Good Suspension, Wrong Reason
I don’t know if any of you have been following the story about the morning team at Hot 97 in New York who played a “We Are the World” parody making fun of the Tsunami. The song was racist against Asians and tasteless to be sure. They have now been suspended. They are probably going to be fired soon.
- Show host Miss Jones and her entire morning team were indefinitely suspended Wednesday after a week of growing public outcry — and after a number of high-profile advertisers began pulling their support from the station.
This is the only reason that the company needs to fire them. They created a show that advertisers felt the need to pull away from. This should be the end of it, but it goes further.
- “What happened is morally and socially indefensible,” Rick Cummings, president of Emmis Radio, which owns Hot 97, said yesterday in an statement. “All involved, myself included, are ashamed and deeply sorry.”
- What began as a cruel joke about a natural disaster has turned into a catastrophe for Hot 97 (WQHT/97.1 FM). The song, which first aired Jan. 18, included slurs against Asians and jokes about floating bodies and orphaned children. It was set to the tune of the 1985 famine-relief song “We Are The World.”
Is it tasteless? Yes. Was it bad judgement? Yes. Was it indecent? Nope. Racist speech isn’t within the FCC guidelines. The only reason that these people should be fired technically is because they created a show that advertisers pulled away from. They hurt the bottom line. The company shouldn’t even have to make another judgement beyond that.
After hearing the song, I have another position as well. Please write better parody songs. It was a bad parody song. The offensive words didn’t rhyme and the singing was beyond defensible. If you are going to go out on a limb with a potentially offensive parody song, at least make it good and funny.
Maybe it is too soon to be joking about the tsunami.
Comments
Comedic timing is as important as content. The song wasn’t even worth a slight chuckle, and I agree it was too soon to joke about the tsunami.
Free speech usually doesn’t mean tactful speech.
The other possible reason/excuse for firing these people would be breach of contract. They may well have language in their individual employment agreements prohibiting certain kinds of content or behavior.
I just have to wonder… I think it is too early for a joke about the tsunami and Deezo apparently agrees, but what if someone wrote a really good and creative parody? Would this reaction be different if the song had been any good in terms of a parody?
with any disaster that tolls over 100,000 bodies, usually there is a 2 month grace period before you can use said tragedy as the butt of a joke. and yes, this parody was one of the all-time worst ever. I wonder if weird Al will do some kind of cover?
and lets face it. the reason they got fired is because they hurt the company line (not the band). The management at hot 97 would have had trouble with advertisement after so many groups of people with pull were offended.
I forget…when did the really good Bhopal jokes start coming out?
It doesn’t matter how long you wait, no time is appropriate to make a joke about the disaster and death of over 150,000 people.
Probably not in the manner that the song attempted, but I can find some humor in it, for example the way that some news outlets always list off the number of Americans who have died even though as a statistic, it is hardly noteworthy.
But I think you are right that no matter how much time passes, lyrics that include the word “chink” and the line “swim you bitches swim” will not be funny.