Meltdowns: Barreiro’s show, Milwaukee Brewers
Posted on August 5th, 2008 – 10:54 AMBy Michael Rand
Local radio maven Dan Barreiro — you might remember him also from his work at the Newspaper of the Twin Cities — had quite a strange moment on the air yesterday. His Bumper to Bumper program is featuring a tribute to 1968, and as such he had Tommie Smith on the program. Smith, you might recall, was one of two U.S. athletes to make the famous Black Power silent tribute (pictured, center) after receiving his medal at the 1968 Olympics. We missed the initial brouhaha yesterday — we started listening only after the fireworks had been doused — but thanks to the magic of the Internet we were able to hear the very strange turn the conversation took when it went into a second segment. Smith took issue with two things Barreiro said, calling them “insults” and accusing the program of “ignorance.” The phrases in question were “history of sorts” and the word “absurd” to describe Bob Beamon’s long jump record. Strange reaction. Very strange. And words nowhere near either insulting or ignorant. Barreiro seemed befuddled, saying at one point, “I have no idea what is taking place here.” You can have a listen to the entire thing right here. The meltdown occurs about halfway through, right after the break.
*Meltdown, part II: Prince Fielder and Manny Parra in the Brewers’ dugout. This team is coming apart at the seams.
7 Responses to "Meltdowns: Barreiro’s show, Milwaukee Brewers"
Re: Meltdown on Barreiro
It’s hard to say whether Smith’s getting angry was justified or not. He may have misinterpreted what Barreiro said, but, unfortunately for Barreiro, words are subject to interpretation. “Absurd”, while meant in a positive way here, could be taken another way. “History of Sorts” could too. Rather than just saying, “history making” he added the qualifier “of sorts”. When you qualify something, you can be misinterpreted in your reasons for doing so.
Smith overreacted. But he would have been totally correct in being angry after what Barreiro said afterward. Something along the lines of “maybe he needs to get a better grasp of the language”. Ugh.
I think they both needed to be clearer in how they were communicating.
Also, Barreiro needs to understand that just because you have someone on to talk about something doesn’t mean that they’re always brought on for positive reasons. The media has changed in the fact that they actually bring people on to shows or radio programs to attack them or their arguments. So, unfortunately, people who go on radio or TV shows to be interviewed have to be prepared that there is a more nefarious reason for having them on than just to “talk with them”.
YADOT
off-topic
Any idea when/where the RBFFL will draft this month? I’m assuming it will be an event…
/off-topic
This topic seems much too serious. Can’t we just go back to fantasizing about food at the new stadium?
Tater-tots it is!
Just listened to the Smith interview. Smith overreacted but Barreiro could have handled the aftermath a little better. “Tommy, get over yourself” was uncalled for. I don’t blame Barreiro for being put off by Smith’s insults though. I wouldn’t want to be called stupid, either, especially if I had brought the subject on my show to share his historical story and let the subject talk with few interruption for 10 minutes.
Minnesota Nice leads to a misunderstanding between whitey and a brotha? Get out!
