Who owes whom an apology?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on June 10th, 2004

From an AP story:

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show was pulled off the air for a night following a joke the comedian made about Detroit during Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Jimmy Kimmel Live did not appear in his usual time slot at midnight ET Wednesday on ABC affiliates around the country. In Detroit, WXYZ ran an episode of The Wayne Brady Show with a crawl across the bottom of the screen saying Kimmel’s show would not be seen.

Kimmel was talking to ABC sportscaster Mike Tirico during halftime Tuesday when he said, “They’re going to burn the city of Detroit down if the Pistons win, and it’s not worth it.” Tirico, an Ann Arbor resident, immediately objected, telling him to be careful in talking about his home state.

Of course, Detroit probably will burn down if the Pistons win. Why should Detroit be any different from any other sports town with a healthy population of drunken college students and sports fans? Writing in a recent Sports Illustrated, Tim Layden wrote, about the overturned and charred vehicles in, of all places, Storrs, CT, after UConn won the NCAA title:

The ruckus in Storrs was only the most recent party gone wild, but it was actually sedate compared to similar celebrations in, say, East Lansing, MI, after Michigan State won the NCAA title in 2000. Wild revelry now has become commonplace on and around the Michigan State campus every time there is a big game. The precedent has been set and the bar raised. Or lowered, depending on your view.

Now in East Lansing– and in almost every city with unfortunate experience in this area– police are put on alert whenever a big game is played. Sports sections run stories quoting the coach and players talking about the game; metro sections run stories quoting the mayor and chief of police describing their readiness for tipped-over cars and spontaneous fires.

Andrea Parquet-Taylor, WXYZ’s news director, said, “Frankly, we were shocked. We thought it was uncalled for.” said Andrea Parquet-Taylor, WXYZ’s news director. She added that Kimmel’s apology wasn’t an apology at all. Is this a major metropolitan news director speaking or some sort of municipal psychotherapist?

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