Say what you want about Keith Olbermann, but the man has a penchant for sharing some great anecdotes about people he has known throughout his years in the media.
Olbermann took some time to talk about Stuart Scott, his late friend and co-worker who passed away this past weekend, on Monday’s edition of his show, sharing an important story that exemplifies Scott’s courage, specifically his professional courage in the workplace.
Olbermann details the time an ESPN executive called out Scott for his unique catchphrases, saying he was “using language that most of the audience didn’t understand, and it had to stop” – a pretty racist demand from someone with institutional authority at the network. Instead of losing his cool or folding under the pressure put on him, Scott made the clever and calculated decision to praise ESPN for allowing him to use “evocations of his cultural and racial heritage” in his weekly column on ESPN’s website, explaining why he used them and how they were historically tied to African American culture.
Essentially, he intelligently found a way to force ESPN and its executives to accept who he was and continue letting him express himself on the air. And thank goodness he did, because his unique catchphrases and personality were some of the many, many things we came to love about Stu over the years.
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