The Perils of Live Performance And Why Jeremy Kappell Should Not Have Been Fired

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
today I want to talk about something
that I feel number one is gonna be very
controversial to some people I hope not
to you I hope that you understand where
I’m coming from on this and and to some
people is going to be a little offensive
so know that there’s going to be some
language used in this particular video
that I’m not using as pejorative but
just as fact you may have heard about
the weathercaster in Rochester New York
who was fired over the weekend for what
people keep saying is that he used a
racial slur now I don’t know if you’ve
seen the video I’m gonna play you a clip
in just a second of the actual thing
that happened and I’m going to tell you
that it is absolutely in my opinion not
true that he used any racial slur but
that he had a slip-up in his voiceover
work he had a slip-up in his
presentation in his performance and it
was an unfortunate one but it’s one they
also find out has happened time and time
again in the past and there’s a really
good reason for it that has to do with
the way our minds work the way language
works the way this particular man’s name
is structured the weatherman is a named
jeremy kapil he worked at whe C in
Rochester New York and what he said on
the weekend was he was giving a weather
forecasts cold there this time of year
he said here’s a look at what happened
or what it looks like at Martin it was
supposed to be Martin Luther King jr.
Park the ice skating rink and what he
said was Martin Luther Coon King jr.
Park now I’m gonna play it for you now I
want you to listen to the cadence of it
I want you to listen to what he was in
the middle of talking about
whether guy giving temperature and
conditions and I want you to listen to
it from the perspective of you’re
watching a weather cast go ahead no
great that’s the way look out Martin
Luther King jr. Park yeah I free but
they’ll only be female okay so that was
the video that went viral that’s what
caused the station to fire him that was
a kind of a shaky cellphone video by
somebody who was sort of shooting their
television but I’ve isolated the line
and I’ve actually gotten a copy of the
full screen full fidelity video and
audio of what he actually said listen to
it carefully Martin Luther King jr. Park
so that’s what he said now I’m gonna
play it in context one more time and I
want you to listen to what his intent is
his intent is to give you the weather
and he makes a mistake great that’s the
way look out Martin Luther King jr. Park
the ice rink but they’ll only be seen
out okay now there is a very easily
understood reason for this anybody who
understands how language is used how
performance works you have two words two
syllables in Martin Luther King Junior’s
name that he transposed the KN king and
the ooh in Luther
Martin Luther King jr. if he’d continued
what he was saying before he caught
himself he said he would have said
Martin Khun Ling or something like that
he had reversed the opening sound of one
of the words King with the vowel sound
of Luther ku right and King ends in an
end
so Khun is what came out you know I’ve
looked at this guy’s history’s been a
weather man for 20 years he’s not
working on the side as a white
supremacist he’s not he made a simple
mistake he hasn’t come out and talked
about his politics nor should he have to
he’s working at a radio at a television
station that you know he’s not working
for Fox News and this damage
you know they fired him over the weekend
the mayor of Rochester
chose to be extraordinarily livid about
this as did social media and the truth
of the matter is this is not the first
time this has happened Mike Golic on
Mike and Mike said exactly the same
thing I’m gonna play you a couple of
clips now one of them is of a mayor in
Alabama in the 50s who is a white
supremacist and he made the mistake and
sincerely like apologized immediately he
was upset he didn’t agree with Martin
Luther King’s stuff he called him an
outside rabble rouser and brought in but
when he said it he realized he made a
mistake and he stopped and said what he
said now Jeremy did not and if you know
anything about how newscasts are
constructed they have a certain amount
of time in which to get at all that
information out before they go on to
sports and business news and all that
sort of thing it was also said by
another white man in the South in South
Carolina and he too caught himself it’s
not like they were strut any of these
people were stridently trying to
demonize and vilify Martin Luther King
by calling him by that racial slur of
Coon we’ve had Martin Luther King Padma
so Martin Luther King said it Martin
Luther King Martin Luther King jr. it’s
because of the way those words are
constructed and when you say them
quickly when you’re in a hurry it can
pop out differently and I know this from
personal experience because when I
worked on the air at WMAL in DC I was
taking calls about a cancer treatment
that had been in the news
and right around that time was when
cellphones began to be used to call in
to radio shows I missed and misheard a
word that a caller said and I got called
on the carpet for it and I told them why
and my program director understood my
operations manager did not but what
happened was a caller said talking about
his wife’s cancer said and now at this
point it has metastasized
now what he said was metastasized which
is horrific
it means it’s spread throughout the body
what I heard in my headphones in the
studio was metabolized and what I said
to him when I heard that was oh that’s
great
listening back to the tape and I was
listening you know when you do a
talk-show you’re in seven second delay
you’re not really listening to what it
sounds like on the air you’re listening
to what’s called the program chain so
it’s before all of the high compression
where you could hear everything and I
simply didn’t hear him properly in no
way shape or form was I trying to
minimize his wife’s cancer issues that
never even crossed my mind I thought
what he was saying was she was in
remission that it had metabolized so
these things happen all the time both in
the hearing of things the saying of
things I’ve said things on the air there
was a woman here in Los Angeles who was
doing the news on can X and it was on a
Sunday night and she was trying to
rejoin they were running 60 minutes the
audio from 60 minutes on a Sunday night
and she was trying to rejoin the network
feed to 60 minutes and couldn’t make the
board operate or something and she
didn’t realize she still had her mic
open she had just done a live commercial
and she was trying to make it happen
there was silence and she said oh shit
and that came out over the air was that
on purpose
no it wasn’t and I truly truly believe
that this easily transposed set of
sounds the fact that it’s happened
before I I can’t imagine that anyone in
his position would risk his job risk
what was going on by saying it overtly
saying it on purpose
and I hope that you as performers can
understand this now I may get you know
comments below this video or it’s like
oh you don’t know what you’re talking
about you’re a white guy what would you
know I know performance I know pressure
I know the way the mouth works I know
the way language works
I know intent I know
construction and I know risk and I know
fear and I also am very very clear on
what has happened over the last 20 years
or so with social media and the web and
the immediacy of offense the idea that
someone would be offended by that that’s
choice that’s choice its choice of the
mayor in Rochester it’s choice for
everybody who posted on social media at
no point in time do they consider the
situation now if that means I’m going to
get lambasted for this if I’m gonna be
insulted for this so be it I couldn’t
care less the truth of the matter is
this guy made an honest simple fast
talking on the air live mistake it
wasn’t on purpose and every time I see a
headline that says weathermen fired for
using racial slur wasn’t using a racial
slur it was a mistake
when I see a headline that says
weatherman fired
because he said a racial slur on the air
you know we don’t have the right in this
country to not be offended and social
media gives us a wonderful way of
expressing what unfortunately ends up
being righteous indignation
and in this case I believe it’s really
unfounded I’d love to know what you
think if you want to sign up for the
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picture in the meantime I’d love to hear
what you think I’m David H Lawrence xvii
thank you so much for watching and I’ll
talk to you tomorrow