Fox Sports Southwest Fires Sportscaster Craig James Over Homophobic Remarks
When you only have a job for one week, do you put it on your resume? That’s the problem facing sportscaster Craig James. After getting a gig with Fox Sports Southwest, James appeared for one college football post-game show on August 31, and then he got fired. Not for anything he said on the air, but because the network big wigs finally realized that they had hired a renowned homophobe.
James had a controversial career at ESPN before he quit in 2011 to run for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate from Texas. During his campaign, James distinguished himself for his knuckle-dragging approach to LGBT issues. James insisted that homosexuality is a “choice” and that gays “are going to have to answer to the Lord for their actions.” (Like we’re the only ones who will.) James was also a big supporter of Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign. James ultimately got 4% of the vote in the primary, which was won by Ted Cruz, himself no prize package.
So it wasn’t exactly a surprise when James showed up on Fox Sports. What was a surprise was the network’s actions. Apparently, the top brass weren’t aware of the decision to hire James and when they found out decided to drop him. “We just asked ourselves how Craig’s statements would play in our human resources department,” a Fox spokesman told the Dallas Morning News. “He couldn’t say those things here.” And now he won’t.
All of this will be more fodder for the right, which is convinced that Fox is going soft on gay issues.
Source: http://www.queerty.com/fox-fires-sportscaster-over-homophobic-remarks-20130910/
Cross-posted in LGBT Group.
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