On Tuesday, WWL’s verified Twitter account used a homophobic slur in reference to station employee Seth Dunlap. On Wednesday, the sports radio host decided to take the night off from his show.
Dunlap hosts The Last Lap on WWL in New Orleans, Monday – Friday from 8 – 11pm in addition to the Saints pregame show on their radio network. The offensive tweet came just days after the radio host shared that he’s openly gay, in response to Saints quarterback, Drew Brees supporting a group that has historically opposed LGBT rights. The Tweet, sent from an unknown person, was quickly deleted, but not before it was seen, shared and screengrabbed by many.
Dunlap hosted his nighttime show on Tuesday, but chose to skip his Wednesday program. When Dunlap began his Tuesday show, the offensive tweet had yet to become mainstream news. By Wednesday, the tweet was not just an issue within WWL, but a national story. Dunlap explained on Twitter, his decision to miss Wednesday’s radio show.
“Being yourself has never been more important,” Dunlap tweeted. “The hate that has infected our society threatens to tear us apart from the inside out. I’m overwhelmed, but I’m also very proud of who I am and the life I live. I’ll be taking tonight off from the show to reflect and decompress.”
According to The Advocate, WWL afternoon host, Scoot Paisant spoke about the incident at length during his Wednesday show, offering support of both the radio station and Dunlap.
“We have a history of not being afraid to hire openly gay people,” Paisant said, referring to the late David Tyree of WWL. “I don’t know who wrote this. But with technology, we should be able to find out who it is.
“But I think the real bigger question here is: Who are we? Why would anybody see that and go to social media, Facebook, and attack WWL as if we really did that? … To attack us over this is absurd. We have done nothing but embrace the right thing to do.”
Entercom, which owns WWL sent out an internal memo on Wednesday explaining the obvious, the homophobic tweet does not reflect the company’s standards. More importantly, the memo acknowledged that Kevin Cassidy, Entercom New Orleans SVP and Market Manager, spoke to Dunlap directly to express disgust with the tweet and share support for their host. Entercom continues to take all possible steps toward finding who sent the tweet.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
