when your editor goes to bat for you; good on you, Terry McDonell

Very True Dools. VT

 

This is really weird. The PR firm working with ARod is run by a former Bush press person, a former spokesperson for the Bush DOJ and a former press guy for Tom DeLay. Another person listed on their website, specifically for non-sports related clients, is Bonnie Bernstein of ESPN.

 

Actually, when you think about it, it's not weird at all. Two marble-mouthed guys whom nobody at all can coach to NOT say something stupid.

 

Soupy</Lord>

 

"This lady" seemed uncomfortably close to the "that woman" of "I did not have sexual relations with" fame.

 

Words and context mean everything.

I feel the same level of smarm in A-Fraud's use of "that lady" that I did in Bill Clinton's dismissal of Monica Lewinsky as "that woman" when he denied having "sexual relations" with her. And that's just reading the words on a computer screen.

 

A-Rod's lies about Selena were reprehensible, and yes, good for McDonell for not letting the matter drop so easily. But I gotta say, I'm not seeing the overt sexism in referring to her as "this lady." What else is he going to call her? Isn't it the equivalent of calling a male reporter "this guy"? A-Rod may very well feel more dismissive toward her because she's a woman, I don't know. But I think it's a stretch to read all that into the way he referred to her.

 

More about the tone than the term, I think.

 

I thought of the "this lady" phrasing during his press conference Tuesday, when he made a reference to "this gentleman" (referring back to a question asked a few moments earlier). That's a parallel construction and I started to think that it has something to do with his upbringing maybe, referring to people as "gentleman" and "lady." Because he very easily could have referred to both parties as "this reporter."

It's what he alleged about Roberts that is the real issue, not the terminology after all. I agree that it seemed dismissive in the Gammons interview, but now not so much.

 

Well, then it's even more of a stretch. I've heard a lot of athletes talk about a lot of sports writers with that kind of tone, regardless of gender.