Phony Racism Charges Get ESPN Announcer Fired

Doug Adler was fired by ESPN in late January for making what the idiots of social media took to be a racist remark during the Australian Open. While commentating a match, Adler mentioned that Venus Williams was using “the guerrilla effect” to overwhelm her opponent. Naturally, Twitter twits looking for the next great racial outrage seized on the comment, believing that Adler had said the “gorilla effect.” And since you can’t mention apes and black people in the same day, much less the same sentence, a predictably shallow controversy quickly followed.

Rather than make the safe assumption that Adler would not sabotage his 17-year broadcasting career just to make a cheap jab about Venus Williams’ race, the corporate chickens at ESPN decided to take the easy way out and fire him two days later. Better to trash a man’s career than put up with a few days of bad Tumblr publicity, right? Of course. When the angry mob decides they want something, what else can you do except give it to them?

Now Adler is suing the network, claiming they buckled under pressure from a media which had “ignited the flames of anger and hatred” against him. He insists that the “guerilla effect” is a known term in the sports world meant to indicate aggressive tactics on the court.

In an interview with Fox News, Adler said ESPN was responsible for ruining his professional standing in the sports world and making it impossible for him to seek employment as a broadcast journalist.

“By the way ESPN chose to handle this non-issue, they effectively branded me, my character and my reputation for the rest of my life,” Adler said.

In the lawsuit, Adler blames the network for causing him to miss out on “opportunities in the sporting and business worlds because no one will hire a ‘racist.’”

“He has suffered serious emotional distress and harm because he has been falsely accused of being the worst thing imaginable, and something he clearly isn’t and never has been, all over the use of the word ‘guerilla,’ a word that is commonly used in tennis,” states the lawsuit.

Just another example of political correctness run amok. It would have been nice to imagine that electing Donald Trump would be a step beyond this stifling, dangerous oppression, but we’ve still got a long way to go before we’re free.