It seems the image of Robert Lee is being taken down all over. Can't have him cluttering up the place in Lee Circle in New Orleans or at Duke University or anywhere near Charlottesville, Va., or on ESPN or in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas or even at the Antietam National Battlefield, site of the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history--
Wait.
ESPN?
If there is any recent news item that proves that political correctness really has run amok, and will probably race amok then fly amok any week now, it has got to be the ordeal facing poor Robert Lee, an Asian American sports broadcaster for (at the moment) ESPN. Or, as its critics like to call it, MS-ESPN, for its left-leaning broadcasts disguised as sports journalism.
Folks, we've seen some whoppers in our time, but this . . . .
Back on Tuesday night, word started coming out that the network's suits moved Robert Lee--the broadcaster--off the University of Virginia's opening football game "simply because of the coincidence of his name." That's the quote from the network. It didn't want somebody named Robert Lee calling a Virginia ballgame.
Instead, ESPN has moved Mr. Lee to the Youngstown vs. Pitt football game that same day.
First of all . . . . Pitt? They've moved Mr. Lee to Pitt? But, but, but . . . . The University of Pittsburgh is in the same state as Gettysburg. What if somebody is watching the Pitt game, and Robert Lee's name flashes as he breaks down a punt return, and it triggers a reaction? Will the football world be able to handle "Robert Lee" and "a college in Pennsylvania" without getting the vapors?
Wait another minute. Isn't Bob Ley--full name Robert A. Ley--still working for ESPN? Should the suits in Bristol take their top in-depth reporter off any stories dealing with the University of Virginia, too? In fact, should he be banned from covering the whole South? Or maybe just assign anybody named Lee or Ley or even Leigh or Lea to sports stories in the upper midwest and Pacific areas only. Except California, which, having just become a state, fought for the Union during the Civil War.
If you think we're being silly, we're happy you don't misunderstand. But isn't that appropriate for this whole story?
Of course, suits being suits, they didn't know when they were beaten. The story almost broke the Internet, but ESPN's execs couldn't help pouring gasoline on the fire. A second statement issued from Bristol headquarters said its people "collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding" and "it's a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue."
It's not just a shame. It's idiocy.
Of ESPN's making.
If our friends on the left want to know why so often their friends on the right look at them askance, is there a better example than this story?
Credit where due: The website Outkick the Coverage broke this story. Its headline: "MS-ESPN pulls Asian announcer named Robert Lee off UVA game to avoid offending idiots."
We'll end this here. Because we couldn't put it any better.
Editorial on 08/24/2017