Nationally syndicated sports talk show host Tony Bruno caused quite the stir over the weekend following a racially insensitive tweet Friday night.
“Gutless #!@%*# Giants,” Bruno, a Philadelphia Phillies fan, tweeted. “[Bruce] Bochy is a coward for having his illegal alien pitcher hit a guy since mighty Frisco boys …” He was referencing San Francisco reliever Ramon Ramirez, who drilled Shane Victorino with a pitch.
Bruno deleted the tweet, but the damage had been done. He issued an apology and explanation on his Facebook page:
“Saddened to see the vulture mentality and bad knowledge by the many who have joined the sheep on facebook,twitter and blogs who did not hear my radio show yet jump to conclusions about me without knowing a single thing about me or my 40 year career. My stupid and insensitive twitter post was up less than 1 minute before I realized it was caustic, it was removed immediately and I typed a quick apology on twitter and here. Since I was doing my live radio show, I apologized more emphatically on the air, and the podcast is available on my website(tonybrunoshow.com, hour 3) for those who choose to actually get some facts to go along with the hearsay or bloggers who spread falsehoods about my apology not being “sincere”.
Many have whipped themselves into a frenzy of hate with vile, profane and even threats of violence in their “copy and paste” world of instant justice. I will spare you the embarassment of reposting these truly ugly messages. Others who feel my apologies and body of work aren’t good enough for their “selective morality” have called for my dismissal.
I know who and what I am and deal with many who post racist and insensitive comments all the time and hide behind a lie of being hacked or simply not caring what people say. I don’t hide behind anything I have ever said or done.
What I posted was reaction to something that goes beyond Giants-Phillies rivalry baseball. My position on “unwritten rules” of baseball has been consistent. Managers who order a pitcher to throw at someone to “send a message” for whatever the infraction, is an act of cowardice. Anyone who defends it as “part of the game for over 100 years” is, in essence, suggesting that our society should stay in the dark ages. Listen to my show last Monday night when I scolded Jered Weaver of the Angels for throwing at the head of Detroit’s Alex Avila on Sunday and you will see my consistent disdain for the “unwritten rules”. Should we start teaching little leaguers to throw at the big kid on the other team when he hits a couple of home runs because your son couldn’t get him out? Would the logic be: teaching the kids how the big leaguers do it? None of this defends what was posted in a moment of anger on Friday night and I immediately realized the stupidity by removing it, acknowledging it and have felt horrible about it ever since. The fact that 2 or 3 people who want to destroy my life are fanning the flames of true hate by spreading this all over the world wide web just disappoints me as someone who prides himself on being a man who embraces all races, religions and opinions. Most of my rational thinking audience and followers can attest to that fact. Hope this provides a better understanding to many who remain confused, mis-iniformed or just like to hear the whole story.”
Way to blame the media for their reaction instead of just sticking to an apology for what you tweeted. Regardless if you deleted it one minute or one day after you tweeted it, the comment is still racially insensitive.
Think before you tweet, people.