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February 15, 2016I agree with Kevin Kiley. No, not about his thoughts on how women should remain largely on the sidelines in men’s sports. I don’t agree with those sentiments, but I do agree with his thoughts on censorship in radio. According to Kevin Kiley, CBS radio censored him after he made controversial statements about the Buffalo Bills’ hiring of Kathryn Smith to their coaching staff. Kiley told Tony Zarella on Sports Extra that he received a letter threatening his job if he continued to talk. It’s this alleged letter and all that it represents that drove me to bother talking about this at all. Kiley announced his resignation, effective at the end of February and was off the air a day later. As Kiley tells it, with each piece of criticism that he received after his sexist diatribe he was denied the opportunity to defend his point or himself. He received criticism from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer to name two. Kiley says that he wanted to continue to discuss it and CBS wouldn’t allow it. Even if you think Kevin Kiley is a villain in this story, I don’t think he’s alone.
“You shouldn’t accept censorship ever. You should make sure the people on the radio are telling you the truth as they see it.” – Kevin Kiley on Channel 19
I know it’s a dichotomy because I simultaneously disagree with what Kevin Kiley said, but I also think he’s right when he says program directors and executives from New York shouldn’t shoot their censorship guns on down the organizational chart at employees and talent. Even when I find an opinion wrong and antiquated as Kevin Kiley’s, I think it should be spoken aloud rather than kept in his head. Are we better off if someone just thinks something like that and keeps it to himself? Are we so afraid of sexism or any other views that we find wrong that we’re better off not knowing – or worse pretending – that they even exist? I don’t think so. To keep it shuttered is delusion, not progress. To root for lawyers and middle managers to shut up talent is not something I’m ever going to do.
Are we so afraid of sexism or any other views that we find wrong that we’re better off not knowing – or worse pretending – that they even exist?
I know the world doesn’t always work like this, but I’d like to think that we could skip the active censorship of people paid to perform their opinions. I am a big Ken Carman fan, but I just couldn’t listen to him all the time since he got matched up in the morning with Kevin Kiley. I voted with my listenership, and I didn’t always feel good about it because I wanted to listen to Ken Carman, but that’s what I decided to do.
And that’s the fairest thing. If someone has backward thoughts on a topic, it should be greeted with argument, debate, and more conversation. If it goes so far that the audience goes away then it’s an easy business decision. I am far more comfortable with that as a process, unless a host incites a riot or something that could be considered criminal. What Kiley was spouting was obnoxious and I think wrong, but certainly never criminal. His opinion was easily debated, and it was debated widely and loudly all across the country via the Internet after Ken Carman chided his co-host live. So, really, what’s the problem?
Even as Kevin Kiley exits and even though I’m not a fan of his, I appreciate his sentiments on Channel 19 with regard to censorship. I know many were mocking him for invoking Howard Stern’s name and I get why. Kevin Kiley talking about Howard Stern is like Dion Waiters calling LeBron James his peer. Our principles about management, talent, and censorship shouldn’t be judged based on whether you have all-world talent. I get that there are superstar calls in media just like in the NBA, but let’s at least generically agree on the rulebook. I think we should agree that none of us should root for the referees no matter how much we dislike the player with the ball in his hands.
In the end I refuse to paint Kevin Kiley as some sort of hero in this. I don’t even care enough to give him any hint of victim status, but I think he’s right just the same. And by “right,” you know I mean the opinion about censorship. He’s still dead wrong about women in sports. The thing is that I’m just not that afraid to hear it. In fact, I’d rather hear it than allow it to fester in the background where we’re all supposed to pretend like it doesn’t exist.
20 Comments
I feel like that station is just poorly run. They spent months last year looking for someone to replace Booms and it threw off the early show and late show. Ken Carman is perfect at night and something just didn’t feel right about him in mornings. I thought he and Kiley did a good job at times though. Kiley seemed more relaxed with him and was a good “neutral” guy on the station. Unfortunately he went too far with his comments. I’m assuming Lima is going to be the replacement which I can get behind because he will work well with Ken.
Why would Kiley even care that Buffalo hired a woman, let alone lose his job over it?
A wise man once said, “Don’t die on a small cross.”
I think there is some irony in the fact that as our society has opened up and broken down long standing barriers to discrimination in the name of tolerance and universal fairness (a wonderful thing), we’ve simultaneously become equally and perhaps excessively intolerant to any dissenting opinions or open discussion. Mob rules and social media shaming are the tools of the trade while people fall all over themselves to demonstrate allegiance to the politically correct views de jour and pat themselves on the back for not being horrible like all these other people.
Perhaps we haven’t made as much progress as we think we have if the cost of this is that everyone has to think exactly one way otherwise shut the hell up. I’m all for social progress but let’s be aware that there are many ways to trample rights and that the pendulum can swing too far one way.
My name is Sam Gold and I approve this message.
Every. Single. Word.
https://media.giphy.com/media/a0Lgc1JvbfS4o/giphy.gif
You lose your independence once you’re part of a megacorporation, Bill Simmons was the first of soon-to-be-many. Freedom of expression is subservient to profits and branding. We should all get used to narrative being dictated as the overlords in NY or LA see fit.
I don’t know….
Kiley took an outrageous stance to draw attention to himself. Why? Because sports radio is an obnoxious game of ratings seeking polarization, and he is happy to further the race to the bottom. And it blew up on him. To hide behind some concept that sports radio is a bastion of American free speech is to deny reality and perpetuate an intellectual assault on the US constitution.
Sports radio is a business. He is paid to draw listeners to tune in on their radio dials. When he alienates a demographic that represents 51% of the US, plus all of their spouses, brother fathers etc…. I don’t believe it is incumbent upon his employers to wait for their listeners and subsequent advertisers to withdraw to take action. They gave him a chance to save his job. He didn’t like the terms, he left.
Where do you draw the line? Criminal action? A verbal assault on civil rights doesn’t qualify? There are lots of people that think the victim of domestic abuse somehow asked for or deserves it? Do we give them a commercial, paid for platform to have the ‘debate’? Of course not. Nor should we expect to be reasonable, or even tolerate, an opinion that by virtue of gender you are subordinate and incapable of performing a job.
Meh… don’t care much about the censorship stuff.. people in media are already ‘censored’ to some extent anyways. Bull and Fox don’t let us privy to their between break conversations/real opinions and they tell us as much. They have said they don’t do that because of things like sponsors/access/don’t want to make anyone mad (yes that last one was from dustin fox- of course the dumb, childish, stupid sounding one was from dustin fox).
And poll a majority of pro athletes (I bet I have discussed this issue with more pro athletes than you) – They largely agree with Kiley. They want to be fired up by Lombardi, not some shrieking hag like the Baylor women’s basketball coach. And I can objectively state that LeBron said he would never play for a woman coach. I heard him say it. Then again, he doesn’t play for any coach.
I know, all shes likely doing is washing and ironing the jock straps.
“If someone has backward thoughts on a topic, it should be greeted with argument, debate, and more conversation. If it goes so far that the audience goes away then it’s an easy business decision.” Um, I think that’s what happened here. The business did hear from listeners and sponsors and told Kiley he was hurting them and to knock it off. Kiley has said he was already planning to leave before this shtick (maybe he even did it to increase his notoriety for his next gig). You cannot mean that an employer that abhors his message must keep the defiant employee unless and until the ratings plunge.
I don’t get your point, Craig. No one’s “censored” here, just because that’s the faux term of martyrdom Kiley claims. The network is not a government, is not duty-bound to let him say what he pleases and compensate him for that. Kiley can go work some place else that likes his shtick. Or he can create a blog, whatever. Howard Stern became Howard Stern by convincing one station that his shtick was beneficial to them, not by wrapping sexual patter to his stripper guests in an American flag. The flag explanation came after his career was assured.
Kiley took a swing in the marketplace of ideas, got crushed and now whines about “censorship.” If he expressed the views that blacks or hispanics have no business coaching or as execs I doubt anyone would be worried that the station should keep him until the public can clearly see the ratings hit. The station, like any business, has a right to control its image and promote precisely the range of views it feels appropriate. And maybe there’s a small Mississippi station looking for a drive-time guy right now. This firing doesn’t represent rigid, bean-counting suits over free-flow. Just a low-brow, attention-seeking guy who doesn’t know or care where he is in the industry.
All of this. So much.
From Glenn Greenwald: Nothing tests one’s intellectual honesty and ability to apply principles consistently more than free speech controversies. It is exceedingly easy to invoke free speech values in defense of political views you like. It is exceedingly difficult to invoke them in defense of views you loathe. But the true test for determining the authenticity of one’s belief in free speech is whether one does the latter, not the former. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/sep/16/conservatives-democrats-free-speech-muslims
Kiley was awful and I am glad he got fired…I mean resigned. Ends justify the means.
Can’t up vote enough. Very well stated.
True, he may have alienated 51% of the US, but how many women listen to sports radio? Has to be very minimal in comparison. So, if you turn X millions of people off of his particular show who wouldn’t listen in the first place, what have you really lost?
As far as spouses, brothers, etc, I can’t say I’ve ever not listened to someone or something simply because someone in my family is offended by it. In fact, I’m more likely to listen to see what the big deal is and then decide for myself.
Yeah I don’t get where all the defenders are coming from. He wasn’t very popular and I can’t imagine their ratings were good either.
If what he said was truly unacceptable they would have fired him. I think he’s wrong, but nothing he said was apparently worthy of dismissing him. Instead, they gave him a letter outlining what he couldn’t talk about anymore and rebuffing his requests to address the topic on what he says were numerous occasions. That’s kind of the definition of censorship. It’s not a first amendment issue, but that’s censorship, clear as day. They’re not “duty-bound” to let him say what he pleases, but we all can decide how free these media companies should allow their employees to be. You apparently are fine with back channel letters determining point by point what is allowed based on topic even when presented in a perfectly legal and acceptable manner under FCC guidelines. I’m not.
I don’t know why people can’t remove the guy from the issue. This isn’t about whether or not you like Kiley. This is about how CBS operates their business. Yes, they can do so how they choose, but if I worked for that station, I’d be pretty pissed off that the place that hires me for my opinions and ideas thinks that they can pick and choose which ones I’m allowed to address, even when I follow all FCC rules and never say anything that is worthy of me being fired.
Also, no offense Harv, but I’m sick of all the false equivalencies with what Kiley said. He didn’t say blacks or hispanics have no business coaching or as execs. Why cloud the conversation with other examples? He said he doesn’t believe a woman should coach in a sport that women don’t play competitively. Again, I think he’s wrong, but I at least get where his point stems from. I think it’s antiquated, but it’s not the same as saying a different race of people can or can’t do something. It’s speaking to a class of potential coach that has not ever been able to gain the same experience as her male counterpart. Again, I think he’s wrong (have I said it enough?) because I’m sure lots of men who never played can and do coach, but let’s not pretend like it’s equivalent to a racial thing. It’s just not.
Why didn’t they fire him?
I think that is a legitimate point and the one thing I struggled with when I wrote my response. Who knows, my guess is Legal and HR policy issues.
My larger point is that censorship just doesn’t apply. It’s corporate controlled media and limits to the stupidity of these shock jocks do apply. Now if you want to debate the merits of corporate controlled media, then it’s a whole different discussion. I’m not going to use Kiley’s trampling on women’s civil rights as the test case.
BTW, I appreciate you writing the piece. It’s one of the reasons I come here, the team here always calls it how they see it, and it’s not corporate controlled media (and I’ve had more than one of my comments moderated, and appropriately so :). It’s just in this case, I don’t necessarily agree.
The issue is his whole premise is based on the fact she is a woman. He didn’t say all NFL coaches should have playing experience, or should have played at a certain level. The facts are, there are numerous examples of males that have. No, it’s because she is a woman. That is sexist, and if actually used as criteria for hiring, illegal and a violation of civil rights, like other minority classes. That is why people make the analogies.
my uncle Richie got an almost new white Fiat 500 Hatchback by working part time from the internet…
learn the facts here now
juw