Miklasz leaving Post-Dispatch

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Exactly. He called an entire country unintelligent. What did he expect?

No, he stated a fact. The Dominican Republic isn't widely known for its academic abilities. It was a joke. Maybe in your mind it was in poor taste, but HARDLY worth losing your job over. He could have easily made a negative remark about literacy in the United States, and been right about it. But since it's the Dominican, and the populous there isn't predominantly white, it's automatically assumed he's racist and he has to be canned as a preemptive measure before the PC police start boycotting and picketing his employer.

It's just dumb, IMO.

 

[jrry32]

No, he stated a fact. The Dominican Republic isn't widely known for its academic abilities. It was a joke. Maybe in your mind it was in poor taste, but HARDLY worth losing your job over. He could have easily made a negative remark about literacy in the United States, and been right about it. But since it's the Dominican, and the populous there isn't predominantly white, it's automatically assumed he's racist and he has to be canned as a preemptive measure before the PC police start boycotting and picketing his employer.

It's just dumb, IMO.

No, he stated an opinion. An opinion directed towards the clear implication that people from the DR are not intelligent.

There's no connection between baseball and academia. The only reasonable implication that can be drawn by his comments is that he's saying people from the DR are stupid and thus, baseball is not complex if they can excel at it.

If they were smart, their academic abilities would be irrelevant to baseball complexity since there's no connection between the two. Baseball could be complex game if the people playing it were brilliant but uneducated. Because, as I said, traditional education teaches you nothing about baseball and is not necessary to understand baseball.

 

[TheDYVKX]

 

[-X-]

No, he stated an opinion. An opinion directed towards the clear implication that people from the DR are not intelligent.

There's no connection between baseball and academia. The only reasonable implication that can be drawn by his comments is that he's saying people from the DR are stupid and thus, baseball is not complex if they can excel at it.

If they were smart, their academic abilities would be irrelevant to baseball complexity since there's no connection between the two. Baseball could be complex game if the people playing it were brilliant but uneducated. Because, as I said, traditional education teaches you nothing about baseball and is not necessary to understand baseball.

Nah. You're overthinking it.

It was a joke. One that won't stand in the New Moral Order, but a joke nonetheless. ESPN hired him to be opinionated and to undoubtedly be the equivalent of a talk radio shock jock. See, the problem with your analysis is you're inferring what he meant, and/or that he meant to intentionally disrespect all of the *residents* of the Dominican. When in reality he was just picking out one of the areas of the world where baseball players are from, and pointed out (correctly) that it's not widely known for its academic abilities in order to make a point about the complexity of the game.

He meant no harm. He did no harm.

Are you harmed?

 

[fearsomefour]

Offensive determined by the standards of our society.

This really means nothing.
"Society" isn't out calling for his job. His employer made that call, they have the right to.
I read his comment the same way X does. More of a statement of fact that an opinion. Even if it is an opinion, I don't see the big deal.
But, we are all the same, vanilla is the new melting pot.
Nonsense.

 

[jrry32]

Nah. You're overthinking it.

It was a joke. One that won't stand in the New Moral Order, but a joke nonetheless. ESPN hired him to be opinionated and to undoubtedly be the equivalent of a talk radio shock jock. See, the problem with your analysis is you're inferring what he meant, and/or that he meant to intentionally disrespect all of the *residents* of the Dominican. When in reality he was just picking out one of the areas of the world where baseball players are from, and pointed out (correctly) that it's not widely known for its academic abilities in order to make a point about the complexity of the game.

He meant no harm. He did no harm.

Are you harmed?

Was it a joke?

He did no harm?

 

[fearsomefour]

Nah. You're overthinking it.

It was a joke. One that won't stand in the New Moral Order, but a joke nonetheless. ESPN hired him to be opinionated and to undoubtedly be the equivalent of a talk radio shock jock. See, the problem with your analysis is you're inferring what he meant, and/or that he meant to intentionally disrespect all of the *residents* of the Dominican. When in reality he was just picking out one of the areas of the world where baseball players are from, and pointed out (correctly) that it's not widely known for its academic abilities in order to make a point about the complexity of the game.

He meant no harm. He did no harm.

Are you harmed?

The bit about he meant no harm and he did no harm....is dead on.
THIS is what I meant when I said thoughts or words are considered more sinister than actions in our society now.
A guy will make a joke (up to an individual to determine if it is funny or not) and people demand an apology (nothing worse that a P word comedian tweeting some apology for a joke) or demand he be fired ect. At the same time rioters are called protestors.
Honesty and common sense are nearly dead. There is nothing more offensive in our society now than honesty.

 

[Dodgersrf]

You're all, just a bunch of Anti-Skinites

 

[-X-]

Was it a joke?

He did no harm?

Yeah. It was a joke. You can tell by the delivery. It would be the same thing as saying, " ... like West Virginia, which, you know, isn't widely known for its academia or 5-star restaurants." The difference being, people in the Dominican are considered protected minorities in today's political landscape. So, you know, gotta fire the guy for being insensitive now, because he apparently inflicted irreparable emotional distress.

And, no. He did no harm.
Unless 'harm' now means hurting someone's feelings.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

alot of hypocrisy in this thread. this board went in meltdown mode when arians called fisher a 0.500 coach and said the cards d was the real d on the field.

so a race of people aren't supposed to get offended when some clown calls them unintelligent in the most condescending way?

.

 

[Alan]

There's a silver lining to this for all ROD posters that we should all keep in mind, especially because this is a thread about Bernie. Bernie's articles have been one of the few bones of contention amongst our brothers here at the ROD and it's not going to be a problem in the future for good or bad.:banana::rockon::cheers:

 

[-X-]

so a race of people aren't supposed to get offended when some clown calls them unintelligent in the most condescending way?

Who's denying a 'race of people' their feelings? I don't think anyone said they can't be offended if they feel that way. But then, that's to be expected whenever anyone says anything remotely derogatory about anything these days. I mean, I'm moving to South Carolina next month and all I hear is how backwards all of the people who live there are. So I can either be offended when I get there, or shrug it off and know it's untrue.

Shrug.

 

[-X-]

P.S.

COME ON FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kurtfaulk]

Who's denying a 'race of people' their feelings?

I'm guessing you've skipped quite a few posts in this thread.

.

 

[Lunchbox]

Um, no offense, but that is what you are supposed to do with opinion pieces...use stats that support your claims! Do you really expect people to write an opinion piece and then use stats to refute themself?

Bernie's columns were exactly what I expect if I am going to read a sports writer's opinions - they were for the most part his opinion and his alone. Disagreeing with someone's take on an issue does not make that person worthless or a hack or someone to be derided...

I hope that Bernie is on the PM drive slot and the Fast Lane is bumped to take out "The Turn". It would be a much better line-up IMO.

Fair enough and good point about opinion pieces.

Of course I wouldn't expect a writer to use stats that refute the opinion they are expressing. I just often felt that Bernie chose topics to talk about or approached them from angles that were calculated to elicit a reaction rather than write balanced pieces that took all sides of an argument into consideration and that was more what I was referring to in citing his use of stats.

If other folks find reading Bernie enjoyable I have no beef with that. I simply didn't like his style, his attitude in much of his work and felt he came across as calculating and insincere.

I do want to clarify though that I did not call him worthless or a hack. Personally I don't find his columns to my taste but don't assume that everyone shares that view.

 

[-X-]

I'm guessing you've skipped quite a few posts in this thread.

.

I don't see how that's possible. 50% of them are mine.

 

[jrry32]

Yeah. It was a joke. You can tell by the delivery. It would be the same thing as saying, " ... like West Virginia, which, you know, isn't widely known for its academia or 5-star restaurants." The difference being, people in the Dominican are considered protected minorities in today's political landscape. So, you know, gotta fire the guy for being insensitive now, because he apparently inflicted irreparable emotional distress.

And, no. He did no harm.
Unless 'harm' now means hurting someone's feelings.

Well yes, hurting someone's feelings is harm. Do you not feel like an asshole when you do it? Do you not feel guilty? Are we now only counting physical harm?

Joke or not, it was insensitive and tactless. If he were to say, "Marathons aren't particularly complex, you can tell because Africans always seem to win them and they aren't known for their scholastic achievement." Would that be any different? It's still a "joke" and it's still wrong. And he would deserve every bit of backlash he got.

 

[-X-]

Well yes, hurting someone's feelings is harm. Do you not feel like an icehole when you do it? Do you not feel guilty? Are we now only counting physical harm?

Joke or not, it was insensitive and tactless. If he were to say, "Marathons aren't particularly complex, you can tell because Africans always seem to win them and they aren't known for their scholastic achievement." Would that be any different? It's still a "joke" and it's still wrong. And he would deserve every bit of backlash he got.

If he were to say.

Well, he didn't.
And it's Kenyans. Not Africans.

 

[Corbin]

At this Time, I'd like a minute of silence, to "THANK GOD!!" and just say ....

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View attachment 8343

" Too bad he'll still be in St. Louis!!"

LMAo Dave... I was scrolling to see if anybody posted this! My feelings exactly!!

 

[Mojo Ram]

Hey, how about we don't judge people by the thickness of their skin?!

Yeah, I guess now I'm a skin-ist.