Don Cherry Fired by SN - Poll Added

[cannon7]

Originally Posted by ripTDR

Ughh, Facebook has become unbearable. A lot of people who've never watched hockey are all of a sudden Don Cherry supporters, and the sad part is, they are blaming CBC for all this.

Why is that the sad part? It's the silver lining if you ask me.

[crapshoot]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Yes, the term has lost much of its original meaning. What would you call it?

Nothing. Politically correct as a common denomintator for left wing views holds as much water as racist or whatever as a common denominator for right wing views. It's entering Godwin's law territory at this point really. Everything is a spectrum, and boiling it down to black or white does not provide anything. I don't think anything is a poison, I think that we, together, as a global society sorely need to learn and come to terms with a lot of stuff, and in time we probably will, just like we've done before.

Sorry for drifting very, very far off topic here, but it's an interesting subject.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by ripTDR

Ughh, Facebook has become unbearable. A lot of people who've never watched hockey are all of a sudden Don Cherry supporters, and the sad part is, they are blaming CBC for all this.

A lot of people who never watched hockey? Did they actually say they never watched hockey before but are still supporting Don Cherry?

[JackIsBack]

I often disagreed with Cherry, even his hockey comments (some examples):

1) Use of visors - he often criticized "European" plays for wearing them and that good old Canadians boys never did (or should) - I thought it was just smart to protect ones eyes if the one could stand wearing them - good on them.

2) During a Calgary Flames vs. Detroit game.... Yzerman pretended his stick was broken... took it over to the bench and handed it to the equipment guy who took his stick to the stick rack and pretended to grab a new one and handed back Yzerman the original stick. They did this to give the players on the ice more time to rest - Cherry pointed out how this was a good veteran move. I think it's cheating.

3) Dominik Hasek put his glove hand over puck, clearly over the line, and slowly pulled his hand towards his body and the puck out of the net - Cherry thought this was a good move... I think the goal should count and Hasek should get 2 minutes for unsportsman like conduct.

These are just a few examples.... but... who cares... why would I get upset about his comments, I take his comments with a grain a salt and I just let the ones I disagree with slide off my back. We are living in a victim culture and we are searching to be offended.... and often the ones pretending to be offended are ones that are not part of the group supposedly offended - it's crazy. Don Cherry could have said his comments about a group I belong to... and I wouldn't ask him to be fired or punished in some way, I just wouldn't listen to him or wouldn't believe in his statement(s)... I can make up my own mind and judgement... and I would simply choose NOT TO BE A VICTIM.

I now the people complaining are perfect - but just in case their not, I think we should all just relax and have a little understanding and forgiveness in our hearts and not jump all over some stupid comment someone else made - I for one am not perfect and I often say things that come out sounding foolish.... but they are just words - you can choose to rise about them and be a champion and not a victim.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Why is that the sad part? It's the silver lining if you ask me.

The silver lining for me is that my Facebook feed is filled with people who are saying “finally Sportsnet took a stand against this vitriol”. So I guess everyone has a silver lining.

[blankall]

This is not a free speech issue. Cherry is not going to jail. This is a business issue. SN is a business. When you keep a guy like Cherry, who is a repeat offender, on, it implies you support his views. You simply can't have your spokespeople making comments like this.

Cherry is irrelevant and time has passed him by. He was kept on SN for nostalgic reasons, but his rants outweighed the positives a long time ago. Even his Rock Em Sockem videos are outdated. Cheesy music over top of a bunch of hits, that are now mostly illegal.

[Point Blank]

Originally Posted by cannon7

IMO, the claim that all immigrants fall into a specific race is more racist than what Cherry said. Guess what Cherry said is only offensive because there is a preconceived notion of what skin color immigrants have?

What does one have to do with the other?

Yeah that’s what the “you people” is referring to. Groups of visible minorities grouped into one. Becoming self-aware yet?

[Northendzone]

given we are 37 pages in, this has likely been mentioned, but in case it has not i will mention it.

saw a comment on twitter noting how usually coaches corner is taped since the first periods of the early games do not end at the same time. if this segment was taped, that meant it passed thru an early review process. in addition, the tweet also noted how the time delay may have been on as well.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by cannon7

While this is technically true as Cherry was employed by SN and as such is not being directly punished by the Canadian government for his speech -- it was on a show produced in partnership with a government-funded entity (CBC). Imagine it was CBC doing the firing...

Just because it is legal doesn't make it right. And what do you think the impact will be for punishing a public figure for making an insensitive observation? Are all insensitive observations expressed aloud fireable offenses? Is that the standard we want to set? Because Cherry is only the latest in a long line of standard setting in this direction.

There's a term for this: the chilling effect.

It’s not “technically true”. It’s flat out true.

If CBC fired someone they pay 7 figures to on their national broadcast? It wouldn’t be a free speech issue.

And again, since ‘legality’ has nothing to do with this, I’m assuming your ‘chilling effect’ link has a sentence in it somewhere where they aren’t discussing legal matters.... which is mostly what that link discusses. Because, again, and I feel like you’re missing this, this isn’t a legal matter.

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

given we are 37 pages in, this has likely been mentioned, but in case it has not i will mention it.

saw a comment on twitter noting how usually coaches corner is taped since the first periods of the early games do not end at the same time. if this segment was taped, that meant it passed thru an early review process. in addition, the tweet also noted how the time delay may have been on as well.

Queue the “SN set him up so they could fire him” conspiracies.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by cannon7

IMO, the claim that all immigrants fall into a specific race is more racist than what Cherry said. Guess what Cherry said is only offensive because there is a preconceived notion of what skin color immigrants have?

So at best Cherry just thinks that white people who don't wear poppies are also immigrants who are also enjoying 'our' milk and honey?


I'm not sure that makes it all that much better.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Dion

Free speech has it's limitations when you're employed by someone else. You can't just say whatever you want and not have consequences for your actions. SN would have lost it's sponsors had they let Cherry stay.
Plus Rogers reputation would have gone down the toilet.
.

I'd rather say that the profit sector is highly sensitive to what, in this case, can be considered negative publicity. Any cost that affects their bottom line will be moved on to the customer or in this case, their employee. Don Cherry or any other person can still say these things publicly, they just pay an immediate price. And DC can go on with his racist innuendo on his own show or podcast, he won't face legal action anytime soon (at least not to my understanding).

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

Again...most folks feel that this is likely the straw that broke the camel's back in specific regards to Cherry and the things he's had to say over the years.

I'd raise two points here. First, the rise of the PC culture (over sensitivity, call it whatever you want) is real and at least in US peaked around 2015 in the college campuses. I don't think it's reasonable to say it doesn't have any part in Sportsnet's decision to fire DC. Second, many in this thread ( not that it's representative of anything) think that the reason he ultimately got fired was because he didn't apologize. Maybe this was the last straw that broke the camel's back, maybe it was the lack of apology, maybe both, maybe neither.

This does raise an interesting question though since DC has now been fired. Would SN have settled with an apology? Or was the pressure too high this time.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

given we are 37 pages in, this has likely been mentioned, but in case it has not i will mention it.

saw a comment on twitter noting how usually coaches corner is taped since the first periods of the early games do not end at the same time. if this segment was taped, that meant it passed thru an early review process. in addition, the tweet also noted how the time delay may have been on as well.

Not really, no. It might be on a slight delay at most, but it's not taped in the early afternoon, for instance. It's basically done very late in the first period at the earliest, if not live for the first game to go intermission then timeshifted for subsequent games.

[MrButtons]

Originally Posted by JackIsBack

2) During a Calgary Flames vs. Detroit game.... Yzerman pretended his stick was broken... took it over to the bench and handed it to the equipment guy who took his stick to the stick rack and pretended to grab a new one and handed back Yzerman the original stick. They did this to give the players on the ice more time to rest - Cherry pointed out how this was a good veteran move. I think it's cheating.

Good post don't want to take away from it but it took me way too long to realize this happened during a whistle. I definitely originally thought it was during play which confused the heck outta me.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by JackIsBack

I often disagreed with Cherry, even his hockey comments (some examples):

1) Use of visors - he often criticized "European" plays for wearing them and that good old Canadians boys never did (or should) - I thought it was just smart to protect ones eyes if the one could stand wearing them - good on them.

2) During a Calgary Flames vs. Detroit game.... Yzerman pretended his stick was broken... took it over to the bench and handed it to the equipment guy who took his stick to the stick rack and pretended to grab a new one and handed back Yzerman the original stick. They did this to give the players on the ice more time to rest - Cherry pointed out how this was a good veteran move. I think it's cheating.

3) Dominik Hasek put his glove hand over puck, clearly over the line, and slowly pulled his hand towards his body and the puck out of the net - Cherry thought this was a good move... I think the goal should count and Hasek should get 2 minutes for unsportsman like conduct.

These are just a few examples.... but... who cares... why would I get upset about his comments, I take his comments with a grain a salt and I just let the ones I disagree with slide off my back. We are living in a victim culture and we are searching to be offended.... and often the ones pretending to be offended are ones that are not part of the group supposedly offended - it's crazy. Don Cherry could have said his comments about a group I belong to... and I wouldn't ask him to be fired or punished in some way, I just wouldn't listen to him or wouldn't believe in his statement(s)... I can make up my own mind and judgement... and I would simply choose NOT TO BE A VICTIM.

I now the people complaining are perfect - but just in case their not, I think we should all just relax and have a little understanding and forgiveness in our hearts and not jump all over some stupid comment someone else made - I for one am not perfect and I often say things that come out sounding foolish.... but they are just words - you can choose to rise about them and be a champion and not a victim.

Cherry isn't a vet, yet he gets not only to be outraged about his probably false impression and chooses to be a victim on behalf of vets.

People would have been more forgiving if Cherry owned up to what he did. He hasn't.

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by Point Blank

Yeah that’s what the “you people” is referring to. Groups of visible minorities grouped into one. Becoming self-aware yet?

You are wrong. If you ever watched Don, you would know that among others “you people” meant pinkos, Russians, Frenchies, Soft Europeans who wore visors, and until he apologized, even Stew Grimson and Chris Nilan.

Still, in his time, Don was a great entertainer and showman, his suits were part of that act, he never wore those costumes between shows.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Don't think it's moot. The 88% white country has issues regarding race. It's the 88%, not the 12%, who are desperate to hide that fact and thus will punish any reminder of it. Thus these unaddressable racial issues will go on unresolved. Political correctness is cultural poison.

What exactly are you talking about? Quit dancing and say what you mean.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Saqe

I'd raise two points here. First, the rise of the PC culture (over sensitivity, call it whatever you want) is real and at least in US peaked around 2015 in the college campuses. I don't think it's reasonable to say it doesn't have any part in Sportsnet's decision to fire DC.

“Political correctness” has been a conservative dog whistle for 30 years. Whatever “peak” has be subscribed by the commentators that continue to drive it’s existence as a real and dangerous thing.

The fact is, people just don’t want to face criticism for actions that were ok once upon a time. And who, naturally, levies that criticism? Young people, who are also naturally more progressive. Just like our parents were compared to their parents, and so on.

I think blaming PC culture, or cancel culture, or internet warriors, or whatever, it’s all the same and it’s all meaningless. People need to assign blame to a distasteful “other” instead of coming to terms that views they may hold are no longer in-step with society. You’ve got people blaming these “groups,” the CBC, Trudeau supporters, even people who bought a Chris Brown album (lol). Inventing someone to blame doesn’t seem a little mad to you? That, or they’re twisting to excuse the comment, it’s not the definition of racism, he meant immigrants who leech off society, actually immigrants don’t know who Don Cherry is so it’s ok, actually he meant all Canadians, actually he meant Scottish Canadians....

It’s no so hard to see that the problem isn’t the made up “PC culture” but instead people who can’t be honest with themselves and can’t stand the idea of reasonable, normal people disagreeing with them. So they invent a boogeyman instead.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

You are wrong. If you ever watched Don, you would know that among others “you people” meant pinkos, Russians, Frenchies, Soft Europeans who wore visors, and until he apologized, even Stew Grimson and Chris Nilan.

Still, in his time, Don was a great entertainer and showman, his suits were part of that act, he never wore those costumes between shows.

Well, in this case, "you people" was combined with "come here". So, immigrants. And unless he asked white folks without poppies for background info, he was talking about visible minorities.

People are going to need some serious physical therapy after twisting themselves into pretzels trying to make Cherry's statement benign. Look, if it was, the network and Maclean would just say so instead of increasing the heat on Cherry. Nope, it was what it sounded like.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

You are wrong. If you ever watched Don, you would know that among others “you people” meant pinkos, Russians, Frenchies, Soft Europeans who wore visors, and until he apologized, even Stew Grimson and Chris Nilan.

exactly. He's always been a raging xenophobe, it's shocking to me that some will still defend him.