Editor’s Note: ESPN sportscaster Brent Musberger called Miss Alabama, Katherine Webb, a “lovely lady” during Monday night’s BCS Championship Game at Sun Life Stadium. He also joked that quarterbacks get all the good-looking women and suggested youngsters in Alabama start getting the football out and throwing it around in the backyard with Pop. On Tuesday afternoon, ESPN apologized for Musburger’s comments, saying his comments “went too far.”
The world has really gone mad. It is absurd to attack a sportscaster for calling a beauty queen beautiful at a football game. Anyone who isn’t blind would say or think the same thing–and there’s zero wrong with saying so. This has benefitted Webb’s brand and offers her tremendous positive opportunities which wouldn’t have otherwise been available to her, and its all positive.
ESPN’s apology was out of bounds from a public relations standpoint–who are they apologizing to? Their fan base certainly is admiring Webb–and there was nothing inappropriate about Musberger’s commentary. As Webb herself said: “I think the media has been really unfair to him.”
Perhaps there needs to be more balance in the media business–just recently Oxygen announced a new in-development reality television special “All My Babies’ Mamas,” which features rapper Shawty Lo and the 11 children he has fathered with ten different women. Owning a public relations firm, I let my kids know that they shouldn’t make decisions based on what they hear or see on TV–and hope others do the same.
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