Unbelievable. Disgusting. Dismissive.
I spend my days speaking with businesses. Companies interested in using their platform and resources to promote good corporate citizenship. I love being able to connect businesses that want to promote people with disabilities in their marketing, in their video production and hiring practices. A majority of businesses that I’ve met with over the past two years are very interested in promoting good corporate citizenship across the spectrum of good causes. There is so much goodwill with sponsorship of local charities, having a diverse workforce and successful business culture. We are at a great time and the business community.
I don’t want to look past all the good that is done just because of one incident but today I’m mad! All because of a tweet I received from Michael Hurley at NESN.
Background – I’m a big Boston Bruins fan, really big fan. My interest borders on the over-the-top side. Generally, I love the Bruins marketing department. The Bear in all their marketing makes me laugh. Who doesn’t like a bear? Especially people from New England. It’s almost as good as a monkey in a television show (I can hear Tony Kornheiser saying this right now).
This playoff season, the Bear has taken to the billboards around Boston making fun of the Tampa Bay Lightning fans. My personal favorite is “The Loch Ness Monster. Big foot. Tampa Bay Lightning fans.” I like it. They also have poked fun at the age of the citizens of Florida which is not appropriate, but tame.
Here comes the tweet. It seems that Tampa Bay radio personality Mike Calta asked his listeners to call the Bruins to take down the signs. The power of the station. The listeners called and the Bruins took down the signs. No harm, right?
Wrong. You should not throw stones if you live in glass houses.
It seems that Mr. Calta has a segment of his radio program (The Cowhead Show on WHPT, Tampa) called “Retarded News.” Unbelievable. Disgusting. Dismissive. This is the kind of behavior that needs to stop. I was reminded of an incident that happened to me. About 10 years ago I pulled my car into a parking lot to get a sandwich for lunch. I was just about to pull into the empty handicapped spot when a big SUV pulled into the spot ahead of me. I parked across the parking and walked over to the SUV and noticed there was no tag hanging from the window-no handicapped parking logo on the license plate. There was a very able-bodied young woman in the driver’s seat that sent her teenage son into the store to pick up sandwiches. I went out to her car as she rolled down the window and I said that this spot is reserved for handicapped drivers and she said to me “run along little man, run along.” Unbelievable. Disgusting. Dismissive.
Mr Calta is that women in the parking spot. So you ask how can a station allow this to happen? Advertisers flock to radio programs because of the listeners. The radio station is indirectly supporting the promotion of negative stereotypes of people with developmental disabilities. How do the advertisers feel about this? Do they support the use of this term for people with developmental disabilities? Do any of the advertisers have family members that are touched by disability? Do any of the advertisers have family members that served in the Armed Forces and came back with a combat related injury, have a child with autism or developmental disability or just have some sort of compassion? I believe the advertisers do have compassion. They should show it by not supporting Mr. Calta.
A very challenging situation John, with the SUV. It’s hard to know how I would have reacted, but I cannot imagine being able to control myself sufficiently to have said or done nothing! A cell camera and launching a pic across Twitter, Facebook, Youtube with license plate showing would be the most benign thing I could think to do.