While you may have missed the quiet return of David Morrow to the ABC rugby league coverage, it would be a very unwise broadcaster who ignores the lessons from his tribulation.
Morrow has been off air for three months thanks to an incident during a Roosters Bulldogs game on Friday May 23.
As the game wound down, Morrow’s veteran expert co-commentator Warren Ryan told an anecdote to illustrate a point that players were trying to do each others’ jobs instead of sticking to their own.
He referred to the classic ‘Quitin’ time’ discussion from the film Gone with the Wind and began with, “The old Darky says, y’know, someone says quitin’ time” and then told the rest of the story.
At the end, Morrow chuckles and then moved on to the call of the game. The audio has been uploaded to YouTube if you haven’t heard it.
It became quite the incident. The twitterati slammed them and the ABC.
Labor Senator and rugby league Indigenous Council Chair Linda Burney slammed them and rugby league.
Their ‘colleagues’ Francis Leach and Tracey Holmes came on Offsiders and just slammed them again.
Both men were immediately suspended pending an investigation.
My gut reaction to this was that it was a complete overreaction from the ABC.
Ryan is an old man now, aged in his 70s and he grew up in a generation that had a very different attitude to people from different backgrounds.
‘Darky’ would have been one of the milder descriptions that was thrown at Aboriginal and dark skinned people.
Indeed, I went to school 20 years ago where the expression ‘gay’ was thrown around with abandon to describe anything that mildly annoyed you.
There is no way that sort of language would be acceptable today; society has changed and calling something or someone ‘gay’ as an insult is just not on.
Unfortunately old habits die hard.
Ryan referred the character with a term that may have been commonplace in 1954 but is not acceptable in 2014. I sensed that Ryan recognised immediately he had used a word he shouldn’t and corrected it at once.
After their suspensions were announced, it was made clear that both men had erred previously.
Ryan had previously clashed on air with the new sideline reporter Shannon Byrne. He caustically responded on air to her attempt to challenge his opinion, remarking that he never expected to be told about front row play by a netball player.
Ryan has reached the point of his life where he is happy to talk, but not at all interested in listening.
He resisted any change to his partnership with Morrow and indeed made little attempt to hide his hostility to new team members of the commentary team such as Byrne, and especially to gun former coach Daniel Anderson.
Consequently it was little surprise that he left in a huff after he was suspended, sadly forgetting that there is no shortage of talented likeable former players only too happy to replace him.
But what of David Morrow?
His prior offence was telling a joke about dark skinned people needing to smile in the dark so others can see them. It was an embarrassing old man joke from another era.
He was suspended for it and very apologetic in the aftermath. This offence? Listen to the audio again and tell me that he wasn’t laughing at the story, not giggling at the racial slur.
As the weeks went by it was more and more likely that we wouldn’t hear Morrow on air again, which would have been a drastic overreaction. Fortunately, the ABC internal processes finally finished and he quietly returned to air.
So what are the lessons from this?
Well firstly, an honest apology can perform miracles. Had he apologised, Ryan would still be calling league. Had Morrow apologised sooner, he would have been back on air a whole lot earlier.
Never underestimate the impact of swallowing your pride and admitting fault without condition.
But more pertinently, racism is clearly the only sin that will get a broadcaster off the air.
This year alone, we have had TV and radio personalities swear on air, use homophobic slurs, ask degrading sexist questions, belittle and humiliate listeners and guests, and threaten other people. Yet all of them are still broadcasting.
But racism will get you banned in a heartbeat.
Why is this so? Why do other offensiveness get forgiven but racist remarks get punished so vigorously?
My thoughts are that it is a symptom of the frustration so many Australians have on this issue. We are painfully aware that our Indigenous population don’t do as well in life as non-Indigenous people, and we feel powerless to help them.
We really have no idea how to boost education outcomes, lower infant mortality, reduce violence and sexual assault and improve general wellbeing for Indigenous Australians.
We know there is a problem, just haven’t a clue how to fix it.
So when someone makes a remark like Warren Ryan did and Indigenous Australians condemn it, we feel we are making a difference by taking a stand with them.
Which leaves us here, three months later, both men roundly condemned, Ryan off air for good, and Morrow only just returning.
But whether any of this did any good for Indigenous Australians is another matter all together.
Rodney
Guest
David Morrow is the greatest caller of Rugby league in this country, he was wrongly suspended just for laughing at something that's is not really racist and even if people take offence to it he only chuckled and Warren Ryan's remark he made wasn't really rasict he only said Darky and should be much more acceptable than other words people may use I think he was un fairly dealt with as well it was probably an over reaction from the ABC for both Ryan and Morrow. To end up retiring.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Hi Michael You are spot on, people indeed still throw those terms about as a way of abusing people. Which is why people who grew up in a world where those terms were not as loaded, sometimes find themselves using it in entirely inappropriate contexts. It doesn’t excuse it - But it does explain it as being something other than the speaker’s base racism, homophobia or sexism. The responses to this article have been very interesting and enlightening. Have a good day mate!
S.L. Craven
Guest
yeah I don't disagree. But the world changes, and if you can't change with it then....you're in the lifeboat by yourself.
Rick
Guest
The inanities mouthed by the Channel 9 commentary team are broadcast week after week filling in the time until a game commences followed by on air advertising for upcoming programmes of incredible banality and drivel that passes for banter between the on air team. The ABC commentary team of Morrow and Ryan were insightful and to the point. They are missed by those with a brain and the capacity to handle anything other than a 30 second grab. When commentaries are suspended for quoting a classic we have reached a pathetic state.
Gundy Dragon
Guest
We'll said chop.
Poppy
Guest
The only reason they published your comment Fred is to appear fair but it masks a truth you and others here have made well, propoganda, ironically an English word is not fair in both senses of the word.
KB
Guest
Turn it up. No comparisons with Manly fanatics please..
ozinsa
Guest
CtD, don't bet on it - although your point is very well made. Russia is rising? Let me review the news for the past six months.
Poppy
Guest
I'll go with him to Russia as well Spruce old chap because as the late Gore Vidal or Edward Snowden could have told you, capitalists tell more than their share of untruths. Aldous Huxley envisioned it. Donald Horne desired it and the power elite are in fact now ushering in "A Brave New World" with old biases being replaced for new.
Poppy
Guest
Anyone with eyes to see would agree with you Brian M. Hey, We don't even have freedom of speech on this thread.
Glenn Innes
Guest
Jackson - When you say it is anti egalitarian what you are doing is confusing the term egalitarian with meritocracy people often do this..For eg people often refer to Australia as egalitarian,Australia has never been particularly egalitarian it has broadly speaking always been a meritocracy.. .Things like affirmative action etc are egalitarian they are put in place in the hope to achieve equality for groups that are perceived as facing inherent social injustice. .
Glenn Innes
Guest
Jackson Henry - Political correctness is an offshoot Marxism, it has it's roots in the Frankfurt School of Marxist which to an extent rejected the classical Marxist position that society was the product of class struggle and that proletarian revolution was inevitable. The Frankfurt school believed in affluent western countries the working class would never revolt and social revolution could only be attained via a "march through the institutions" In other words like minded revolutionaries gradually taking over things like the education system, public broadcasting the courts, even the churches where they could(think liberation theology for eg). etc,etc. The other break with classical Marxism is the Frankfurt school or at least those who were inspired by it believed the future of revolutionary politics lay in identity politics. rather than simple class politics and that is the genesis of modern political correctness.I t is not anti egalitarian quite the opposite, it is a very militant form of ultra egalitarianism. The one thing the Frankfurt school and classical school have in common is they despise Christianity (which makes sense Christianity is the moral foundation stone on which western culture was built so if you believe that culture to be inherently unjust and in need of being revolted against then obviously traditional Christianity is the number one enemy... which is why you can make all the jokes about Jesus freaks you like and no government agency is ever going to bother you) Political correctness is an alternative moral code to the Christian one with unashamed revolutionary aims, the key difference being that Christianity, at least in it's post Luther form, was a private confession..You didn't have to buy into it, where political correctness is enforced by the iron fist of the state.
Michael
Guest
One problem with the article- people still use words like "gay" and "faggot" as insults, no matter what you might think.
Old Bob
Guest
The character in GWTW is NOT called "Old Darky"... check on IMDB and the book itself. Warren called him "the old darky". That is casual racism. Full stop. And seriously... anyone who argues they should be allowed to say that on air should walk a mile in any black person's shoes. Warren was an old hand at broadcasting: he was paid to do a job by the ABC... he should have played by their rules not "Warren's rules". Imagine a player in his day not following Ryan's coaching rules! He was sounding outdated anyway... more than once I heard him talk for the ENTIRE half time break on his own, pushing the poor old sideline reporter verbally out of the way. Ask anyone under 30 who Warren is... he was becoming less and less relevant. Morrow should have immediately recognised his mate's mistake. In the end we all lose out, because Morrow really is a great commentator.
Storm Boy
Guest
Morrow is retiring at the end of the season. Wouldn't be surprised if Fox or 2GB put something to him though.
Fred
Guest
No problem and in answer to your last question in the article- all of this certainly did do some good for indigenous Australians- every time an institution takes a stand against racism it chips away bit by bit at the entrenched institutionalised racism this country suffers from which in turn aids every facet of aboriginal peoples lives. The media has a responsibility as the media shapes society, thankfully the abc is one institution in this country that takes that responsibility seriously and does aboriginal Australians plenty of good in the process. Peace brother
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Cheers mate!
Fred
Guest
That is a really disturbing view mate, your a real hero aren't you? Open your eyes to what aboriginal people of this country experience daily in there own nations then see if you seriously can say they simply need to get over it. Ignorance is truly bliss to some people
Fred
Guest
My point is go and educate yourself instead of 'feeling' you can't do anything about the social issues facing aborginal Australians- if you do that you will realise that ignorance is the biggest problem aborginal Australians face. I understand ignorance is not the same as malice and you did not mean to offend, but ignorance does offend and moreover ignorance breeds and feeds the social issues aborginal Australians face. Knowledge is power- you won't feel powerless anymore once you educate yourself on the issue.
The Barry
Guest
I've heard it all now. We're doing people a favour by offending them based on their race...?