Don't pass off ignorance as wit

By Joe Fitzgerald Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - Updated 1m ago Her bosses called it “a breakdown in the system of editorial checks and balances,” but Jemele Hill wouldn’t have needed that monitoring if she’d known Eric. In trying to infuse her NBA coverage with loathing of the Celtics [team stats], the ESPN.com columnist abandoned all restraint by suggesting that rooting for the Shamrocks “was like saying Hitler was a victim,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. Correctly calling it “an absolutely unacceptable comparison,” the brass at ESPN wasted no time washing its hands of her odious prose, suspending her yesterday. To its credit, ESPN did not invoke Hill’s “right” to be offensive, but instead chose to reaffirm what we hear too seldom, that sometimes we have a responsibility not to do the things we have a right to do. There is... [read full story]