Thursday, May 20, 2010
Mitch Landrieu demands apology from Fox Sports' Chris Myers over remarks Myers made about Katrina victims
Posted by Kevin Allman on Thu, May 20, 2010 at 9:56 PM
Well, he's not quite threatening to "cold-cock" him, but Mayor Mitch Landrieu seems to have been mighty displeased with Chris Myers, the former WWL-TV sportsguy who made disparaging remarks about New Orleans earlier this week when he guest-hosted The Dan Patrick Show. Forgetting his Crescent City roots (and his manners), Myers -- who couldn't carry Jim Henderson's jock -- used Dan Patrick's mic to express the following:
It's a great country here. We have disasters ... issues when people pull together and help themselves and I thought the people in Tennessee, unlike -- I'm not going to name names -- when a natural disaster hits people weren't standing on a rooftop trying to blame the government, okay. They helped each other out through this. And Mike Helton, president of NASCAR, Tony Stewart, among some drivers went from the race over to the middle Tennesee area where still a lot of hardworking, tax-paying, legal American citizens have been affected by the floods and are trying to rebuild their lives and they are helping out.
(Because, you know, we New Orleanians aren't "hardworking, taxpaying legal American citizens." Or something.)
Fox Sports president Ed Goren said yesterday there would be "internal discussions" with Myers, but that wasn't enough for Landrieu, who wrote the following letter to Goren:
The comments made by Chris Myers are offensive and unacceptable and we are demanding an apology. I am especially disappointed in Chris because New Orleans, as he described, is a place he "once called home" ... This is not Nashville versus New Orleans. And anyone who dares to draw such a comparison is being divisive and reckless.
Mayor's full of some ginger. The whole letter is below.
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Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
Great letter, but, uh, Mitch might wanna invest in a proofreader. "Unites Sates"
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Not sure what Myers has to apologize for. New Orleanians did stand around blaming the government.
I'm pretty sure the folks were standing on their rooftop wondering if they were going to die. And I don't know if he knows it or not but the government admitted it was their fault.
We're staying with relatives in Nashville on our way down to New Orleans in early June. I'll be sure to get some reactions on tape from the hardworking, legal, taxpaying locals.
After the past five years, this just makes me fairly giddy. We have a mayor that actually gives a d--n.
Wev: Don't forget, Nagin started the second term giving a damn. Or at least we thought he did. I still fairly certain that his profanity-laced tirade on the radio was the reason he got re-elected.
I don't know why he demanded an apology from Meyers. It doesn't take the comment away. I'm glad he spoke up for the city he represents, but make no mistake, it is likely he only did to appease the critics who would call for his head if he had not.
