The Official Thread for Joe Cowley and his Agenda.

[iamshack]

I'd like for sexism to be kept out of society, not just "the workplace." But not giving someone a platform to broadcast those remarks is a good start!

 

There is no law at play here.

The laws I was referring to would be anti-discrimination laws in the workplace...my point was that I understand why employers cannot discriminate against women in the workplace, (which is essentially what Joe was railing against, was it not?).

 

Once again, at no point did I, or am I, suggesting Cowley's behavior is acceptable or admirable.

 

All I'm pointing out is that we'll all get on our high horses here and then simultaneously be left with our mouthes open staring at Rock's avatar...

 

Boys will be boys, girls will be girls...let's not act like we don't hear these kind of comments almost every day of our lives at some point.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Oh my goodness. Can this garbage be moved to fili? It's already home to like 12 of the worst threads in the history of mankind.

[iamshack]

I will compare him to others in his line of work: who else in his line of work makes sexist tweets like this? Why would his position as a sports colomist make him any different from another ST employee?

Again, I am not trying to advocate that he shouldn't be punished...all I'm saying is don't pretend as though he should be judged under the same light as the Sun-Times accountant.

 

He is paid to generate publicity through (what I suppose some people consider to be) humorous and thought-provoking commentary on others. In doing so, there is a significant risk of offending people and causing controversy. That component must be accurately weighed into this.

 

Do you really think the guys who run the presses get the same latitude as a one of their more popular columnists?

[Marty34]

At the very least, he cannot take steps that cost his employer substantially more money than he makes for his employer. If he's put the Sun Times at a lawsuit risk here by bringing "locker room" statements out into the open, then the ST has to replace him. If he's solely there to get the ST press coverage, positive or negative, then I'd say that it's a great reason not to buy the Sun Times and to start emailing people who advertise in the Sun Times sports section asking them if they want their company to be associated with this kind of personality. Just like the ST has the right to decide whether or not to keep him, I also have that right to express my opinion to them and to their advertisers.

 

In fact, I think State Farm is about to get that email.

 

Why would you want to bring heat on a guy with his employer? Bad Karma. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks with all those protestors. Was a shame.

[Kyyle23]

Oh my goodness. Can this garbage be moved to fili? It's already home to like 12 of the worst threads in the history of mankind.

 

it has gotten close a few times

[greg775]

He's in business in no small part because he has a contract worth many hundreds of millions of dollars, so firing him would literally be impossible unless his show reaches the point where it is losing hundreds of millions of dollars. It's like cutting Alex Rios.

 

Joe Cowley does not have a contract worth millions of dollars, he's not worth millions of dollars to the paper, he's quite easily replaced, and the workplace lawsuits the Sun Times could be liable for could easily run into the millions of dollars if there are enough responses.

 

 

I agree he didn't do anything illegal, but he did do something mean and sexist while representing his employer. You don't have to do something illegal to get fired.

 

And nobody is denying him a job he is qualified for, he is getting suspended or fired for violating a workplace policy regarding sexism(presumably).

 

I have seen it happen at my own workplace, I'm sure you have too.

 

If he would have stuck to ripping the people he covers and kept it somewhat HR friendly, we would only be arguing about his axe to grind. He made this bed.

 

 

America is a bunch of p*****s because open sexism isn't tolerated. Our country is lost.

 

1.) What workplace lawsuits? What did he do that could cost the paper a lawsuit. He told the woman to get a new picture cause she looks bad in the other one. Or something dumber than that.

What lawsuits could the paper lose from him being a comedian on twitter??

2.) Ooh he was mean and sexist. Fire him. Fire all comedians like Don Rickles and Dice Clay. That's what Cowley is.

3.) yes our country is lost. It can't take a JOKE. But it keeps HR departments in business.

[LittleHurt05]

How Joe Cowley had a 22-year-old Sun-Times staffer fired for making fun of him on Twitter

[Kyyle23]

2.) Ooh he was mean and sexist. Fire him. Fire all comedians like Don Rickles and Dice Clay. That's what Cowley is.

 

The terrorists have won

[iamshack]

At the very least, he cannot take steps that cost his employer substantially more money than he makes for his employer. If he's put the Sun Times at a lawsuit risk here by bringing "locker room" statements out into the open, then the ST has to replace him. If he's solely there to get the ST press coverage, positive or negative, then I'd say that it's a great reason not to buy the Sun Times and to start emailing people who advertise in the Sun Times sports section asking them if they want their company to be associated with this kind of personality. Just like the ST has the right to decide whether or not to keep him, I also have that right to express my opinion to them and to their advertisers.

 

In fact, I think State Farm is about to get that email.

I can agree with this sentiment, and this is probably a fairly accurate portrayal of how his bosses look at it.

[Marty34]

How Joe Cowley had a 22-year-old Sun-Times staffer fired for making fun of him on Twitter

 

The guy got himself fired for stupidly trashing a columnist at the newspaper he works for.

[greg775]

How Joe Cowley had a 22-year-old Sun-Times staffer fired for making fun of him on Twitter

 

Well that was an interesting story.

Well Cowley got the author fired for tweeting so I won't feel sorry for Joe if he gets suspended. What goes round comes round, you know?

 

I still stand by the stuff I wrote about the pussifying of America and I still don't think Cowley should be reprimanded for what he tweeted, but the guy does seem to be a real horse's ass.

That was a good article by the guy Cowley got fired. I hope it gets a lot of play cause Joe seems like a deadbeat.

I don't think that author shoulda been canned either, but like he wrote, criticizing a member of the staff was prolly considered "treason."

 

After reading this link, I think Cowley has a screw loose, or he has the Dice Clay thing down PAT.

I wonder if Joe is a fan of Dice, seriously.

 

http://deadspin.com/5616047/white-sox-beat...ts-on-minnesota

Edited April 30, 2012 by greg775

[Dick Allen]

The guy got himself fired for stupidly trashing a columnist at the newspaper he works for.

I'll agree the kid went way over the line and deserved what he got, just like Joe did yesterday. He deserves the same fate.

 

The ST is on life support. Any advertisers pulling out is a big deal. I'm starting to think this is the major subject regarding Joe's future employment. If enough advertising dollars won't do business with the ST with Cowley.............he gone. They have grounds.

 

My wife is a labor/employment lawyer who represents management. Maybe I'll ask her about it tonight.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Dick Allen

[Kyyle23]

I don't feel bad for that Mickey guy either. He even admits he did stupid s*** as a 22 year old. He insulted Cowley from a ST computer even.

[Dick Allen]

I don't feel bad for that Mickey guy either. He even admits he did stupid s*** as a 22 year old. He insulted Cowley from a ST computer even.

He should have used the "satire" defense.

[farmteam]

Why would you want to bring heat on a guy with his employer? Bad Karma. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks with all those protestors. Was a shame.

 

I really like that the Dixie Chicks somehow got brought into this.

[iamshack]

I don't think he was looking for any sympathy...I think it's just another example of Cowley being himself...

[Balta1701]

1.) What workplace lawsuits? What did he do that could cost the paper a lawsuit. He told the woman to get a new picture cause she looks bad in the other one. Or something dumber than that.

What lawsuits could the paper lose from him being a comedian on twitter??

2.) Ooh he was mean and sexist. Fire him. Fire all comedians like Don Rickles and Dice Clay. That's what Cowley is.

3.) yes our country is lost. It can't take a JOKE. But it keeps HR departments in business.

As others have noted, this would easily qualify as creating a hostile work environment for female sun times employees if the paper limits it's actions in response here

[Balta1701]

Why would you want to bring heat on a guy with his employer? Bad Karma. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks with all those protestors. Was a shame.

If I'm giving a lecture and I say something this sexist, I'd expect to lose my job over it. Has nothing to do with karma.

[caulfield12]

Cowley and Ozzie relish the "us against the world" mentality.

 

It's beyond ironic how their careers are arcing in the same direction with Ozzie now in Miami and Joe left with only KW and Don Cooper to fight with. He needed larger than life conflict to thrive, and that was gone when Ventura became the manager of the Sox.

 

If I'm an offended Sun-Times employee, a woman or an Asian, here's where the threat of a harassment/discrimination/hostile work environment lawsuit is scaring the be-jesus out of the insurance company that covers the newspaper.

 

We haven't YET reached the point of advertising losses either (like we saw in the oft-compared Limbaugh case), but you can imagine if this story grows much bigger, if they start getting protesters or pickets at the Sun-Times, the die will have been cast.

 

By deleting his Twitter account, he's made himself look guilty in the process, incriminating his actions. If he was going to stand behind his "1st Amendment/Free of Speech/Public Figure" defense, then fine. Or even if he was going to stand behind his "satire of a society where Congressmen who expose their genitalia or an NBA player is fined for a picture of his g/f's butt" defense, that's fine as well.

 

But he ran and hid. One is only left to wonder if he did it on his own or under orders from the Sun-Times, as we saw with the Ozzie/Castro flap.

 

Greg and Marty will argue that if the Sun-Times don't lose any subscriptions, don't lose any advertisers directly as a result, don't get picketed or protested, then "all publicity is good publicity" and he's actually helping to make the Sun-Times relevant by being a public personality "larger than life," at least until it comes back to bite him permanently.

 

He's clearly gone over the edge to one side to the point where there's no walking it back from the abyss. He doesn't know how to be a good sportswriter anymore, everything he writes is completely predictable. Now you could say the same thing about Dowd, Thomas Friedman or Paul Krugman at the NY Times, but they haven't deliberately tried to be over the top in order to get attention, certainly not in their personal/Twitter life. If they of those respected columnists "showed their true personalities" with comments approaching anything Cowley's level, their credibility would be greatly damaged.

 

I'm not going to put him in the Mel Gibson category, but Cowley's going to find himself in a place where the benefits of employing him for his employer don't outweigh the possible costs that go with it.

Edited May 1, 2012 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

If I'm giving a lecture and I say something this sexist, I'd expect to lose my job over it. Has nothing to do with karma.

 

 

The Dixie Chicks comments were 1) made at a time where President Bush was still considered popular by a majority and 2) Cowley's comments were broadly offensive to huge groups of people, like all women in the world, all Asians and all airlines personnel.

 

Had the Dixie Chicks waited 2-3 more years for the tide of the war to completely turn against the administration, nothing much would have been made out of those comments.

 

With the Patriot Act, the Secret Service probably could have had them arrested (at that time) had they wanted to. That was their point in making the comments in the first place, that they weren't proud to live in a country where freedom of speech was being obliterated by PC "patriotic group think." Isn't that how we got into the wars in the first place, Congressmen and Senators were afraid to take a moral stand for fear of losing their next election?

 

 

Perhaps Cowley was already on the borderline of losing his Sun-Times job and wanted to test the absolute limits where Free Speech, his role as a public figure or "pseudo-celebrity" in his mind, and workplace behavior all collided together...especially the continued battle to define where the workplace ends and begins in a digital world.

 

As Balta pointed out, if the Sun-Times does nothing, then who's to define what is and isn't permissible in terms of a hostile working environment/discrimination/harassment? Does it then make it okay for the editor of the entertainment section of the newspaper to tell his more academically-inclined Kellogg School grad to "hottie up her picture" that will run with her weekly column?

 

 

 

Greg or Marty...do you work with any Asian-Americans? Please go to work tomorrow and repeat verbatim the Cowley tweet about Short Round/Indiana Jones with your own version of an "Asian accent." You will last for less time than the ESPN copy editor who came up with the "Chink In the Armor" Jeremy Lin headline.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2012 by caulfield12

[southsider2k5]

The guy got himself fired for stupidly trashing a columnist at the newspaper he works for.

 

And Joe just made the case for why he should be fired too. Big brother is watching.

 

[Quin]

Christ, I've become convinced that one member is either Joe or never worked in a newsroom. This is literally the first thing they teach us in journalism: Be smart about what you say on company time. On a company twitter, that's all the time.

 

And Greg, really man? You said Ozzie should have beat up Coop and now this? Dude, I like you but come the f*** on. People can't say s*** in the real world with no repercussions. Things have changed. The real world handles things like this, not fist fights or laughing it off.

[caulfield12]

http://sportsmockery.com/2012/whitesox-cub...wley-on-way-out

 

 

Where is the official confirmation that he's been suspended indefinitely? Still just rumors or random Tweets?

[SI1020]

That's not true. There are some real backward s*** holes out there still. In my experience, a lot of illegals from mexico are living in the '50s when it comes to sexism.

The 50's were a different time to be sure but if you think all women in the 50's were obedient stepford wives under the thumb of a dominant ogre of a man, then you believe all the revisionist history taught to people in your generation. Edited May 1, 2012 by SI1020

[max power]

No, I don't really believe that all. Not sure where you got that.