Bob Ryan has been suspended

Bob Ryan has been suspended without pay by the Globe for one month and also barred from appearing on Radio and TV during that time. Here is a little more on the story.

As this is a website devoted to the sports media scene here in Boston, this is obviously a huge story. Some have commented to me on my silence on this story, and a lot of other issues recently. Well, I’ll just say I’m going through my own personal hell at this time, and I consider it a major accomplishment just to get the links up each morning.

I will take a few moments however, and discuss this issue. Was Ryan thoughtless and wrong, not to mention stupid to make the comments he did? Absolutely. Should he have retracted or restated when given a chance by Lobel? For sure. Should he have been suspended for a month? It seems a bit much. I mean after all, Jason Kidd actually smacked Joumana and didn’t get suspended for it. Ryan fell prey to the need that these media types have to say something outrageous all the time. It’s unfortunate that the Globe readers have to suffer because of the suspension as well. This is Ryan’s time. NBA Playoffs, Celtics still alive…Ryan is the best in the area on the topic. I personally have been more offended by some of the things Dan Shaughnessy has said over the years than I was by Ryan’s comment which was obvious hyperbole. Because abuse of women is such a hot-button topic, (with good reason) any comments such as the ones made by Ryan are going to be scrutinized to the hilt, and the PC police are going jump all over them. If Ryan’s comments are worth 30 days, what is a “piece of junk” comment worth? 10 days? How about calling an athlete a huge “sack of you-know-what”? Does that merit 15 days? As for Byron Scott saying Ryan should be fired. He’s a hypocrite. If Jason hit Joumana tonight, Scott would do all that he could to make sure Jason played in the game tomorrow night. As it is, he has the guy on his team. If he’s so hyper-sensitive to the topic of hitting women, then Kidd should have never been on his team.

It’s interesting some of the other items about this. Bob Lobel is no dummy. He knew what he had there as soon as Ryan uttered the words. Instead of laughing them off, saying Ryan didn’t mean them literally, he played it up. Now, as a result, Sports Final is getting talked about all over the country. With their at times high and mighty attitude today, we’ll also see if the Big Show can handle now being the “Guardians of class” as Nat would put it, next time one of their guys crosses the line, or even giggles at something a caller puts out there that is against the PC crowd, will that person be fired/suspended?

This topic touched off another entire media war today on the airwaves. More sniping between WEEI and WWZN occurred during the afternoon shows. The topic of media people knocking media people was all over the place. Short-timer Sean McDonough called WEEI a “tower of hypocrisy”. Glenn Ordway made comments about Sean having the summer to play golf. Allusions were made to McDonough’s car accident from last year, Sean took some shots at Steve Buckley, saying that