BRISTOL, Conn. — ESPN has suspended host Tony Kornheiser from his television talk show “Pardon the Interruption” for two weeks for comments he made on the radio last week about SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm’s clothing.
Kornheiser announced the suspension on his Washington D.C. radio show Tuesday morning, calling his remarks about Storm intemperate and stupid.
“As the result of this, I have been sent to the sidelines of PTI for a while,” Kornheiser said.
In a written release Tuesday, ESPN called Kornheiser’s comments inappropriate.
“Hurtful and personal comments such as these are not acceptable and have significant consequences,” said John Skipper, ESPN’s vice president for content. “Tony has been suspended from PTI for two weeks. Hannah is a respected colleague who has been an integral part of the success of our morning SportsCenter.”
Kornheiser described an outfit Storm was wearing at ESPN last week as “horrifying,” saying her shirt was too tight and looked “like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body.”
Kornheiser said he had called Storm to personally apologize for the remarks.
“If you put a live microphone in front of somebody, eventually that person will say something wrong,” Kornheiser said on his show Tuesday. “This was one of the times I said something wrong.”
Storm declined to comment, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.
ESPN has been troubled by a series of workplace issues involving alleged misconduct by its television personalities, though they have involved behavior off the air.
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Did Shivraj Patil ask Dikshit to delay Afzal Guru’s hanging?
New Delhi, June 6 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Sunday stopped short of denying that former home minister Shivraj Patil had asked her government to delay a decision on parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging.
‘May be what you are thinking is true,’ Dikshit told a news channel when asked if Patil had asked her to keep the matter pending even if the home ministry sends frequent reminders.
Asked if there was any political pressure on the issue, the chief minister again refused a direct reply and said: ‘Political pressure was there and wasn’t there. I cannot say anything more on this.’
Dikshit was replying to questions on a show on Aaj Tak channel.
The city government was sitting over Guru’s file for almost four years and had got 16 reminders from the home ministry on the issue. It replied to the latest reminder in May, saying the matter was under ‘active consideration’.
The Delhi government while sending its comment on Guru’s death sentence May 19 had supported the hanging, but expressed apprehension that law and order could be ‘disturbed’ in the wake of his execution.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna Friday forwarded the parliament attack convict’s mercy petition file to the home ministry.
Khanna, to whom the file was rushed May 19 by the chief minister’s office, sent it to the ministry after ‘carefully studying’ it and giving his ‘personal comments’, a source in the Raj Bhavan told IANS.
The source said that the Supreme Court judgment, confirming Guru’s conviction and death sentence for masterminding the terror attack on parliament Dec 13, 2001 has not been opposed in the file sent to the home ministry.
Guru, a resident of Sopore town in the Kashmir Valley, was found guilty of plotting the attack and was sentenced to death by a trial court in December 2002. The Delhi High Court confirmed the death penalty in October 2003.
The Supreme Court also upheld the capital punishment given to him for his role in the attack. Guru’s wife Tabassum filed a mercy petition before the president after the apex court’s verdict.
As per the laid down procedure, the president sought the home ministry’s views on the mercy petition in 2005.
The procedure on mercy petition also requires the home ministry to seek comments of the state government in whose jurisdiction the crime, for which the death penalty is awarded to the convict, has been committed.