Johnny Miller apologized Friday for comments that appeared to reflect negatively on the Italian heritage of Rocco Mediate, the popular runner-up to Tiger Woods in the United States Open.
During Sunday’s fourth round, Miller said that Mediate “looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool.” Later, while discussing the unlikely prospect that Mediate might win, he said that “guys with the name of Rocco don’t get on the trophy, do they?”
“I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful,” Miller said in a statement. He added that his intention was to “convey my affection and admiration for Rocco’s everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage.”
The apology by Miller, NBC’s lead golf analyst, came after two Italian-American groups protested his remarks, with one of them demanding that NBC suspend him.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, A. Kenneth Ciongoli, the chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, wrote: “We are certain that NBC and Mr. Miller meant no harm and was simply having some fun at the expense of Italian Americans. Nonetheless, this type of humor is problematic as it reinforces a demeaning and damaging stereotype about an entire ethnic group.”
Ciongoli said that his letter “is not meant to be an attack upon NBC, but rather to be an illumination of a problem that continues to trouble our society.”
“The perpetuation of negative stereotypes and demeaning language hurts us all,” he said.
But Anthony Baratta, the president of the Order Sons of Italy in America’s commission for social justice, demanded Miller’s suspension. “If Johnny Miller had made a similar remark about Tiger Woods,” he said Thursday in a press release, “he would have been fired.”
New York Times..
During Sunday’s fourth round, Miller said that Mediate “looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool.” Later, while discussing the unlikely prospect that Mediate might win, he said that “guys with the name of Rocco don’t get on the trophy, do they?”
“I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful,” Miller said in a statement. He added that his intention was to “convey my affection and admiration for Rocco’s everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage.”
The apology by Miller, NBC’s lead golf analyst, came after two Italian-American groups protested his remarks, with one of them demanding that NBC suspend him.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, A. Kenneth Ciongoli, the chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, wrote: “We are certain that NBC and Mr. Miller meant no harm and was simply having some fun at the expense of Italian Americans. Nonetheless, this type of humor is problematic as it reinforces a demeaning and damaging stereotype about an entire ethnic group.”
Ciongoli said that his letter “is not meant to be an attack upon NBC, but rather to be an illumination of a problem that continues to trouble our society.”
“The perpetuation of negative stereotypes and demeaning language hurts us all,” he said.
But Anthony Baratta, the president of the Order Sons of Italy in America’s commission for social justice, demanded Miller’s suspension. “If Johnny Miller had made a similar remark about Tiger Woods,” he said Thursday in a press release, “he would have been fired.”
New York Times..
....well said
