To Whom It May Concern:

When Post-Gazette reporter Paul Zeise said, on KDKA’s “Sports Showdown”, that “[i]t’s really a sad day in this country when somehow … Michael Vick would have been better off raping a woman if you look at the outcry of what happened”, both corporations were quick to apologize for his comments. KDKA called the remarks “inappropriate and insensitive comments that do not reflect the view of KDKA management and staff.” The Post-Gazette called the remarks “insensitive and offensive” and said that the remarks “do not represent the view of the Post-Gazette”. (Source).

I have to ask, therefore, what the view of KDKA and the Post-Gazette is. Do these companies believe that it is entirely appropriate for an athlete who is accused of abusing and murdering animals to receive a punishment that is greater than the punishment of an athlete who is accused of raping a woman? How is it insensitive for Zeise to point out this hypocrisy in our society, that we apparently believe that it’s perfectly okay for an accused rapist to attend his own rape trial then fly across the country to play in an NBA game, but if a man is accused of abusing animals, he should be suspended for an entire year?

KDKA has said that Zeise will not be invited back to “Sports Showdown.” He is, in effect, “suspended” from the show. I hope you won’t mind if I take a moment to point out what this tells me about KDKA’s position (I will explain my reasoning for each point, as well).

KDKA apparently believes that it is entirely appropriate for a man to be suspended from his job for an entire year because he (allegedly) abused animals. After all, when Paul Alexander stated that it was entirely appropriate for that to be the case, KDKA did not find it necessary to apologize for those comments.

KDKA apparently believes that it is entirely inappropriate for a man to be suspended from his job for an entire year because he (allegedly) raped a woman. When Paul Zeise said that it was a “sad day” that the punishment for (being accused of) rape was less than that for (being accused of) abusing animals, KDKA apologized, and said the comments did not reflect their stance. Therefore, KDKA must believe that the appropriate punishment for (being accused of) rape is a punishment less than the punishment for (being accused of) abusing animals.

Based on those first two, I think it’s safe to say that KDKA apparently believes that rape is a less serious crime than animal abuse.

Finally, KDKA apparently believes it is entirely appropriate for a man to be suspended indefinitely for disagreeing with KDKA on the above two points on the air. After all, KDKA has stated they will no longer be inviting Paul Zeise back to the show because of his statements that implied he felt that the punishment for (being accused of) rape should be greater than or equal to the punishment for (being accused of) cruelty to animals.

There is less evidence by which I can infer the stance of the Post-Gazette. Since they had no reason to apologize for the words of Paul Alexander, the first KDKA stance cannot be applied to the Post-Gazette. As I have seen no evidence that they plan to punish Paul Zeise for believing that rape is as bad or worse than animal abuse, I cannot state with any certainty that they support sacking him for airing that belief publicly. The only stance of the Post-Gazette’s that I can infer is that the Post-Gazette does not agree that rape is as bad or worse than animal abuse, and that they feel that if an employee does feel that way, the newspaper should apologize for him and distance themselves from that opinion.

If the companies had restricted themselves to calling Zeise’s comments insensitive, I would not have given the issue a second thought. Both rape and animal abuse are horrific crimes, and one should take care when discussing them, especially on television, to not sound as though one is endorsing either crime. Zeise’s wording left much to be desired, and (especially without context) the comments could be seen as insensitive. When the companies then proceeded to distance themselves from the opinions expressed in Zeise’s comments, though, I feel that they went too far, unless, of course, both KDKA and the Post-Gazette believe that animal cruelty is in fact a more serious crime than rape. If that is the case, the management of both companies should be ashamed of themselves.

Thank you for your time.
-Robin S.

http://onestackmind.com