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ESPN suspends Tony Kornheiser for on-air comments about Hannah Storm's clothes
If you can't say something nice... well, then you might be Tony Kornheiser. The former Washington Post columnist, now moved on to nationwide fame and fortune as a radio and TV sports commentator, has never been known as a sweet talker.
But it seems he sniped too far this time: ESPN has suspended him for two weeks for on-air comments trashing his network colleague Hannah Storm's "horrifying outfit," as he called it.
Here's what he said on his ESPN Radio show last week, according to TheBigLead.com, after watching Storm anchor ESPN's "SportsCenter":
"She's got on red go-go boots and a Catholic school plaid skirt... way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now... She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body... Come on now! Stop! What are you doing?"
(Storm is 47, if you were wondering.)
The line drew chuckles from co-host Gary Braun and visiting Post reporter Liz Clarke who agreed Storm's outfit had "a Lolita-esque quality, appealing to the fantasy of -- well, let's stop there."
Kornheiser, 61, was missing Monday from his regular stint on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption," which he explained on Tuesday's radio show, according to The Sporting News:
"I have been sent to the sidelines from PTI for a while... If you put a live microphone in front of somebody, eventually, that person will say something wrong. This was one of the times I said something wrong... without any question, I broke the rules and this is the punishment that's come."
He also said he had called Storm to apologize to her. ESPN confirmed his suspension later in the day. Executive vice president John Skipper released a statement saying:
"Tony Kornheiser's comments about Hannah Storm were entirely inappropriate. Hurtful and personal comments such as these are not acceptable and have significant consequences... Hannah is a respected colleague who has been an integral part of the success of our morning SportsCenter."
A Post reporter and columnist for nearly 30 years, Kornheiser is no stranger to internecine squabbles. In 2006, after our colleague Paul Farhi gave a negative review to his "Monday Night Football" debut, Kornheiser went on-air to call him "a two-bit weasel slug" that he'd like to "run over with a Mack truck." A year earlier, he used his show to call for the firing of a writer for Slate.com (owned by the Post) who had criticized a lack of actual reporting in Kornheiser's column.
He may have picked the wrong time, though, to turn his wrath on a female colleague. ESPN has recently grappled with accusations that its swaggeringly macho culture -- much dissected after the disastrous affair between analyst Steve Phillips and a very young production assistant -- is less than welcoming to women.
Kornheiser also said on-air Tuesday he wasn't going to comment further, and neither he nor his producer have returned our calls so far. No response yet on our request to talk with Storm.
