired.

As for Vick, the things that he has said, make me believe that he was involved in dog fighting. Hopefully the courts will find him quilty, but until then he is not.

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

The sports commentator worked for someone. His right to free speach extends only to when he is speaking independently and for himself. The moment he opens his mouth on his employers microphone, he is subject to whatever restrictions that employer put on him.

What about some guy at McDonalds dropping 'f-bombs' in front of customers? Can McD's fire him or are you going to cry about his rights there too?

The boss didn't like what the commentator said and so they fired him. Nobodys rights got trampled on here.

It seems like everyone is confused about when/where you do and do not have freedom of speech.

 

[i386]

Re: Fired for questioning Vick dogfight severity?

I think, (at least in the eyes of his employer) he should have stuck to commentating sports and left his opinions as to why the country has gone to pot and that the commissioner has lost his stomach. That's what got him in trouble regardless of if you agree with his words or not. When your mouth represents your employer you have to watch what you say. He crossed the line in his employers eyes.