4460 Blog 6: ESPN doesn't play that.

Since we are discussing ESPN and their crisis handling skills in 4470, I thought that I would do my blog tonight over the recent crisis that ESPN had to face and how they handled it.

ESPN employed Hank Williams Jr. to sing the theme to their Monday Night Football games. He’s been singing the theme for a few years now, but on October 6 ESPN released a statement saying that they no longer would require his services. According to this article, on October 3, Williams Jr. made derogatory comments comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler. ESPN released a statement distancing themselves from the singer and pulled his song from their program. Three days later, Williams Jr. was fired.

ESPN did waffle a bit before firing Hank Williams Jr., the article says, but ultimately did the right thing and fired him. His comments created a backlash that reflect on ESPN’s reputation, and there was really only one option that they could have taken. I found this situation interesting because we are doing an ethical case study right now involving ESPN’s handling of the Mike Leach controversy. In that case, ESPN did everything wrong and in this case ESPN made a lot of good decisions. They realized that, even though Hank Williams Jr. is obviously not a sportscaster or announcer he still reflected on them and his choice of words also reflects on them. ESPN could not be seen as condoning those words in any way, and so the network took the ultimate step.

ESPN did pause before they fired Williams Jr. They released a statement first distancing themselves from him and then, three days later, they fired him. This could be interpreted as ESPN trying to see what steps they needed to take. If it hadn’t been such a controversial thing, they probably could have gotten away with suspending his song for a while before bringing it back, to make sure that he had learned his lesson. However, many people were angered at these comments and so ESPN had to take the appropriate steps to ensure that no one interpreted the network as being racist. I personally would not accuse an entire network of supporting the eradication of Jews, but stranger things have happened and ESPN needs credibility just like any other news network. They can’t have any doubt or blemish on their reputation.

It is my belief that in this case ESPN acted morally and ethically. Firing Williams Jr. may have seemed a little extreme (after all, the guy only sings a theme song) but in my mind it is the equivalent to Tylenol pulling all their products off the shelves many years ago. Extreme actions are usually the best, especially in a case as sensitive as this one. ESPN could not be accused of playing favorites in any way and they had to do everything above and beyond what was required of them. I feel that they did so, and should be commended for their actions.