ESPN radio hosts find a rapist joking about Sarah Palin being raped hilarious

**NSFW Warning: Some language and content in this post may be unsuitable for some readers. Reader discretion is advised.**

The Daily Caller’s Jeff Poor reported on Friday the disgusting remarks that were made last week on an ESPN radio affiliate in Las Vegas by convicted rapist Mike Tyson:

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has plenty to say about allegations made about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in Joe McGinniss’ forthcoming book β€œThe Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.”

In an interview on the radio show β€œGridlock” on KWWN, ESPN’s Las Vegas affiliate, Tyson took a few shots at Palin, boasting about interracial sex and the allegation that Palin had an affair with former NBA star Glen Rice.

β€œGlen Rice is a wonderful man,” Tyson said. β€œHe’s a wonderful guy. You want her to be with somebody like [Dennis] Rodman getting up … in there. Pushing her guts up in the back of her head!”

Tyson went on to say that Rice was too β€œnon-threatening.”

β€œGlen Rice is a nice, mellow, docile man, non-threatening guy,” he said. β€œYou want someone like Rodman β€” yeah baby! Let’s get that donkey in here now. [laughter] Just imagine Palin with a big old black stallion ripping. Yeehaw!”

[…]

Tyson was asked if Palin earned his vote by allegedly being open to sex with black men. Tyson explained that, as a felon, he is unable to vote. But he offered his opinion about what the allegation means for Palin’s standing in the black community.

β€œShe could always get boned out by a black person, a vote to bang her,” Tyson said. β€œOther than a vote to run office, the only thing she can do … she’s not a bad person because she likes black people at least in her.”

Later in the interview, Tyson had a name for what Palin β€œneeded.”

β€œSarah Palin … she met the β€˜wombshifter.’”

Of course, no one should be surprised that a convicted rapist and celebrity thug like Mike Tyson would get his kicks from talking about raping a woman’s guts out. It’s to be expected, considering the source. What wasn’t expected, however, was the out and out laughter displayed by Gridlock’s hosts – Mitch Moss and Paul Howard, which you can clearly hear at this link. Mediaite’s rightly outraged Frances Martel describes it:

Tyson was a guest on the KWWN program β€œGridlock,” where the hosts cackled and guffawed in harmony at Tyson’s every deplorable comment.

I mean, we’re not talking about the ‘polite’ subdued laughter someone gets when they say something they think is humorous but in reality is most certainly not. The Gridlock hosts clearly found it absolutely hilarious that Tyson talked about Palin “meeting the wombshifter.” I personally found the audio at the Daily Caller link so stomach-churning and offensive that I couldn’t sit through all 9 minutes of it.

Let me also say this: THANK YOU to the Daily Caller for reporting not just Tyson’s comments, but for also including the audio of them in which we could hear in astonishment the laughter of the show hosts. This is the issue that everyone should be focusing on right now. Unfortunately and unbelieveably, instead of being united in calling out the hosts for their outrageous reactions, and the MSM for not bringing this to our attention – and also blasting ESPN for once again showing their double standards when it comes to “controversial” things said about prominent political figures – some of Sarah Palin’s more devoted supporters chose to take their anger out on …. the Daily Caller and the writer of the story, Jeff Poor. Why? For, to paraphrase, allegedly “perpetuating filth” and for, get this, not expressly condemning Tyson’s remarks.

Seriously? So if straight news reporting now equates to an “endorsement” of what’s reported, there are a lotttt of folks out there who should rush to, like Daily Caller head honcho Tucker Carlson did, add disclaimers to all of their implied “endorsements.” Here’s a reality check for these folks: Some things people say speak for themselves without additional comment needed. I shouldn’t have to say that this was one of those times. That I do have to say so is deeply troubling.

Frankly, I’m not sure what to be more disgusted about at this point: Tyson is someone to be perpetually disgusted by, so he doesn’t count. I’m not sure if I’m disgusted more with the jerk-offs on ESPN radio who thought Tyson’s rape fantasy was hysterically funny, ESPN itself for its failure to apply it’s so-called “editorial standards” to Republicans as well as Democrats, the MSM’s failure to report on Tyson’s twisted words and the reactions they garnered, or the absolutely off the wall fanatical way some of the more diehard Palin fans reacted to the publishing of Tyson’s comments in the first place. I mean, this story was reported Friday evening, and for the last three+ days we’ve been told by the diehards that this story shouldn’t have been given the time of the day by the Daily Caller because it just ‘unnecessarily amplified’ Tyson’s remarks – but yet these same people applauded and high-fived like crazy last night when Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, a longtime Palin defender who I used to have oodles of respect for, literally and unprofessionally got into a shouting match with her “friend” Tucker Carlson over the story – thereby amplifying Tyson’s remarks on national TV!

And after the shouting and the show was over, Van Susteren had the audacity to write this at her blog:

I had hoped that Tucker and I would have a strong debate about violence against women and how women are treated by some in the media and it just deteriorated to the two of us yelling at each other.

Oh, give me a damn break! If she wanted to have a “strong debate about violence against women and how women are treated by some in the media” she should have invited the radio media hosts who thought the comments were so funny, and given them a what for. Duh! Instead, we get “outrage” over the fact that the comments were posted at all:

This was not about Gov Sarah Palin but rather repeating filth to demean women…any women. You could replace Palin’s name in the debate with other womens’ names. She was just the β€œposter child” of the debate since the filth was written about her – I had hoped to discuss that journalists should challenge women on issues rather than repeat vile filth that denigrates and even makes light of violence against women.

But who here was “making light of violence against women”? ESPN’s Gridlock hosts, not Daily Caller. And that’s the issue. But according to Greta and company, apparently instead of reporting on “filthy”, degrading, sexist things said about women by popular media personalities – and the reactions of those around them, we should just ignore the remarks and sweep them under the rug, because NOT letting jack asses like the Gridlock hosts know that what they said and/or how they reacted to things that were grossly offensive and misogynistic has proved to be such a brilliant, effective tactic in the past in terms of finding ways to inspire people to rethink their worldview about successful women!

It’ll be a long, long time before I watch Greta’s show again. I’m no fan of Tucker Carlson’s, either, but I’m more upset at the fact that so many missed the bigger picture here, that being not that the Daily Caller published Tyson’s sick rant, but that no mainstream media outlet gave the comments (which equated to advocating violence against a woman – a clear New Tone violation) any attention – which would have the potential of sparking a national conversation, and furthermore that the show’s hosts evidently found Tyson to be comedically gifted. The debate should NOT be about “Why did Daily Caller publish nasty comments made about Sarah Palin?” but instead “Why in 2011 is it still acceptable in our pop culture for blatantly demeaning, sexist, and misogynistic comments – and reactions – to be made in the media about high profile women, especially conservative women?”

If you are a conservative woman, you, too, should a) be DEMANDING the answers – and b) solutions – to that very serious question. In fact, conservative women shouldn’t be the only ones asking this question – conservative men should be, too. This is an issue that should unite us, not divide us! Trying to kill the messenger, in this case the Daily Caller, for the mere reporting of “the message” will do neither a nor b, and that would ultimately be the biggest tragedy in all this … if we turn our eye away from the ball.

Focus, please.

Update: This Twitter post from Mitch Moss says it all (via @DLoesch):

WOW! @miketyson just made his most epic appearance ever with Gridlock! #wombshifter??! Are you serious?! My head hurts from laughing.

Mitch Moss - co-host of ESPN Radio's Gridlock.
Mitch Moss - co-host of ESPN Radio's Gridlock.

Sick. But let’s not get worked up about such things. Let’s have a multi-day Outrage-A-Thon over Jeff Poor and The Daily Caller. So much more productive, and will prove to be so impactful and meaningful for women in the long term … :-w

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