Billy Packer

[mike radigan]

Hopefully this is the excuse needed to dump his sorry fudge butt:

click here

[mike radigan]

I e-mailed the link to CBS using a form on their site.

here's the CBS form

[mike radigan]

I also e-mailed the link to PTI. Looking forward to today's show.

[shaunguth]

I just sent my complaint! However, I used the "Click here for feedback about CBS Sports" link that was on the page from the original link.

[chitownBUB]

The three-letter "F" word that is a slur against people with an "alternate" sex-orientation is exactly what the entire WORLD's media hammered Ozzie Guillen on last year when he used the word referring to Jay Mariotti.

The whole combined forces of the TV, radio, and the press ganged up on Ozzie and tried to run him out of town and even get him fired, or at least undergo couselling and sensitivity training!

Now let's see if the media is totally hypocritical or not, and will they hold Packer (one of their own) as responsible for his words as they did nationwide when Ozzie did it?? Or is it hypocritically OK for a media person to do it, but not so when someone uses it against a media person?

[amckillip]

I sent in my complaint, I wish I could have sent in another complaint about Packer for just being an idiot.

[One rabid squirrel]

If anything, Packer should be held to a higher standard. Dealing with the press and public is only part of Guillen's job. Talking on television IS Packer's job. Even if, as one place has argued, he was using a dictionary definition of the word, if you're in broadcasting, you had better be smart enough to know that that is one of those words you just don't use. I don't care how you use it, if you do you're making yourself and your employer look like fools.

Oh, and most sports writers I know (granted none from the Chicago area) think only slightly more of Mariotti than Guillen does.

[mike radigan]

CBA coach's contract not renewed (read fired) for anti-gay comment.

[amckillip]

If anything, Packer should be held to a higher standard. Dealing with the press and public is only part of Guillen's job. Talking on television IS Packer's job. Even if, as one place has argued, he was using a dictionary definition of the word, if you're in broadcasting, you had better be smart enough to know that that is one of those words you just don't use. I don't care how you use it, if you do you're making yourself and your employer look like fools.

Oh, and most sports writers I know (granted none from the Chicago area) think only slightly more of Mariotti than Guillen does.

I agree, I knew when I heard it that was a dictionary use of the word. However, it does not make it any less offensive. I do think however, that will be CBS' defense in the situation saying that BPacker was just using a word in it's original context.

[houstontxbrave]

I understand so many of us can not stand Nantz or Packer, personally Nantz is more of an issue for me the Packer but, why would CBS move either of those two off their broadcasts?

They both, especially Packer cause people to talk, when people talk dont they generally go in droves to or gravitate towards those who cause the discussion and with more eyes tuned to CBS doesnt that make the advertisers happy along with the NCAA and CBS.

Ratings, I would assume, are high and the appeal of CBS's coverage and the NCAA tourney are at a huge high really. CBS would be a little silly to rid itself of Packer.

[thefish7]

If anything, Packer should be held to a higher standard. Dealing with the press and public is only part of Guillen's job. Talking on television IS Packer's job. Even if, as one place has argued, he was using a dictionary definition of the word, if you're in broadcasting, you had better be smart enough to know that that is one of those words you just don't use. I don't care how you use it, if you do you're making yourself and your employer look like fools.

Oh, and most sports writers I know (granted none from the Chicago area) think only slightly more of Mariotti than Guillen does.

I agree, I knew when I heard it that was a dictionary use of the word. However, it does not make it any less offensive. I do think however, that will be CBS' defense in the situation saying that BPacker was just using a word in it's original context.

That's pretty much how I feel... It is an older definition of the word and Packer, a professional, should know that the current common definition is completely different and generally offensive.

[One rabid squirrel]

I understand so many of us can not stand Nantz or Packer, personally Nantz is more of an issue for me the Packer but, why would CBS move either of those two off their broadcasts?

They both, especially Packer cause people to talk, when people talk dont they generally go in droves to or gravitate towards those who cause the discussion and with more eyes tuned to CBS doesnt that make the advertisers happy along with the NCAA and CBS.

Ratings, I would assume, are high and the appeal of CBS's coverage and the NCAA tourney are at a huge high really. CBS would be a little silly to rid itself of Packer.

I guess you could argue that the controversial stuff that Packer says before the tournament (like his swipe at the Valley and the CAA last year) increase discussion and therefore possibly interest and viewership. However I don't think anyone, at least in recent years, has turned on an NCAA game to hear Billy Packer do the play-by-play.

[BradleyBrave]

If Jimmy the Greek was held to such a standard by CBS, Billy Packer should be no different.

[tornado]

I am NOT a Billy Packer fan, but I do believe he has done nothing wrong, just as Ozzie did nothing wrong but they fall into a politically correct snare that certain media types have invented to show themselves to be of a higher order of thinking.

It's kind of like what we were discussing last week in the "Rants" thread where one media guys rip into the "peons" for being of such
'simple and ignorant" thought processes as to be bigoted or biased. The media types seem to think that by pointing out the biases they see elsewhere, it then defines themselves as being the epitome of perfect thinking/unbiased.

[One rabid squirrel]

I am NOT a Billy Packer fan, but I do believe he has done nothing wrong, just as Ozzie did nothing wrong but they fall into a politically correct snare that certain media types have invented to show themselves to be of a higher order of thinking.

It's kind of like what we were discussing last week in the "Rants" thread where one media guys rip into the "peons" for being of such
'simple and ignorant" thought processes as to be bigoted or biased. The media types seem to think that by pointing out the biases they see elsewhere, it then defines themselves as being the epitome of perfect thinking/unbiased.

This goes beyond offensiveness versus political correctness, though. He was there because of the Final Four, as a way to promote the coverage. Therefore it was an extension of his job. You can argue that the standards shouldn't be there, but the fact is that they are, and using that word in that setting is going to reflect upon him and the network he works for. You can argue that what he said wasn't offensive (and personally I think he likely was using the old non-derogatory definition), but that doesn't change the fact that it was foolish and unprofessional.