...Coming Out

It seems like there was coming out day and a lot of people missed the bandwagon. Cnn's Don Lemon announced that he was gay in The New York Times and so far all is good. He wrote about it in his memoir that is coming out next month. The staff and crew at CNN are behind him 100%, though he never hid it form them, so he has nothing to worry about. Working at CNN, I always had a feeling that he was gay, though I never thought it was important enough to ask him. Growing up a black guy in Louisiana Lemon said he feared the backlash from the industry and the African American community and that he almost did not write about his sexuality in his book but decided to keep it in after all. Good for you Don.

On the other end of this stick there is the President of the Phoenix Suns Rick Welts who announced that he was gay in The New York Times as well. Are these two dating? Jokes! This makes for the 1st time an active member of an American professional sports team has come out as being gay while still apart of tan organization. Many athletes say they would support a fellow teammate if they came out as being gay, but for a top level management member to come out is good as well. Rick came out to several high-profile friends including David Stern (NBA Commissioner), Bill Russell and Steve Nash(Star Player for the Suns). He also tells how Welts went from a Seattle ball boy as a teenager in the '70s to the No. 3 employee in the entire NBA by the late-'90s. He worked as public relations director for the Sonics during their championship season of 1979, created All-Star Weekend, and played a major role into turning the NBA into a global force. Despite that success, he was unable to discuss his personal life, including the death of his long-time partner, not just in public, but with friends and colleagues, as well. Could this possibly lead to a gay athlete coming out while in the prime of his career? Maybe later this decade or next. It is still a highly charged homophobic arena, sports in general, and this is America not Europe. We may be liberal in the streets, but our values are conservative.

I am going to give both of these men a Digit Up for possibly risking their careers to come out. Good for you guys and now we all know.

...Piers Morgan

Do I love Madonna? Did the sun rise? Yes I know at times she has moments that you wish she could take back, but for better or worse she is who she is ans that is why I love her. Piers Morgan on the other hand does not. He recently told Billy Bush on Access Hollywood that she committed a "series of crimes" and he has banned her form his new show on CNN Piers Morgan Tonight. In fact her refers to her as "an irritant in my life for 20 years". What were these "crimes"? "Madonna and I, we've never really seen eye-to-eye. There was a bread roll throwing incident in London in the mid '90s; there was an incident at a hotel in the south of France [at] the Cannes Film Festival involving a photographer and a bodyguard; there's been an incident involving a pub owned by her recently departed husband, Guy Ritchie, where my brother was the manager." He also calls her "boring" and "annoying", but apparently the straw that broke the camel's back was this, "You know the worst thing Madonna did to me? Madonna's publicist once said to me, 'Listen to me, Madonna is not pregnant,' when I was running a newspaper. And I said, 'Are you sure?' She said, 'Listen to me, Piers. Madonna is not pregnant.' The next day, they announced [the news] on a rival newspaper's website." Ouch. I am sure she cannot sleep at night. He says the only way she can come on his show is if she gets down on one knee and begs for his apology on television or the middle of Times Square. I think that it is petty, but he is who he is. I am sure his show will do below well, but not much is expected form CNN anymore after 8PM. I am going to give Piers a Digit Down. This is not very elegant or polite of him, especially as a British man he should know better.

...Rick Sanchez

After taking a day to think about this I am now ready to talk about it. Rick Sanchez, my former boss, was fired from CNN after he made some controversial comments about Jon Stewart and Jews. He called Jon Stewart a "bigot". Actually you can hear the radio interview here:








Although I do not agree with what he said, I do see the point h was trying to make. As with most comments that become controversial if he would have thought about what he was going to say before saying it he would have expressed his feelings in a more educated and more thoughtful way. Either way Rick is fired and who knows what the future holds for him. I do think he will land another job somewhere in the near future and I hope he and his family is doing well. For the time being though I am going to give Rick Sanchez a Digit Down because he just should have thought about what he was saying before saying what he said.

...Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan will be taking over for Larry King once he retires later this year. Piers is known for his harsh judging on "America's Got Talent" and for his journalist show in the U.K. He will host a show similar to his in the U.K. and it will be sort of like Larry King Live, but not as formal, I assume. No one is really surprised by this news, he was rumored to be getting the job even before Larry announced his retirement. CNN is struggling in the ratings and I do not know if this is the answer. In October they will debut a new show staring former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and columnist Kathleen Parker. I see more hard times in their future if this is supposed to be their answer. You cannot rest is all on Anderson Cooper's shoulders, especially sense eventually people are going to get tired of the guessing game, that is the game where you try to figure out if he is gay or straight, hint, not straight. I am giving this move a Digit Down. Larry wanted Ryan Seacrest to take over, that would ave been better but even that would not save the networks ratings, but it would still be a better choice over Piers Morgan.

...Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Dr. Laura Schlessinger has announced live on Larry King Live Tuesday night that she is ending her at the end of the year when her contract expires. She said that she is not necessarily leaving because of her conversation last week with a caller in which she said nigger 11 times in less than 5 minutes, but because she wants to "regain her First Amendment rights." Dr. Laura said that she is not quitting or retiring, she is just going to do things differently so that she can feel freer. In her own words she said, "I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry — some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates and sponsors." I understand what she is saying and I get it, but I do not think that she should leave her show. Two sponsors left her show, General Motors and Motel 6, and I guess more would have followed, but who really knows. To be fair she never actually called the caller a nigger, she just used the word a lot. She apologized the very next day but some felt that she should have been fired. Dr. Laura had this to say about that, "To imagine that there are people who refuse to accept an apology because they have an agenda and would like me silenced — I'm done with that." Understandable. But I do not lie quitters. She went through controversy before, many times, and it did not move her, literally. Race is a much tougher subject to escape though. But again I do not like quitters so I am going to give Dr. Laura a Digit Down.