http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11136487/ http://www.orovillemr.com/news/bayarea/ci_3466268 Warriors fire employee for 'Ghetto Prom' e-mail OAKLAND, Calif. - The public relations manager for the Golden State Warriors was fired Wednesday for inadvertently sending out a racially insensitive e-mail titled “Ghetto Prom” to the team’s entire media distribution list. Eric Govan, the No. 3 person on the Warriors’ media relations staff, sent the e-mail featuring 17 photos, many depicting scantily clad black people in formal attire and commentary on the outfits. The e-mail went to dozens of newspaper reporters, columnists and sports editors, as well as television and radio stations. “It came to my attention moments ago that one of our employees had inadvertently sent out an e-mail that was in extreme poor taste and completely unprofessional,” team president Robert Rowell said in a statement. “I can assure you that the contents of this e-mail — or any unsaid presumptions — do not represent the values and beliefs of the Golden State Warriors organization. The employee responsible for sending this e-mail has been dealt with in an appropriate manner.” Warriors spokesman Raymond Ridder confirmed that Govan is no longer employed by the club. A call to Govan was not immediately returned Wednesday evening, though he quickly sent out a follow-up apology e-mail. “You just received a previous forwarded e-mail titled ’Ghetto Prom’ that was sent accidentally,” Govan wrote. “I assure you that this is totally out of character for myself and want to apologize to anyone who might be offended. My sincere apologies. This won’t happen again and shouldn’t have happened this time.” This is the second public relations scandal by a professional team in the Bay Area in the last year. Former San Francisco 49ers public relations director Kirk Reynolds was fired last June after producing a controversial in-house video meant to prepare players for dealing with the media. But the 15-minute film leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle featured racist jokes, lesbian soft-p*rn and topless blondes — and even a scene of Reynolds impersonating San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the mayor’s office. Reynolds called it a “terrible mistake” and said the video was never meant it for public consumption. It was shown to players during the team’s 2004 training camp in Santa Clara, where it was part of a diversity workshop.
Seriously, hasn't this email been going around for years? I think I've received it several times. People need to lighten up.
in a perfect world, sure. but since we live in a flawed world where everything is racial, i think it's more prudent to just accept that people were genuinely offended, rather than expecting people to "suck it up".
I see your point but... no, no... I think the "lighten up" comment would be OK for friends in your inner circle who like to receive "forwards", videos, jokes, pictures, or however... you don't send THAT STUFF to the Global Address List. That's just NOT COOL. I know I have gotten heat for sending a comment to everyone in the university. WON'T EVER send ANYTHING AT ALL and there was a policy named after me that affected everyone in my division for what I did. Surely I will NOT do it again, mostly because I am banned from sending to that distribution list.
At Apple it was well known that sending a site-wide email was a CLM (Career Limiting Move), even if it was that the building was on fire.
Shouldn't the network admin have set up ...like 10 confirmation screens...before allowing any message to go to a global list like that??
i doubt it was a mistake. the guy probably just didn't think anyone would be offended (maybe the entire dept is white, but maybe there was one white guy/gal who took it racially and reported him for whatever reason). or not.
It went to the entire media dist list (newspapers etc) and was quickly followed up by an appology! You can bet that was one of the biggest "OH ****" moments that guy has ever had.
Oh, I agree, he shouldn't have sent it to this distribution list. We all get emails that are inappropriate that we pass along to friends and I'm guessing that is what he intended to do. He just sent it to the wrong distribution list (I'm guessing). Just sucks to lose your job for that.
Recall only works for Exchange servers, but it is a sort of neat feature. I agree with Smokey -- I wouldn't ever recommend using company email for anything other than company business, for lots of reasons.
