Uh Oh. John Altaville in Hot Water?

[magic]

How many of those people in the stands were at work? How many were tweeting from their professional accounts about how much they admired the cheerleaders?

Things you do on personal time are one thing. Things you do on work time while representing your employer are another thing.

By the way, a good rule of thumb for acceptable dating ages: Divide your age in 1/2. Add 7.

Who was talking about dating ? I have traveled extensively outside of the USA, and most people I've known would think this whole converstion is absurd! We americans can be so hypocrital !

 

[Huskies Rule]

Ban all cheerleaders, pom pom squads and dance teams... and provide Kerith with a burqa.

Geez- I always thought the First Amendment protected all speech, even that which is stupid and insensitive.

 

[Woof 101]

This whole thread is a pathetic joke. Truly embarrassing.

Call the Thought Police!

The Hartford Courant must have not found it to be a joke and were embarrassed enough to print an apology in a location that could not be missed. That being the only place you see John's name in today's edition. All the women's coverage came from Doyle, Jacobs and the AP.
He may have tweeted himself out of the best gig at The Courant.

 

[sarals24]

So stupid on John's part. Show some class.

 

[NewCorn]

I am unable to make any judgement about this matter without seeing pictures.

 

[vtcwbuff]

At what age does a man have to stop looking at sexy young women? Does a hunk at 20 become a creep at 40?

These young ladies were wearing outfits cut waaay below their naval. I'm going to assume that the design was intentional and that the young ladies had no objections to them. So what is wrong with that and what is wrong with commenting about it? Altavilla's only mistake was that he used an employer account.

 

[sarals24]

At what age does a man have to stop looking at sexy young women? Does a hunk at 20 become a creep at 40?

These young ladies were wearing outfits cut waaay below their naval. I'm going to assume that the design was intentional and that the young ladies had no objections to them. So what is wrong with that and what is wrong with commenting about it? Altavilla's only mistake was that he used an employer account.

Well, that's a pretty big mistake.

 

[JavaMan]

Geez- I always thought the First Amendment protected all speech, even that which is stupid and insensitive.

It does. No arrests have been made. Nor, will there be any arrests. However, "We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." –Benjamin Franklin

Doing something stupid doesn't necessarily make us a stupid individual. However, doing something stupid does subject us to the consequences.

 

[j66kicker]

John was dumb for tweeting it, but the bottom line is the cheerleaders, and UT, WANT this type of attention - otherwise they wouldn't be dressed that way (on TV). My son and I went to the Oklahoma-Texas football game a couple years ago and hung out before the game at ESPN's College Gameday event which was broadcast from that venue. The UT cheerleaders in chaps were a very prominent part of that program, and it wasn't like they grudgingly gave their permission to be on TV - clearly they were aggressively seeking the exposure (pun intended). So if they DON'T want that type of attention (ha!), there's a real easy way to not get it - just put your clothes on.

 

[cordarone]

From the linked article in the previous post:

Tweet's a riff on Urban Cowboy and the Boz Skaggs song (and yeah, in that context, definitely skeevy)


Surprised how many find it acceptable for the beat sportswriter for the women's team to put on social media how turned on he is by college students.
If he did the same about a UCONN player, would it be okay?

 

[schmendrick]

Overall, I think Altaville's professional work is shallow and boring and kind of flippant and irrelevant. He also tends to "borrow" a lot (but hey, other than that he must have some redeeming characteristics?!?) . I stopped deliberately following his work years ago in favor of the more balanced BY . Given a choice, I would have MUCH rather seen Altaville get canned rather than Rich, who was insightful and wrote with intelligence and respect. Altaville would not be a big loss to the Huskies community (IMO), but Rich was!

Amen to that. While in Jerusalem a few years back, I interviewed Charde Houston who was playing for a team just outside the city. I pitched him my story and a little bit about how Charde was doing. (I'm a reporter.) He said thanks, then proceeded to get on the horn, interview Charde himself, and post the story.

Not a big deal, perhaps, to many of you, but I lost quite a bit of respect for him back then.

 

[RowdyFan]

Why did you think that? Was there an easy tear-away feature for when you are upset with the officiating?

I was thinking Fringe.

 

[FairView]

Molehill, meet Mountain.
Reporter is looking for something to tweet, mistakenly steps over the line and tweets something many people in the stands were thinking , apologizes, paper will probably give him some kind of publicly embarrassing reprimand to save face.
Let's move on.

Regarding Kerith, she should have said something to her colleague privately and given him a chance to rescind the comment (if he chose), rather than make it an even larger issue.

 

[Wally East]

Cheerleaders are just cheerleaders. They are people. You don't get to leer at them at all regardless of how old you are. "Leering" is not something that's acceptable behavior.

If you still don't get it, try this.

Your daughter is on the UT Dance Team. She's proud she made the team -- all those years of dance paid off!

Then, you read a reporter's tweet. How do you feel? How do feel that a reporter has leered at your daughter?

 

[Teacherdeb]

Then you missed the whole point behind it.

No, you missed MY point. Dressing up as a cheerleader as the point of a bet? Think about it.

 

[Tonyc]

Molehill, meet Mountain.
Reporter is looking for something to tweet, mistakenly steps over the line and tweets something many people in the stands were thinking , apologizes, paper will probably give him some kind of publicly embarrassing reprimand to save face.
Let's move on.

Regarding Kerith, she should have said something to her colleague privately and given him a chance to rescind the comment (if he chose), rather than make it an even larger issue.

Good Point Should have talked to him privately. He's a man with a wife and at least one daughter. He was being a silly guy. No need to put this out there in public. Should he have not done it on work time yes. Should he lose his job for it. No When someone makes a dumb mistake there is no reason to hang him or her out to dry. We are all human and we all have done silly things. It shouldn't cost us our job and or family. This should've been handled privately I agree Fairview. JMO. Did he say something derogative? I didn't read the tweet.

 

[meyers7]

So MEYERS, what exactly is "your " cutoff age for looking at cheerleaders ? Everyone in the stands around us were also commenting about the cheerleaders, AND how it would be great to join the BIG 12 (10).

I have no problem with looking at the cheerleaders. That's what they are there for, obviously. Why would you ask that?

 

[meyers7]

Good Point Should have talked to him privately. He's a man with a wife and at least one daughter. He was being a silly guy. No need to put this out there in public.

Except he'd already put it out there in public.

I'm fine with him taking it down, apologizing and moving on.

 

[Sonny44]

Amen to that. While in Jerusalem a few years back, I interviewed Charde Houston who was playing for a team just outside the city. I pitched him my story and a little bit about how Charde was doing. (I'm a reporter.) He said thanks, then proceeded to get on the horn, interview Charde himself, and post the story.

Not a big deal, perhaps, to many of you, but I lost quite a bit of respect for him back then.

That's a different issue entirely.

 

[Sonny44]

Good Point Should have talked to him privately. He's a man with a wife and at least one daughter. He was being a silly guy. No need to put this out there in public. Should he have not done it on work time yes. Should he lose his job for it. No When someone makes a dumb mistake there is no reason to hang him or her out to dry. We are all human and we all have done silly things. It shouldn't cost us our job and or family. This should've been handled privately I agree Fairview. JMO. Did he say something derogative? I didn't read the tweet.

Agree, way overblown. Those who think the uniforms are appropriate are the biggest hypocrites of all.

 

[HuskyNan]

I think it simply underscores the "hidden" sexuality of sports. In general, women are objectified men are not. There have been a series of incidents in the last week or so that underscores that. Of course, some folks are going to trot out the "thought police" to hide behind to they don't actually have to think about the implications and ingrained biases. But do the flip test and see if you can point out the examples of the opposite happening - a female reporter tweeting about male cheerleaders, a pair of female hosts dismissing the quality of a male reporter's reporting but praising the size of his "johnson," etc. etc.

It's all worth discussion. It's all worth reflection. It's all worth thoughtful examining of the impact of words and language. What you decide to do AFTERward is on you. As is folks' reaction. It's all part of growing up and being more aware of the fact that you can impact the people and world around you.

If enough women refused to wear skimpy outfits and shake their booties in front of thousands of people, then it wouldn't happen. Thing is, there are women who either don't see it as objectification or who don't mind being objectified. The problem is that people make assumptions that if some women don't mind being objectified, all women don't mind. It's incumbent on a woman to stand up and say, no, you do not get to say that about me.

 

[magic]

I have no problem with looking at the cheerleaders. That's what they are there for, obviously. Why would you ask that?

Because you mentioned dating !

 

[CL82]

My first thought was Kim Mulkey designed those uniforms.

Nope the colors made sense together and there were not metallics or animal print.

 

[CL82]

Is this what we are complaining about:



I am not particularly offended by that. He was trying to be witty. In hindsight, he should have avoided the tweet but Crimeny it is not like the guy is predator.

 

[Wally East]

He's a man with a wife and at least one daughter. [...] No need to put this out there in public. .

Exactly, he shouldn't have been tweeting this sort of thing publicly because he has a wife and daughter.