He’s suing the WWL for wrongful termination. His defense is rather artfully phrased.
… Franklin was fired after remarks he made to sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards. The lawsuit states “the brief and innocuous personal conversation in no way constituted a `failure to fully perform.'”
Get The Picture 
Go Ron!! We’ve got your back, baby!!
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Was this as bad as Kornheiser comments? One was on the air, one was off the air. WWL is drinking too many drinks from the politically correct well.
I have made a major decision in my home….I will not call my wife honey, sweetie, babe or any other term. May be grounds for divorce.
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Or even worse, you have to stay married to her.
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Kornheiser’s fault was criticizing a fellow ESPN employee’s attire on air while doing an ESPN radio show (regardless of whether or not the criticism was valid). He forced the WWL’s hand with that one…if they let it go, they’re going to be in hot water for not promoting a workplace of equality.
Franklin (already on a short leash for the Holly Rowe stuff), on the other hand, made a blatantly sexist comment to a female co-worker, then when called upon it, responded by calling her an asshole. Uncle Ron clearly has some issues with sexism, so it’s time to stop defending him.
I know one thing for certain…if I were out somewhere and someone were as cavalier and dismissive to my mother, sister, or girlfriend as Uncle Ron was to Jeannine Edwards, it would very quickly turn into an ugly situation.
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+100
I enjoyed Ron’s dulcet tones as much as anyone, but the guy obviously has issues. He’d likely be fired from most corporate environments these days for those repeated comments, and given that he obviously doesn’t care, I can’t defend him.
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Agreed. Franklin is obviously an asshole himself and I have absolutely no sympathy for him.
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Let me take the opposite side of this just for the sake of a full and fair hearing. Ever heard of free speech? Not the government/constitutionally mandated legal kind but the marketplace of ideas kind. The kind where you get to say anything you want and people can accept it or reject it as THEY see fit–not some bluenosed corporate plutocrat. Where does ESPN or any other network get off making my decisions for me about what someone can say or I can hear? The government can’t do that, so why should some damn corporation? And while we’re at it why does some interest group like NOW, the NAACP or MADD get to control what we hear by prodding a network, business or other entity into firing/suspending/disciplining somebody for saying something that group’s leaders don’t like? We are on a slippery slope here. Either you believe in free speech or you don’t. Either you think that you (and everybody else) have the right to make up your mind about whether what someone said it right or not, or you don’t. I believe (perhaps incorrectly) that I am smart enough to make my own decisions about whether what Ron Franklin said about Jeannine Edwards is a bunch of hooey or not. If he says enough stuff that is BS then the public won’t watch him anymore and he will lose his job for the right reason–that people don’t want to hear him any more. But I am damn sick and tired of some faceless and nameless person hidden inside of some organization deciding what is politically correct and what can be said and what can’t be said.
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They’re not telling him he can’t say the things he wants to say, they’re telling him he can’t say them and expect to be employed by ESPN. Additionally, they’re not telling you (or anyone else for that matter) to discount him. They run the show, though, and if they don’t want Uncle Ron giving them a bad name by going around and insulting every other sideline reporter he sees, then they can tell him to hit the road. You have to understand, some of those sideline reporters are a lot more valuable to ESPN than Uncle Ron. Erin Andrews, for instance, brings in a lot of viewers. She makes ESPN a substantial amount of money, be it on GameDay or doing broadcasts.
As for your point about “if he says enough stuff that is BS then the public won’t watch him anymore”…that’s simply untrue. The public will watch whoever ESPN puts in front of them because they have no other choice. Lou Holtz spouts more crap than almost anyone, and yet he still had his Dr. Lou segment every thursday for the past two years. Why? Because people have no other option for college football on thursdays. ESPN is it. I think Bob Davie and Mark Jones, for instance, are terrible, but when the Georgia game is only being aired on ESPNU, do I have a choice?
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Weak soup HTG. It’s OK for ESPN to suppress free speech because they have other announcers to plug into the spot and people will have to watch anyway? Like I said, you either believe in free speech or you don’t. Apparently you don’t so you just don’t get it. Freedom of speech isn’t supposed to be about $$$$.
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Oh, Jesus Christ, man. Come off of the high horse. “You either believe in free speech or you don’t”? The rights we enjoy as Americans are only good until they infringe upon others’ rights. Yes, there’s a right to free speech. There’s also a right to being treated with equality in the workplace regardless or race, gender, sexual orientation and so on. If Uncle Ron had made this statement to Jeannine Edwards in his living room, then by all means, he would have had the right…but he has to understand you can’t do that in the workplace. Either you understand modern equality rights or you don’t. Apparently you don’t, so you just don’t get it. Freedom of speech isn’t about being able to insult anyone you want to whenever you want.
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And that, Sir, is exactly why we need to bring back dueling.
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I’ll agree with you there. If dueling were around, Uncle Ron might have learned to shut his mouth sooner. I can imagine he’s a bit of a prick.
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Good for you Ron. Now let’s see you win this suit so UGA can hire you as our play-by-play man.
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Because, Sweetcheeks, Uncle Ron never fails to fully perform.
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Please tell me that the lawsuit goes on to add, “That’s what she said.”
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Hope he get Leach as his Lawyer.
Whatever school hires Leach should go ahead and hire Ron to do the play by play as ESPN will NEVER mention that school again, you think the hate to UGA is bad.
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I’d like to know the gender of the judge and legal teams on this. Just for grins.
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He’d better press charges in Utah.
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I really hope he wins this case. ESPN’s excessively PC nature needs a kick in the shins. And these sideline reporter ‘hos need to be eliminated from sports broadcasting. They add nothing and actually are a disservice to talented women working in journalism and other fields.
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Oh give me a break, there is literally no defense for this. The only defense people are giving is the whole “ESPN is too PC, boooo” spiel. I have yet to see anyone actually give a defense of what Uncle Ron said. When you can’t defend the defendant and can only attack the plaintiff, you generally don’t have much of a case.
Oh, and I’m sure all of the other talented women working in journalism and other fields are just wild about you calling the sideline reporters “hos”.
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These female sideline “reporters,” aka eye-candy, sports bimbos, etc, bring no experience and even less strategical insight to the games they cover.
Like the girls that carry signs between boxing rounds, they’re there for one reason, and you know what that is. If the worst thing that happens to a woman who gets paid to perform such a job is to be called “sweetcheeks,” maybe she’s getting off lightly (E. Andrews’ stalker, anyone?).
I think Uncle Ron, having seen this phenomenon blossom during his years of broadcasting, is calling ’em like he sees ’em.
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That’s fine. Uncle Ron’s entitled to his opinion as much as the next guy, but in this day and age, he has to learn to keep his opinion to himself. I don’t have any issue with his personal feelings about it, I just don’t have any sympathy for him when he’s fired for making sexist comments (again).
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If Uncle Ron and everyone else who feels the way that NRBQ so eloquently stated above is silent, then nobody would ever know that there is another side to this and that some people are offended by the inane eye candy sideline “reporter” BS. By the way, the least that they could do if they are going to do this at all is get good-looking eye candy. Holly Rowe and Jeannine Edwards–gimme a break!
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Really? Some people are offended by the female sideline reporter? Hogwash. Again, no one is telling Uncle Ron to remain silent about his feelings, they’re telling him to act like a professional in a professional environment. If Uncle Ron wants to bash sideline reporters at poker night with the boys, then that’s fine, but you can’t go around insulting your co-workers on a regular basis and expect to keep your job for long. It’s called having the good sense to know when to shut up.
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Calling an airhead an airhead is no vice.
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When was anyone called an airhead?
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It is a metaphor. While on this topic let me add that there are certain job requirements in our society as a precursor to performing certain tasks. In order to be a doctor you have to actually know something about medicine. In order to be a singer you have to be able to carry a tune. In order to qualify for the position of “eye candy” you need to be easy on the eyes. Somebody in quality control at the WWL is seriously asleep at the switch when it comes to hiring “sideline reporters” Erin Andrews excepted.
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My guess is that it’s more of a lack of supply.
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hail,
go stand on a street corner not in SanFrancisco and take a poll asking if people are for or against the current level of political correctness in their lives. I would bet you, even in some pretty lefty places, people would side against the current PC environment. It’s at best stifling and oppressive. 90% (or some overwhelming majority) of ESPN’s patrons are certainly going to side with the anti-PC crowd and are generally tired of every damn thing in this country being about PC, equality, and diversity. So while Franklin was wrong, you can’t not defend him while ignoring the fact that the pendelum has swung way too far in the direction of PC. 30 years ago Franklin could say this and walk away – now people can’t even open the door for a woman without some liberal asshole screaming “sexist” or “racist”. The palatable level of this lies somewhere in the middle, and certainly not where we find ourselves these days.
In the meantime, we could all learn to take a joke.
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I agree with your point about people being fed up with political correctness, but I don’t think it’s applicable here. The fact of the matter is that this circumstance isn’t an issue of political correctness. Overreaching political correctness is MARTA having to change the name of the Yellow Line to the Gold Line because it went through Doraville/Chamblee (which has a large asian population), or Guide Dogs being called “Enabling Dogs”, as guide can be offensive to the blind person.
Had the situation only involved Uncle Ron calling Edwards “sweetcheeks”, then I could see the argument in his defense. That statement alone can be misinterpreted, and, although ill-advised, isn’t necessarily fireable. When the word is put in the context of this situation, however, it changes things. Three men discussed politics, a woman attempted to contribute to the conversation and then was told by Uncle Ron to “leave this one to the boys, sweetcheeks”. That’s a sexist statement, end of story. Now, had Uncle Ron apologized when Edwards voiced to him that she didn’t want to be talked to in such a manner, I think ESPN would’ve been a bit more lenient. He didn’t, though, and responded by calling her an asshole instead. This one is on Ron, and that’s the bottom line.
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In unrelated news, Ron tells delivery boy to get off his lawn after delivery of Kung Pao chicken and demands that they send a girl, a Benny Boy or an asshole with the next delivery
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It’s okay to use sex appeal to bolster your career, and if your coworkers ever say anything remotely derogatory (or complimentary) about it, they are punished. It’s the law.
What is uncertain is whether the remark constitutes creating a hostile working environment. By all accounts, Edwards nosed into the conversation and Franklin not-so-politely told her to mind her own business. I don’t think that necessarily creates cause for dismissal. He’s clearly a crotchety old man who has some issues with women, but that does not mean he gave cause to terminate his contract. He may force ESPN’s hand into giving him a settlement just to send him on his way.
It is for this very reason that I call everyone sweetcakes and/or asshole indiscriminately.
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The double-standard is complete bullshit and if female employee X feels the need to show off her brand new tits then she should be able to handle the comments that come along with it.
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Agreed. That’s one reason I had such trouble with the whole Ines Sainz/Jets locker room thing. She walked into a locker room full of half-naked guys immediately after a football practice, dressed in a lowcut shirt, skin-tight jeans and heels, and then complains of sexual harrassment because of a few cat calls. That’s absurd, as is the fact that female reporters are allowed in the locker room after the games at all. I can guarantee you that male reporters aren’t allowed in WNBA or women’s soccer locker rooms immediately after games while the athletes are showering/changing clothes. They should have a separate room for reporters (male and female) to interview players that adjoins the locker room. If the players want to talk to you, they can stand out there and do it. The locker room is off limits.
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You know, it’s all about how you voice things. I think if Uncle Ron had told her bluntly to mind her own business, he would still be employed. It was the sexist tone of the comment that hurt him (especially since it wasn’t the first time).
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“It’s okay to use sex appeal to bolster your career,”
It’s done wonders for mine.
“It is for this very reason that I call everyone sweetcakes and/or asshole indiscriminately.”
ESPN misunderestimates the meaning of ‘sweetcakes’ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sweetcakes
but not the meaning of ‘asshole’
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=asshole
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Let’s face it, only the white male can be discriminated against legally in this country. The workplace, job market, you name it….it’s not equality unless the law can apply both ways, which it doesn’t.
I’m not neccesarily for Ron Franklins comments and given the circumstances in this country he should have kept his mouth shut, but women talk shit all the time to men in the workplace. Such disparity out there…
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Oh, the horrible plight of the white male.
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Amen. What Martin Mull sang from Hilton Head long ago in ‘Ukulele Blues a/k/a White Man’s Blues’ still applies:
“I woke up this afternoon / And I saw both cars were gone.
I woke up this afternoon / And I saw both cars were gone.
I felt so sad and lonesome / I threw my drink across the lawn”
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=10764
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