The host of a popular Boston sports radio show is withdrawing from teaching a journalism course at the Boston University College of Communication due to the resurfacing of a racially insensitive comment he made on-air in October.
Tony Massarotti, a longtime co-host of 98.5 The Sports Hub show “Felger & Mazz,” was announced to teach JO 502 section C1, Sports Media Then and Now. The course was a new section added to the Journalism Special Topics class, in which students would explore the evolution of sports media.
When teasing a Generation Z colleague of his on Oct. 16, Massarotti used a word that has been used against people of Asian descent since the Korean and Vietnam wars, thinking the word had a different meaning.
“I had no clue that the word had any derogatory connotations, and I’m obviously very sorry for that and certainly I’m educated on the matter now,” Massarotti said.
Massarotti apologized for using the term during the following show on Oct. 17. He said the incident is “something that absolutely people should ask about,” and he is happy to address any concerns.
“I’ve always believed my heart is in the right place, and there was no intent,” Massarotti said. “But at the end of the day, when you work in the media, you are responsible for what you say and write, and so I have to be accountable for that.”
Massarotti has decided to pull out of teaching the course in the spring when questions were raised about the comment.
“It occurred to me that there’s a grayness there, and I can understand why people would ask questions,” Massarotti said. “[This] story has raised some legitimate questions, and so the best thing to do is for everybody to talk about it a little bit more.”
Massarotti came under fire for a similar incident in February 2023, when he told his co-host Michael Felger to “keep an eye on” two Black people who were sitting behind him, warning they might steal Felger’s car. Massarotti was suspended without pay for the rest of that week, the day after apologizing on-air for the comments made.
Jeremy Gay, a senior journalism student who registered for Massarotti’s class this spring, is from Massachusetts and grew up listening to “Felger & Mazz.”
“When I saw that he was teaching a course here, I was like … ‘I can’t miss the opportunity to take a class with him when I’ve listened to him for as long as I can remember on the radio,’” Gay said.
Gay said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” to hear Massarotti would be pulling out of teaching the course. He said he hopes the course can still be taught by someone else.
Journalism Department Chair Brian McGrory said Massarotti reached out to him about putting “a pause” on teaching in the spring, but the department “will very likely revisit it” for a later semester.
Because Massarotti put together Sports Media Then and Now, McGrory said he is not sure if the department will find another professor to teach it.
“We fully respect Tony’s decision to just give it a pause, and we’ll move ahead at the appropriate time,” McGrory said.
McGrory said the department does not have plans to accommodate students who already registered for Massarotti’s JO 502 section. As of today, the course is full on MyBU Student Portal.
McGrory said he doesn’t think Massarotti’s past comments are reflective of who he is, and “BU would certainly be interested in talking with him in the future” about resuming the course.
Massarotti said he “would very much still like to teach at BU” down the road.
“I felt like that was the best thing to do and not put anybody involved with BU, from the students on up, in any situation where they have to be in any uncomfortable environment because of something that happened in my professional life,” Massarotti said. “The right thing to do is to just slow down.”
