Radio talk show host John Dennis should be punished for the racially-charged comment he made on his show, ‘Dennis and Callahan,’ but he should not be forced to resign, City Councilor Jerry McDermott (Allston-Brighton) and Boston University students agreed on Monday.
John Dennis, who hosts a sports radio show on WEEI-AM 850 with Gerry Callahan, described Little Joe, the gorilla who escaped from a Boston zoo last week, as ‘a Metco gorilla.’ Co-host Callahan added that it was ‘heading out to Lexington.’
Dennis and Callahan were suspended by the station Monday, the Associated Press reported.
Metco is a voluntary state program that buses inner-city Boston students to nearby suburban schools. Many activists have criticized Dennis for the comment, saying that the host likened poor, mostly African-American children to gorillas.
McDermott called the comment ‘terribly inappropriate and cruel,’ but unlike other members of the City Council, such as Councilor-At-Large Felix Arroyo and Councilor Michael P. Ross (Back Bay, Fenway), McDermott said he did not sign a letter calling for Dennis’ resignation.
‘I didn’t sign the letter that 10 of my colleagues did because even though I was disgusted, I don’t think the Boston City Council should have a say in who a private corporation fires,’ he said. ‘WEEI should handle this internally.’
McDermott said he believed that if the City Council has the power to force Dennis to resign, they should also have the power to control the actions of corporations such as Fidelity Investments and John Hancock Financial Services.
However, he said he would change his mind if Dennis was supported by city taxpayers.
‘If John Dennis worked for the City of Boston, I would want to make sure he’s fired,’ he said.
McDermott said Dennis will be punished without government intervention.
‘Minority-owned businesses and others who were disgusted by the comment will take away their advertising dollars,’ he said.
Radio broadcast journalism professor Anne Donohue, who worked with Dennis in the 80s at WHDH-TV Channel 7, said she thought Dennis’s comments were inappropriate and untimely, considering the controversy over comments made last week by Rush Limbaugh about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
‘It was insensitive,’ Donohue said. ‘I’m not sure, if it hadn’t happened in the same week as Rush Limbaugh, that it would have gotten so much attention, but I think it was the flavor of the week last week.’
Donohue said listeners have to consider the source of political or racial comments when distinguishing between what is controversial and what is not controversial.
‘If people are watching a program because they want to be shocked and offended, that’s one thing,’ Donohue said. ‘But if they’re watching a football game [or] sports talk show and all of a sudden they hear a … racial comment, it’s not the right place to hear that.
‘In some ways I feel his timing was just particularly bad,’ she said.
General Manager of WTBU and College of Communication junior Jennifer Coe agreed that Dennis will probably suffer on the private level, without the City Council calling for his resignation.
‘If listeners felt he was wrong, it would reflect in his ratings, and then he’d be forced to resign,’ she said.
Still, she said she believes a forced resignation is too harsh a punishment.
‘Everyone makes mistakes,’ she said. ‘I think the two day suspension is appropriate, so long as Dennis shows signs of remorse.’
‘You should never make any racist comments like that,’ she added later. ‘But in the radio business, people are trying to entertain, and that’s how comments like that are made.’
‘That doesn’t make it right, though,’ she added.
Rachel Potter, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, agreed that a forced resignation would be inappropriate.
‘I don’t think he should be forced to resign over that, but he should make some kind of public apology saying that he understands that what he said was stupid and wrong,’ she said.
Potter said she understood why 10 councilors signed a letter demanding Dennis’ resignation.
‘What he said upset a lot of people, so they had to take some kind of action,’ she said.
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