By Grand Rapids Anonymous GRA: I didn’t like him because he acted liberal during his stint. They may get their minority host yet.
Mike Richards Out as Jeopardy! Host after Past Scrutinized LOS ANGELES (AP) — Producer Mike Richards stepped down from his brief tenure as host of Jeopardy! after a report about past misogynistic comments surfaced this week and following a drumbeat of criticism about his selection and how it was made.
[N.S.: This is not a news story, but rather a reportorial. Saying “past misogynistic comments” is editorializing. A reporter would say, e.g., “Past comments which feminists derided as “misogynistic.”]
Richards was chosen last week as the successor to Alex Trebek, a decision that was seen as divisive from the beginning after the show had embarked on a search that included actors, sports figures, journalists and celebrities.
[N.S.: “Seen as divisive” by whom? Nothing is simply “seen as divisive.” Actually, nothing is “seen as divisive.” Certain figures condemn an act, but are too cowardly to say they think it is vicious, and so they assert that it is “divisive,” but “divisiveness” concerns other people, or the speaker and at least one other person. Nothing can be “divisive” towards the individual condemning it.]
Earlier this week, The Ringer website revealed demeaning comments about women, the homeless and others that Richards had made on a 2013-14 podcast, The Randumb Show. The clips were removed online after the report was posted.
[N.S.: More editorializing.]
“Over the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show,” Richards said in a note to the Jeopardy! staff on Friday.
Richards said a search for a new host will begin, with guest hosts returning to continue production for the new season.
But viewers will get to see the short-lived emcee in action. The episodes that Richards taped Thursday will air when the show returns for its 38th season starting Sept. 13; a do-over with a substitute host would be a slap at the contestants and further undermine the show.
[Why is that a problem? Lynn Elber is all about undermining the show.]
Richards’ note indicated that he will remain the show’s executive producer — an awkward situation for whoever replaces him.
[N.S.: Tranlsation: Fake news reporter Lynn Elber wants Richards fired as executive producer, as well.]
Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer, who holds the record for single-game winnings and is No. 3 for all-time winnings, offered a sarcastic reaction to Richards’ exit.
“I was really looking forward to the season premiere where after an exhaustive 61-clue search for the next Jeopardy champion, the show looks past the three obvious candidates and declares Mike Richards the winner,” Holzhauer tweeted.
[N.S.: Another pc suck-up is heard from. Don't worry, buddy; your time'll come, too.]
When Richards was tapped to host the popular game show last week, Sony also announced that actor [sic] Mayim Bialik would emcee “Jeopardy!” prime-time and spinoff series, including a new college championship.
[N.S.: How could Bialik “emcee Jeopardy! prime-time,” if Richards was hosting it? Lynn Elber screwed up with the facts, too—or was she just wishing aloud?]
Giving the flagship show to Richards, who’s firmly in the cookie-cutter host mold of a White, square-jawed young man, struck some as proof of an insincere effort by the studio to consider a woman, a person of color or someone from the LGBTQ community. More than half of the guest hosts fall into one or more of those groups.
[GRA: You can tell this is ap. N.S.: Yes; Lynn Elber’s racism and sexism are showing.]
Doubts also grew about the fairness of the selection process, with reports finding holes in Richards’ repeated assertion that the decision was Sony’s and he had no role in it.
On the podcast, Richards used derogatory, crude language about women and their bodies. At one point he says his female co-host and former assistant was a “booth ho” and “booth slut” when she worked at a trade show. He also made mocking remarks about Jews and Asians and disparaged the homeless.
[N.S.: “Booth ho”?! On fox sports during the nfl season several years ago, the hosts used to refer top Jillian Barberie as their “weather ho.” I was never crazy about that moniker, but Barberie did dress in a slutty fashion.
As for Jews, Asians, and the homeless, like what? Give examples. Oh, so we’re just supposed to take your word for it? Again, Lynn Elber is not a reporter. Heck, this isn’t even a reportorial, it’s a flat-out editorial.]
“It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago,” Richards said in a statement to The Ringer staff writer Claire McNear, who first reported on the podcasts. He called the remarks inexcusable, adding, “I am deeply sorry.”
McNear, author of the 2020 book, Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider’s Guide to Jeopardy! said Thursday that Jeopardy! had become an unimpeachable part of pop culture.
[N.S.: Talk about a mouthful of nothing.]
“Everybody knew Jeopardy! and everybody loved Jeopardy! and Trebek was not controversial. It was just this great trivia show. And now it is controversial and that’s not going away,” she said.
N.S.: Jeopardy! wasn’t part of “pop culture,” and it wasn’t a “trivia show.” So-called “pop culture” is geared towards imbeciles, while Jeopardy! was a show about knowledge. However, now it will be transformed into a trivial, “pop culture” show, and it will fail, because it will be geared towards the sort of people for whom it can never be degraded enough.
Friday, August 20, 2021 at 5:32:00 P.M. EDT
By Lynn Elber
Yesterday
jerry pdx
ReplyDeleteI can't believe they didn't do their due diligence on Richards, OK maybe they could have missed those comments on that Randumb podcasts but the lawsuits with sexual harassment connotations should have been well known around the industry. I can't imagine management is that dumb to have not realized that it would become a problem at some point. Unless they are being more devious than we thought, maybe they realized the Jeopardy audience would object to a diversity hire move so they set Richards up to take a fall, now they can move in a negro, or other "person of color" and camouflage it as a virtuous act after getting rid of the "racist whitey". If they pick Jennings or Aaron Rodgers that will blow my conspiracy theory right out of the water but if it goes to Geordi LaForge, then you read it here first.
I'll vote devious.
ReplyDelete--GRA
Given enough time and enough research you can find everyone is "guilty" of some sort of "offense". Criminal or otherwise. Many have made that observation.
ReplyDelete