DJ Has a Slip of the Tongue, But Exactly Who Was Mad??

COUP + BOON = COON?

On the road yesterday, I got to hear about the DJ in St. Louis who got canned for accidentally using the word "coon" during a discussion about Condoleezza Rice. For those not familiar with this story, he was discussing whether Rice would be the next Commissioner of Football when Paul Tagliabue retires this summer. The DJ was very complimentary of Rice, but accidentally said that the hiring of Rice would be a coon, when he meant to say coup. He immediately apologized, but was fired 20 minutes later.
Most of the radio broadcasters were on his side, although TJ on WJMX-AM was afraid to even say what word was used. Such is the world today. I'll stick my neck out on a small limb here, and discuss two things related to this: What IS , and What we're AFRAID IS.
As a candidate, and one who has run against a minority candidate (soon to be two), I can tell you that politics and media are two outlets that you must tread lightly on. It's a fact, there are people sitting there, waiting to pounce on us for saying the wrong thing - so far, I've been lucky, though it's not hard when you're not BS'ing people. As soon as you do, they are ready to put the wheels in motion for your demise. Did this happen here? I don't think so. This leads me to the other part - what the Station Manager feared....
It sounds to me like this was a case of , as George Bush would call it, a Preemptive Strike. Exactly how many calls could this station have received in the 10-15 minutes to merit a firing? Five or Six at most? Who knows.. It appears that the GM heard this, freaked out, and played Judge, Jury and Executioner. Everyone's been fired like this - it's our worst nightmare. Hell, i've been fired and refused to leave (And kept my job). This poor guy didn't get a chance.
My guess is that someone will pick up the guy, and everything will work out. However, this is an example of fear leading to poor decisions. Were Democrats or local activists to blame for this? No. Would they have complained? We'll never know , but the fear of criticism cost this man his job.