ESPN Under Fire for Taking Robert Lee Off UVA Game
BALDWIN: ESPN coming under fire over a Confederate general's name that sounds oddly familiar to one of the sports network's play-by-play guys. So the announcer's name is Robert Lee, not Robert E. Lee, as in the general who led the South in the civil war. Just plain Robert Lee. Lee, the play-by-play guy, was set to call the home opener for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville but ESPN worried Lee's name might create a bit of a distraction, so they pulled him. They reassigned him. Social media went absolutely bananas over this. ESPN laid out its reasoning in a statement, quoting here, ESPN saying, "We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name." So I have sports journalist Clay Travis with us who broke the story on his FOX Sports radio show, "Outkick the Coverage." Clay, good to see you. I mean, I realize this is just a total coincidence, name-wise, but really? Because of his name? This is how insane the world has become.</s>BALDWIN: This is a little insane.</s>CLAY TRAVIS, SPORTS JOURNALIST WHO BROKE STORY ON ESPN UVA DECISION: That a situation like this could even arise, that anybody could even think of it is I think just testament to the fact that we basically live in a world where "The Onion" can't even come up with fake news articles anymore because the real ones are more absurd than the ones they can think of.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. I'll go with you on that.</s>TRAVIS: Right? I mean, it's crazy.</s>BALDWIN: It is a little crazy. I mean, when I saw this this morning, I was like, this is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Has the journalist -- has Robert Lee spoken up?</s>TRAVIS: No, he has not. And you know, ESPN in that statement that you read, that they initially provided to my Web site, "I'll Kick the Coverage," tried to contextualize why they made this decision, but I think this is an example of where you need to take a step back and think about, OK, what's the worst case scenario here? He is showing up as an Asian man named Robert Lee to call the University of Virginia against William and Mary game. Maybe 100,000 or 200,000 people are watching this game. Maybe a few people think it's funny, we have a few laughs, look, Robert E. Lee's under fire, he's trying to sneak into Charlottesville any way he can, he's now disguised himself as an Asian play-by-play man. It's something that the Internet has fun with for like 45 minutes on a college football Saturday when you're down in Atlanta and there are many more big games going on. Right? Florida State's playing Alabama. I mean, Michigan is playing Florida. There's all these games that people care about. Nobody cares about William and Mary against UVA and so this story would have disappeared. Instead, ESPN overreacts, removes the guy from the story. People at ESPN to, their credit, reach out to me and say, have you seen how insanely sensitive my network is becoming? You've got to see this story. We write about it and now it's been not just major national news. It's international news. People are reaching out to me to come on all over the world because they can't believe this is a real story from the United States.</s>BALDWIN: Listen, in a sense, you understand the sensitivity at first, but I think we're all grown-ups and realize it's a different person and case closed. Real life onion. Clay Travis, thank you so much. "Outkick the Coverage." Good to see you. Thank you for that. We have this, though. More charities parting ways with President Trump's Mar-a-Lago down in Florida following the president's Charlottesville response. Those new details next.