4-30-2012
A GM's nightmare becomes reality in Cleveland. How do you manage a situation when one of your employees does something to offend an entire community and puts you in "limit the damage" mode. Market Manager Gary Mincer is in charge of managing some Cleveland drama when when extremely offensive comments were made by morning man Dominic Dieter (pictured).
Dieter, reportedly received an email from a parent who caught his teenage daughter kissing another girl. In response, Dieter, while in the air, said to the father, "You should get one of your friends to screw your daughter straight."
It was so shocking that other members of the morning show were critical of Dieter. As far as we can tell Dieter is off the air for now but has not been fired. Mincer sent a statement to Radio Ink about the incident. "WMMS is aware of the complaint regarding a recent comment made by Dominic Dieter that aired this past Friday. We take matters of this nature very seriously; his comment was thoughtless and unacceptable, and we apologize to those who were offended. We can assure you the appropriate disciplinary action has been taken, and Dieter has since apologized on air and is fully aware that what he said was unacceptable."
"We also want you to be aware that during Friday?s broadcast, he was in fact immediately criticized on-air by the other hosts of the show, and the rest of the segment was dedicated to a productive discussion about the acceptance of all lifestyles. It included call-ins and commentary from members and friends of the gay community. WMMS supports the gay community and again, we deeply apologize."
Here is a transcript of Dieter's apology:
"I just wanted to say that, I know on the show this past Friday I made some comments that people found?considered to be offensive. And I just wanted to say, I understand why people are angry. I want to genuinely apologize to anyone who may have been offended by what I said. I regret what I did say. My comments were inappropriate. They were inexcusable, and just downright stupid. And I want to make it clear; there was absolutely no intention to promote physical or sexual violence. And I?m truly, truly sorry by my poor choice of words that led people to believe otherwise."
If Dieter was your morning man what would you do?
Leave your comments below.
(5/1/2012 11:02:55 PM)
Bunch of cry babies.... if you don't like what you heard, don't listen. The guy made an attempt to be funny and people took it the wrong way. The show wasn't even live. It was a bunch of replay from previous years. If you wanted to make a big deal about it should have been addressed months ago when it was actually said.
(5/1/2012 6:59:38 PM)
Or, as John Edwards said, "I'm so straight, I want to be a lesbian. Can I count on your vote?" (Okay. He didn't say that. I made it up.)
Meanwhile and since this situation is now real, how 'bout station management issues an apology. Something along the lines of: "Given the context of the call and the caller, we are sorry for forcing our man to apologize. Part of the reason we hired him is because he can also get raunchy. We urge any listener who is offended to turn him off. While we read listener complaints, we are not obliged to respond or take any actions whatsoever."
In other words: If station management can't listen to their own programming, they're at the wrong station.
People who are offended by this aren't seeing the whole picture, they are just reacting to an outrageous comment. In the first place, the caller was looking to someone who calls himself "Rover" for advice about his daughter. Are you kidding me? Does this guy call the Three Stooges for financial advice? Dieter is paid to be an idiot and he does his job quite well. To me, this is a lot like South Park or Family Guy. It's all funny until it targets you. Change the channel if you don't like it!
(5/1/2012 1:24:25 PM)
As a gay person I find the comment extremely offensive..... BUT is there a long pattern of this thinking.... I say have gay supportive guests to discuss topics like these.... This is an educating moment..... I hope he can be salvaged from the waste dump of bigots....
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