Dont like a website just use your audience to shut them down

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kevinpars
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Dont like a website just use your audience to shut them down

Post by kevinpars »

Suddenly, Don Imus doesn't look so bad. This strikes me as much worse as well as more calculated and irresponsible:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/ ... id=2830113

For those to lazy to link here is the ESPN Omnibudsman:
Shortly after introducing myself to ESPN's audience in my first column Thursday, I checked the ombudsman's mailbag. It was jammed with dozens of messages of outraged complaint against ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd, who had called on his listeners that afternoon to shut down an Internet site by flooding it with visitors beyond the capacity of its bandwidth.

The "random site" he chose to attack was thebiglead.com, a sports blog that is sometimes unmercifully critical of ESPN. "We shut it down in 90 seconds," Cowherd boasted on air. "We don't even know thebiglead." After a bit more gloating, he said "We apologize -- but just don't screw with us." Then he asked his listeners to "knock it out again, just for fun." The attack launched over the airwaves by Cowherd kept thebiglead.com shut down for more than 48 hours.

Some of the politer terms my correspondents used to describe Cowherd's behavior were immature, irresponsible, arrogant, malicious, destructive and dumb. I agree.

The official response from ESPN's communication department was: "Our airwaves should not be used for this purpose. We apologize." It is the kind of bland public statement that does little to assuage the anger and distrust of ESPN's audience over an episode like this. I could not tell from that statement how seriously ESPN regarded the offense, so I contacted Traug Keller, senior vice president, ESPN Radio, to get a clearer idea of ESPN's reaction.

Keller responded immediately to my request for an on-the-record statement. "We talked to Colin Cowherd, and we talked to all our radio talent, making it clear that you cannot do this," Keller said Friday. "Our airwaves are a trust, and not to be used to hurt anyone's business. Such attacks are off limits. Zero tolerance. I can't say it any stronger."

Keller said that he had not formulated a policy about such attacks on Internet sites until now because he had never imagined the possibility of them.

I appreciated Keller's quick, forthright response.

Now that ESPN Radio has such a policy, I presume such attacks will be treated as an offense that warrants suspension. In determining penalties for his airwave players, perhaps Keller should exchange notes with NBA commissioner David Stern and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

This is not the planned second posting I mentioned at the end of Thursday's introductory column. That will come later this week.

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Post by jimd »

ESPN has transformed from the likeable, underdog, niche network to a symbol of everything that's wrong with TV today. This is just another example. I have tried to listen to Cowherd in the afternoon's--he is pretty bad.

From a guy who used to watch SC twice a day while in college in the 90's, I think it is pretty sad. I barely can watch it anymore. The only shows I can stomach these days are PTI and Sports Reporters--if Lupica is not on.

I am probably just getting old.

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Post by Slumberland »

Oh man Cowherd is bad... like some poor man's Jim Rome, and that my friends is pretty poor. I was happy when they replaced him with Max Kellerman in NYC a few months back, but then Kellerman went on some rant about the women on SNL not being funny because women don't grow up with the same need to compensate for social deficiencies by developing a sense of humor like men do, and for some reason that frustrated me so much I turned of the radio and haven't listened to ESPN in months and don't miss it.

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Post by bdunn13 »

He will likely lose his job and ESPN and himself will be involved in a civil case.... I would not be suprised if criminal chargers are looked into either. If should not matter how big or small the site is. If it were Amazon or Yahoo he told them to attack, he would likely be in jail already.

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Post by dbdynsty25 »

bdunn13 wrote:He will likely lose his job and ESPN and himself will be involved in a civil case.... I would not be suprised if criminal chargers are looked into either. If should not matter how big or small the site is. If it were Amazon or Yahoo he told them to attack, he would likely be in jail already.
Riiiiight. He's a radio jock...he's not going anywhere and he won't get fired. They may very well sue the company (espn radio), but that still won't get him fired.

And I'm still trying to figure out how racism and stupidity is "better" than getting your listeners to shut down a site for a few hours. :roll:

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Post by bdunn13 »

Free thoughts and ideas as racism are rights protected in this country.

Deliberately getting people to attack someone or something is not and is illegal.

He committed a felony on the air.

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Post by dbdynsty25 »

Haha...a felony. That's hilarious.

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Post by ScoopBrady »

I don't think the word attack applies here, does it? I mean really, all they did was flood his website with hits so the bandwidth was exceeded. If that's an attack and considered a felony then this country is in worse shape than I thought.
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Post by dbdynsty25 »

ScoopBrady wrote:I don't think the word attack applies here, does it? I mean really, all they did was flood his website with hits so the bandwidth was exceeded. If that's an attack and considered a felony then this country is in worse shape than I thought.
Exactly. If there were monetary losses from the so-called attack, then fine, sue Cowherd and ESPN for the losses, but other than that...big f'n deal.

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Post by bdunn13 »

ScoopBrady wrote:I don't think the word attack applies here, does it? I mean really, all they did was flood his website with hits so the bandwidth was exceeded. If that's an attack and considered a felony then this country is in worse shape than I thought.
Its a denial of service "attack." Thats what its called. A kid was charged with a felony for a DOS last year when he told people on his blog to keep hitting refresh so he could crash the school computer. Of course he earlier changed grades at the school as was only charged with a misdemeanor.

Others have been charged(felonies) with coordinating DOS attacks on amazon and yahoo.

The case here is not any different.

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Post by EZSnappin »

dbdynsty25 wrote:
ScoopBrady wrote:I don't think the word attack applies here, does it? I mean really, all they did was flood his website with hits so the bandwidth was exceeded. If that's an attack and considered a felony then this country is in worse shape than I thought.
Exactly. If there were monetary losses from the so-called attack, then fine, sue Cowherd and ESPN for the losses, but other than that...big f'n deal.
If the monetary loss was over $5000 (which is likely, as the hosting company hosted multiple sites, which all went down when this "attack" occurred), than it is a crime under federal law. His intent was to initiate a denial of service attack by flooding the site, and it was self-stated as willful and malicious. It may not seem like a big deal, but it is the same as if he encouraged everyone to go down to some small business and fill up their store so no actual customers could shop.

The intent is what bothers me. This prick used his soapbox on the public airwaves to shut someone down. He used his voice to silence another.

Imus used his voice to remind people he's a bigot and a racist and a sexist. He didn't encourage other people to go to Rutgers and hold a "nappy headed ho" rally against the women's basketball team.

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Post by Leebo33 »

ScoopBrady wrote:I don't think the word attack applies here, does it? I mean really, all they did was flood his website with hits so the bandwidth was exceeded. If that's an attack and considered a felony then this country is in worse shape than I thought.
If someone shut down DSP with a DOS attack I'd be pissed! Prosecute to the fullest extent of the law :!: :!: :D

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Post by kevinpars »

I have no idea if Imus is racist or not, but inappropriate attempts at humor don't necessarily equate to racism. He is just an idiot saying idiot things - like he has been doing for years.

Cowherd, on the other hand, is doing something I find a lot more treacherous. Imagine if Jon Stewart go so pissed at Fox that he asked all his viewers to flood the Fox News site? What if Bill O'reilly asked his viewers to do the same to the New York Times website?

Basically this bozo didn't like the way some website portrayed his network so he used his audience to shut them down. Twice.

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Post by pk500 »

kevinpars wrote:I have no idea if Imus is racist or not, but inappropriate attempts at humor don't necessarily equate to racism. He is just an idiot saying idiot things - like he has been doing for years.
Exactly. And he's an idiot who entertains me every morning along with his staff, so I'm going to continue to listen to him every morning.

Imus also is an idiot who has taken his wealth to build a working cattle ranch for cancer-stricken children in New Mexico, a cause to which he lends a lot more than just money. Imus also is an idiot who, along with his wife, have brought the scourge of autism into much sharper focus among politicians and the general public.

The guy went too far in a dumb attempt to be funny. He has apologized upside-down twice on the air and also "manned up" and appeared in person on Al Sharpton's show this afternoon while Sharpton tried to plant all of these false accusations on Imus. Frankly, by the end of the interview, Sharpton looked like the moron and Imus the sage.

It's pretty ironic that rap stars white and black can call women "bitches" and "hos" in a rap song, but a white radio shock jock who calls a basketball team "nappy-headed hos" should be fired. It's OK for Ray Nagin to want to turn New Orleans into a "chocolate city," but Don Imus should be tarred and feathered for a cliff dive of stupidity.

As for Cowherd, that entire issue falls into WGAF territory for me. It actually speaks worse of Cowherd's audience than Cowherd that his lemming listeners actually would obey his infantile commands. Tells you a lot about the age and brainpower of the ESPN Radio listener.

Then again, there's an entire ESPN subculture that worships Bill Simmons and every syllable he writes, so I guess nothing that concerns ESPN and its regular listenership/readership/viewership should surprise me.

Take care,
PK
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Post by EZSnappin »

Doing good things does not preclude being a racist or a sexist or a bigot etc. People throughout history have done good things and yet been questionable in their beliefs and morals.

If this was the first time he made a racist joke, than fine, apology accepted. Since he and his staff have a long history of doing this exact thing - in particular with black female athletes - than no, I don't buy this PR blitz of sucking up to everyone left and right. Maybe if he had come back from a commercial last Wednesday and "manned up" I would buy it as "going too far to be funny". Waiting until you've been called out and a veritable sh*tstorm of negative publicity is coming down on you is not owning up to anything - it is just the same old CYA we see from all these clowns.

He looked good compared to Sharpton? Small accomplishment.

Should he be fired for what he said? No. But if his sponsors choose not to be associated with him, I don't have a problem with it. If that gets him fired, then too bad.

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Post by pk500 »

Here's my point as a longtime Imus listener: The I-Man has taken shots at EVERYONE, regardless of skin tone or gender. He has offended every group at some time or another.

It's not like he's a choir boy for 200 days per year on the air and then decides to take two days per year to pick only on black men or black women.

It's not justification for what he said. That was wrong. But if you're going to judge Imus, then you better assume that he hates EVERYONE except for the sick kids on his cattle ranch and kids with autism because he takes shots at everyone.

He has said WAY worse things about Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton, for example. I guess that's OK because they're white public figures.

Again, what he said was wrong. Very wrong. But there are a lot of people who never have listened to "Imus in the Morning" -- not sure if that's true or not in your case, EZ -- who are calling for his head.

Those bobbing-head dolls are almost as dangerous as Don Imus when he opens his mouth without engaging his brain.

The great irony of this entire situation is that if Imus isn't fired, all of this publicity from the outraged, including Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson and Al "Diamond Merchants" and "White Interlopers" Sharpton, only will get more eyeballs and ear canals to pay attention to Imus' show, raising ratings.

Take care,
PK
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Post by EZSnappin »

pk500 wrote:It's not justification for what he said. That was wrong. But if you're going to judge Imus, then you better assume that he hates EVERYONE except for the sick kids on his cattle ranch and kids with autism because he takes shots at everyone.
Again, what he said was wrong. Very wrong. But there are a lot of people who never have listened to "Imus in the Morning" -- not sure if that's true or not in your case, EZ -- who are calling for his head.
From my limited listening, I quickly came to realize I'm not a fan. I'll take your word that he hates everyone - In clips I've seen and heard he rails on African-Americans, women, Hispanics and Jews. So he's certainly got most of his minority hatred covered.

I just don't find cracking on someone based on innate characteristics amusing. People DO enough dumb crap we can hammer them for (like in this case, Imus) that there should be plenty of legit ammo for funny observations.

And like I said, I don't think he should be fired. But I also don't buy any of the apology crap. Old men with old ideas don't get a free pass, and he deserves all the heat he's getting for being an ass.

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Post by Jackdog »

pk500 wrote:Here's my point as a longtime Imus listener: The I-Man has taken shots at EVERYONE, regardless of skin tone or gender. He has offended every group at some time or another.

It's not like he's a choir boy for 200 days per year on the air and then decides to take two days per year to pick only on black men or black women.

It's not justification for what he said. That was wrong. But if you're going to judge Imus, then you better assume that he hates EVERYONE except for the sick kids on his cattle ranch and kids with autism because he takes shots at everyone.

He has said WAY worse things about Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton, for example. I guess that's OK because they're white public figures.

Again, what he said was wrong. Very wrong. But there are a lot of people who never have listened to "Imus in the Morning" -- not sure if that's true or not in your case, EZ -- who are calling for his head.

Those bobbing-head dolls are almost as dangerous as Don Imus when he opens his mouth without engaging his brain.

The great irony of this entire situation is that if Imus isn't fired, all of this publicity from the outraged, including Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson and Al "Diamond Merchants" and "White Interlopers" Sharpton, only will get more eyeballs and ear canals to pay attention to Imus' show, raising ratings.

Take care,
PK
You are on point my friend. I am a big Imus fan and as a black man found had no problem with what he said. Why? Because he's a comedian. He blasts everyone. No one is safe and I dig him because of it. I cannot uphold the freedom of speech an entertainer has based on his race. If so that would make me a racist. I am tired of the double standards that the idiots you mentioned above seem to thrive on. If I can laugh at Chris Rock cracking on white folks then I can laugh at Imus cracking on my folks. I heard the joke live and I laughed. This is being made way bigger than what it is.

On the other hand,public figures like Jackson,Nagyn and Sharpton all have made comments that would have cost any white politician their job. Period. Same holds true with idiots like Micheal Irvin and his comment about Tony Romo. Steve Lyons gets fired for a joke he didn't even mention race in and Irvin got to keep his job and hurt our eardrums for the rest of the year. Bullshit. double standards.

Imus is not a racist. He helps kids of all colors. He helps soldiers of all colors. That alone will keep me going to bat for a man that speaks his mind and entertains the hell out of me every morning. Imus also manned up and didn't check into rehab after finding out his joke offended people. He didn't backtrack or lie he simply said he was sorry to whoever he offended. I am sorry he has had to go through this.
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Post by Brando70 »

Don Imus is still alive?

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Post by kevinpars »

Very good points PK. I was going to point out the ranch, but was too lazy to keep writing. And we have discussed the politically correct stuff around here for years. Some stuff bothers me and some doesn't. But while i personally feel like Imus might be a little crazy, he is crazy in an all encompassing way. I don't think he would be able to get the high profile people on his show he does if he was a racist.

We used to get Imus down here on a sports radio station (790 the zone) and the point person at the time (Steak Shapiro) used to be on Imus for sports once in a while. When 790's ratings fell, Steak changed things around and dropped Imus. On the last morning Imus was on 790, Imus started attacking Steak with a lot of personal information about his ex wife, etc. 790 ended up cutting off Imus midshow and playing reruns of old sports shows. Believe me, the ladies of Rutgers got off a lot easier than Steak Shapiro.

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Post by Brando70 »

I have no problem with racial humor, and I think we are too sensitive about it. However, I think if you do racial humor, it hopefully is to show the idiocy of racism. Blazing Saddles is a perfect example of this, and I think Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle do this with their acts.

The problem with Imus (and also with someone like Carlos Mencia) is that the racial sterotype is the punchline. Not only is that lazy comedy that anyone's grumpy uncle can do, I think it tends to promote those very stereotypes.

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