MSNBC Comes To Tiki's Defense In Regards To His Use Of The C-Word
Friday, August 22, 2008
Late Thursday night, Tiki Barber (through an MSNBC spokesperson) denied uttering the "See You Next Tuesday" word during an Olympic Update segment last week. The two parties combined to give Neil Best and Newsday a few interesting "turns of phrase" regarding the issue....
To many ears, it sounded like an offensive word usually aimed at women. But MSNBC said Barber meant to say “You’re a total medal count,’’ meaning Wolfe was on that side of the ongoing debate.Let me start by saying that NBC and I obviously aren't exactly the best of friends at the moment. I feel the need to tell them and you that I would never bash a network or its personalities without cause, even in the current state of the "relationship" between NBC and myself. With that out of the way....
“I would never disrespect a colleague and friend with that kind of language,’’ Barber said from Beijing through an MSNBC spokeswoman, who said Barber had no idea of a budding controversy until she informed him of it.
“It’s disappointing someone would intentionally misrepresent the hard work Jenna and I are doing.’’ Barber and Wolfe co-host “Olympic Wrap-up’’ from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
MSNBC said in a statement, “Tiki and Jenna were discussing total medal count versus gold medal counts and Tiki’s words were unclear.’’
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME?! First of all, everyone knows he was trying to say "count". I don't think that was ever in question. Second, there's not a chance in hell that Barber said the word "count". I'm pretty sure there was no intent behind the word, and that it was a slip up, but he said "cunt" plain as day in that clip. I also don't believe that he was directing the word to his co-host at all. If he had been, she should of kicked his ass and he should have been immediately fired.
As for as people "misrepresenting" the "hardwork" that you are doing in Beijing, Tiki. You and Jenna are doing a damn good job of that on your own. This interview was a classic no denial, denial and I hope everyone sees through that. "We don't admit to saying it, and we don't admit to not saying it." It seriously wasn't that big of a deal, but I echo Mike Florio's statement when I say that for Tiki to now try and paint himself as a victim after the fact, comes off pretty ignominious. No one would have even cared if he had said it, and the original point of my story was to show how much of a disgrace that the show itself was to the Olympic Games. Hell, using the word cunt was much more pleasant than the homophobia that the two hosts gave off when joking about the European congratulatory kiss.
It's a shame it had to come to this, but seriously....please show a little more class NBC. That show is, and has been, a disgrace throughout these past two weeks. The word cunt said on the airwaves should be the least of your worries.
Tiki Barber speaks unclearly, causes blogosphere stir (Newsday)
Maybe Tiki Should Stick To Big Words (Pro Football Talk)
MSNBC's "Olympic Update" Continues To Disrespect The Beijing Games (Awful Announcing)
10 Comments:
Chris Collinsworth anti-American? I just think he was being a cynical, crotchety, member of the GOP (His donations to Republicans back that up) who cannot believe that a rich, young superstar could ever have a care in the world. But that's neither here nor there.
Anyway Tiki is acting like the victim the same way he did when Eli Manning called him out for saying his leadership abilities were comical. Even if you called Jenna Wolfe "a medal count" that is pretty immature and unoriginal for a guy who allegedly was class valedictorian.
I just think it's funny that MSNBC has to argue whether one of it's on-air personalities said the word "cunt" or not. They are just lucky it was said on cable and not over-the-air. They'd be explaining all this to the FCC.
nbc isn't mad at the site because of collinsworth, they are pissed over the bolt 200m final post and video.
hey aa, how strong was the c&d and when will a post over what happened go up?
-dan
well as long as we're nitpicking slips of the tongue, let's nitpick a slip of the keyboard...
i think you mean 'disingenuous' rather than 'ignominious'...
bigger picture, i think this is not much of a story. it's a cutesy -- perhaps Freudian -- slip, that's it, move on. MSNBC's response is the correct one, and, opinions of Tiki's abilities notwithstanding, that should really be the end of it.
Why don't they just come out and say, "We employ one of the biggest idiots to ever appear on camera". I would take that over an apology any day.
AA, you bust out an awesome word like "ignominious," yet you use the frustratingly wrong phrase "should of" one paragraph earlier (probably my all-time most hated grammatical mistake, even though Cormac McCarthy uses it).
Jerry- Ignominious is the word I wanted to use....look it up.
Jay- I've always incorrectly used "should of" forever. Not because I didn't know the conjunction, but because it sounded better to me. Right or wrong though, It has recently become accepted by most in the "Grammar World".
"No Cunt-ry For Old Backs?"
Hey, didn't Steve Levy have a slip of his own years ago when he meant to say "disk" and said a word to used as a nickname for a certain part of the male anatomy instead? Slip-ups happen people...
Hmm, I wonder if NBC didn't like being challenged by commenters on your blog when you put that post up about Collingsworth's obvious anti-American editiorial stance, maybe they didn't like it even being pointed out. That World Corporation must not like being criticized.
Who knew that Arnie's movie The Running Man and it's depiction of a media company with delusions of world domination would become reality in 2008?
I believe HGH increases the size of one's cranium, it would appears from that picture that someone has taken the head from a guy of about 350 pounds, say Casey Hampton of Big Kevin Gogan, and put it on Tiki's body.
Tiki's such a good broadcaster, I can't believe he would screw up, not him. He's such an amazing broadcaster, with years and years of high level experience. What in the world could ever go wrong with his proven high level broadcasting track record, he is a genius at everything. NBC doesn't make any bad choices ever.
LOL