Thursday, October 22, 2009

TX: "Wet vacs" = "Wetbacks"?

You can now get penalized not for what you say but for what people think you mean:
"Emmis Austin Radio has suspended Jason Alvarez and Deb O’Keefe, hosts of the 101x morning show on 101.5 FM. Alvarez and O'Keefe were suspended for one week after they used suggestive and insulting words on the air.

Alvarez and O'Keefe were remarking on ways that Zilker Park could be cleaned up after ACL festival. Heavy rains soaked the new grass at the park during the festival which led to mudpits. O'Keefe was heard over the air making a several comments about hiring "wet vacs" to clean up the mess. Listners called in to complain about the use of the word.

On Wednesday Emmis released the following statement about the suspension: "The Jason & Deb morning show, on 101X Tuesday morning, were discussing a news item about the problems at Zilker Park with the mud after ACL. During that discussion they did not use any slur, but they did make foolish and ugly comments for which we sincerely apologize. They suggested getting a big squeegee or a wet vac. They then repeated the wet vac suggestion in some suggestive and insulting ways. As a result, they were suspended immediately for one week..."

Source


Posted by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

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