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UPDATED: Fox Sports Singles Out Asian Students At USC For Interviews On Football

September 02, 2011 4:43 pm ET by Media Matters staff

In a video posted on the Fox Sports website, reporter Bob Oschack did a segment purporting to welcome Colorado and Utah as they joined the Pac-12 Conference for the 2011 college football season. Oschack said, "Let's give the conference's two newest members a good old-fashioned all-American welcome by paying a visit to one of its oldest members," the University of Southern California.

Oschack proceeded to interview only Asian students who apparently didn't know much about USC football:

According to USC's statistics, Asian students made up 21.6 percent of the undergraduate student body last fall, and international students made up 11.2 percent:

UPDATE: Fox Sports has pulled the video off its website and its YouTube account. However, it is still accessible on Hulu.

UPDATE: Fox Sports head of media relations Lou D'Ermilio has apologized for the video, according to Deadspin:

We sincerely apologize to President [C. L. Max] Nikias and the entire USC community for the production and posting of the video. The context was clearly inappropriate and the video was removed as soon as we became aware of it. We will review our editorial process to determine where the breakdown occurred, and we will take steps to ensure something like this never happens again.

Tags: Fox Sports

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    • Author by pete592 (September 02, 2011 5:05 pm ET)
      4  
      Oschack is known for his comedic sports reports. Here's one he did about the hotness of the University of Oregon Cheerleaders (GO DUCKS!). Obviously, he was again going for laughs, but he really missed the mark and fell headlong into tastelessness.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by IRONY 101 (September 02, 2011 5:11 pm ET)
        2  
        As a die-hard LSU fan I am looking forward to the game tomorrow night with Oregon...two teams that take recruiting to an entirely different level. How ironic that the game is being played in Texas...the playground of street agent, Wiiliie Lyles. ;>)
        Report Abuse
      • Author by ponymeup (September 03, 2011 9:50 pm ET)
        1 1
        That Oregon report is hilarious! Going to give him a pass on this but it was weird.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by DennisKQV (September 02, 2011 5:49 pm ET)
         
      It's obvious from the opening statement this was a satire piece. Maybe it was poorly done, but it's not an example of inaccurate reporting.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by donwelty (September 02, 2011 6:04 pm ET)
      2  
      If those interviews were for humor, I cannot see it. But on a more serious note, if this guy were real and interested in sports, he would have asked a random sample of students at UCLA. In contrast to those here who plug a particular university, showing a totally biased view on the addition of Utah and Colorado to the Pac 12, I propose a totally unbiased perspective--Go UCLA.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by dommanno3075 (September 02, 2011 6:44 pm ET)
      3  
      This is nothing new for sportswriters. Back in 1979, when my alma mater (University of Pennsylvania) made the Final Four, the local tabloid sent a reporter to campus to see how the Ivy League school was reacting. Despite the frenzy sweeping the campus, he somehow managed to find only students who weren't interested in the game. At least they were the only ones he quoted in his story. He had a preconceived notion that the intellectuals wouldn't be following the team, and he proceeded to confirm that.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by dddj (September 02, 2011 7:32 pm ET)
         
      This is pretty much poor judgement and bad taste, but also pretty much fits into the Fox demographic.

      Racial humor can be funny, without being overly hurtful to an entire racial group. However, often it's done by shows with writers who understand the sensitivities, like the Daily Show, SNL and Living Color. Also, racial humor executed well usually come from a personal viewpoint like Martin Lawrence, Margaret Cho and Bobby Lee.

      What Oschack did with singling out asian college students is nothing more than a cheap shot. As an Asian American he should hope I don't run into him on the street, I'll give him some Chinese Tea Bag love.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by oscar the grouch (September 02, 2011 8:06 pm ET)
      1 9
      so, he should have interviewed 1 Black African American, 3 international, 3 Chicanos, 6 Asian, 1 mixed race and 12 white caucasians, right?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by phlcstgan (September 02, 2011 8:17 pm ET)
        2 1
        Don't forget a Straw-American like your friend there.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by steeve (September 02, 2011 8:36 pm ET)
        6 1
        Confirmation that all the conservative posters here are idiots. Every single one of them.

        MMFA provided the ratios to prove that the segment's tastelessness was intentional, and possibly to teach comedians that it's generally preferable to connect to reality in some way while joking.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by MickD (September 03, 2011 8:37 am ET)
          2  
          And FoxNoose, like the cowards and chickensh!ts they are, took the story down. I thought conservative propagandists were real men, who stand up to their bigoted principles!
          Report Abuse
      • Author by pete592 (September 02, 2011 9:06 pm ET)
        2  
        Whatever you think would constitute "a good old-fashioned all-American welcome", Oscar.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by oscar the grouch (September 03, 2011 10:01 am ET)
            6
          I couldn't decide which is more ridiculous, the origingal story, the fact that MMFA posted it, or the "outrage" by the "experts" above.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by George Likes His Chicken Spicy (September 03, 2011 12:47 pm ET)
               
            Get it, Oscar? Because they talk funny and they're not white!!! What bunch of stupid g00ks!!!! hahahahahaha!!!! SOOOO Funny!!!! LOL!!!! Isn't that soooo funny? Stupid g00ks and ching chong dongs don't know about USC football or the PAC 10!!! HHAHAHAHAHA!!!! They're probably just there to study biochemistry, physics and other lame ass "queer stuff" em I right? Huh? What a bunch of G00KS hahahaha!!!! Fox Sports is SOOOOOOOOOO Funny!!! REAL AMERKINS KNOW FOOTBALL!!! em I right? Ching Chongers should be thrown out of USC! Our colleges should only be for white people! HAHAHAHA!!!!
            Don't they talk funny? No like us real Americans!! (white people) Look at their slanty eyes!!!! Are they even considered people? hahaha! Thank you, Fox Sports!!! For proving how un-American and un-White USC pre-med students are these days and giving us all REAL WHITE Americans a good LOL while doing it!
            ching chong ching chong ching chong ching chong ching chong ching
            chong hahahahahahaha!!!!! That's how stupid Asian people talk!!!
            THAT'S not a language!!!! hahahaha!

            /end sarcasm. What year is it again?
            Report Abuse
          • Author by pete592 (September 03, 2011 1:24 pm ET)
            4  
            I am an expert, on just about everything, but I wasn't outraged. I just thought it was lame, tasteless, and not funny.
            Report Abuse
      • Author by 4teepee (September 04, 2011 1:02 pm ET)
        1 2
        If over 21 percent of the students are Asian, why isn't at least 21 percent of the football team Asian? The government should jump on USC about this issue.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by syrabell (September 05, 2011 3:46 pm ET)
        1  
        I am glad that Fox saw that it was inappropriate and pulled the video. Unlike you they saw it was in poor taste, inappropriate, and maybe even a touch racist. And yes they should have interviewed a variety of persons, I am sure they could have found that there were lots of other nationalities that also had no clue about USC football. And why USC and not Cal member of PCC predecessor of Pac 8 since 1915 along with Univ. Wash, or Oregon State or Univ of Oregon, Heck even Stanford 1918 came along before USC 1922. Go Bears.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by delatopia (September 03, 2011 2:00 am ET)
         
      Racist and remarkably, stunningly unfunny. What were people thinking? Oh, wait, they weren't.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by pete592 (September 03, 2011 1:35 pm ET)
      2  
      Deadspin's take was spot on:

      The gimmick: Oshack only interviewed Asian USC students—because in the world of misguided network television humor, foreign accents and unfamiliarity with good old-fashioned football is funny.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by sullivan4239 (September 04, 2011 11:17 am ET)
      1  
      Bwa ha ha, that just hilarious. Fox sports is great entertainment.

      Now lets go to Old Miss and listen to some black student's views on this year's watermelon harvest.
      Report Abuse

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