Paul Shirley Fired Over Haiti Comments

By Sam Brand Posted Jan 27th 2010 01:46PM

Paul Shirley was a much better blogger than he ever was a basketball player. His ESPN column on music, sports and culture was read by thousands. But that gig is kaput after the journeyman forward dropped some controversial words on Haiti relief. In a nutshell, he doesn't believe in helping the earthquake victims. ESPN no longer believes in helping him. In other news, today is Apple's iPad day, and Barack Obama is set to give his first official State of the Union Address. This is What You're Searching for Today...

Paul Shirley Haiti – The 6'10" blogger published a scathing denunciation of Haitian earthquake relief efforts on FlipCollective.com. His stance did not gel with employer ESPN. "I haven't donated a cent to the Haitian relief effort," Shirley wrote on Tuesday. "And I probably will not." Shirley went on, "Shouldn't much of the responsibility for the disaster lie with the victims of the disaster?" Sounds a lot like the views of an old televangelist we know. "How could humans do this to themselves," Shirley continues. Sports blog The Big Lead points out "Shirley's words were inexplicably ignorant." Haitians "weren't given a choice." On Wednesday, ESPN released a brief statement announcing Shirley's views "do not at all reflect our company's views on the Haiti relief efforts. He will no longer contribute to ESPN."

Apple Announcement – In the biggest public speaking engagement of the day. Steve Jobs announced the release of a device trigger-happy tech fans called "Apple Tablet," but Jobs announced as the iPad. Analysts say the over-sized iPhone could be a game changer, giving users a whole new platform on which to read, write, game, and surf the web. Wired reports the device can connect to other tablets via Wi-Fi, it features two cameras, and will cost somewhere between $600 to $800.

State of the Union Address – In the second biggest public speaking engagement of the day, Barack Obama will give his first official State of the Union address in the House chamber at 9 p.m. EST tonight. You can find the speech on each major network, and if you want you can play the State of the Union Drinking Game (there are a few, here's the Huffington Post's).

Tags: apple, barack obama, BarackObama, haiti, paul shirley, PaulShirley, steve jobs, SteveJobs, what youre searching for today, WhatYoureSearchingForToday

Comments

(26)

Wednesday 27 January

By Michelle

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Heartless Ahole.

By pop

yeah but hes right

By mm

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the victims cant help themselves,but i think its a shame we cant pull together to help our own. especially the amount of people wanting to adopt all of a sudden...

By Rachel

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He looks like he needs a shower. Let's hope people he loves have a tragedy and no one cares.

By Scotty

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We have given this country billions of dollars over the last few years and no improvements that can be seen have been made. When to we ask for some sort of accountability? I feel sorry for the victims but ubtil we find out where all the money went we should be frugal with our tax dollars.

By Grant

I wish I had that 5:32 of my life back. No wonder ESPN and his girlfriend dumped him. He is so ignorant, he doesn't even know that he has nothing to say.

By susan

NO Kind for For Humanity Really Heart less Heart less

Friday 05 February

By Amber

me too!!!

By Stephanie

While he does have the right to feel this way and even voice his views, I hope he wasn't stupid and conceited enough to think ESPN wouldn't proceed to cut him off after he did. How could anyone think that the Haitians did this to themselves? IT WAS A NATURAL DISASTER IDIOT! ESPN would have faced a boycott had they continued to allow this schmuck to be a contributor. One thing is for sure...Shirley can definitely take responsibility for getting the well-deserved axe.

By Sue

Karma...s o b will get his due in time.

By SkyBlue

ESPN gave him the forum to speak his mind, which is exactly what he did. They have no reason to be upset with him for doing what he was paid for. How can you tell someone, after the fact, you can't say that and punish him for it?

As to Shirley, if he doesn't want to contribute to the relief funds, that's OK. But to blame this tragedy on its victims is heartless, cruel, ignorant and hateful.

By Keggerbro

Ditto!!!! With all the current contributions they have more money in that country than it's worth. I'm sorry for them but when my house was mostly destroyed during the Northridge quake nobody came running to me with millions of dollars for the taking!!!!!!! I had to fight and fight and fight just to get my insurance to cover the claim...80% anyway, the rest came out of MY pocket!!!! So no heart-felt guilt here!!!

By juls

Ok that is heartless but true...wait a minute wait a minute this country is so ready to pull other counties out of disasters BUT what about our country what about us...heres the thing I could travel to any given state in this country and find plenty of families, men, women, children living in similar conditions...and we all know this is true...OUR economy is so trashed but we are willing to fork out millions of dollars to a country that helped us with ????? donations when 9/11 happened or hurricane Katrina struck...now I did not do the research someone i'm sure is gonna talk about...I'm just saying what about our starving and homeless, who put on a concert for our contry...this is my personal opinion shame on all those so called superstars...this country, US, WE have put them where they are and yet were are the concerts for those that have lost EVERY THING to the economy and I do mean EVERYTHING but the cloths on there backs because the security they had yesterday was wiped out in 1 day...those peolpe who got to work to find a NOTE on the door saying your fired...who cares right well the so called powerful should after all the backs of the poor (us) have paved the way for releif of OTHER countries not ours...shame on us all

By missie

you literally took the words out of my mouth!! If we worked as hard for our own country, then maybe we wouldn't have starving and homeless people here. This is why we are so in debt, cause we only care about other countries that do nothing for us! I'm sorry this happened but really not our problem.

By PAT

WE GAVE AT CHURCH, BUT MONEY NOW IS IN A PINCH. WE NEED HELP OURSELVES IN THIS COUNTRY. IF WE HAVE ANY TRADGEDY"S HERE, THEN THATS THE END OF HELPING HAITI.

By MiMi

America has so many problems here that have not been addressed....I think it is sad when we think that we can rescue everyone else....when we can not even staighten out our own mess here.....I often wonder how many countries has rushed to America to help us when we had a disaster....does anyone know?
I would think, if anything, we should offer these people birth control....and try to help them get back on their feet....perhaps this is the very best that we could do for them...

Are we trying hard to impress other countries or what?

We all need to pray for these people...and hope that GOD answers our prayers....

By Mike

its time to start worrying about ourselves, no one else is. i would suggest all those black hollywood entertainers, and professional atheletes, who have millions upon millions of dollars pony up a millon or two each, hardly a dent in their pocket, and they can feel good about themselves. meanwhile children, white children, are starving in appalachia, and i dont see any black entertainers putting on concerts for them

By JSmith

Some people need to keep there mouths shut in order to spare the rest of us their ignorance. All of those black entertainers only have millions. Why don't you appeal to the white people who have trillions to save those white children? Maybe Warren Buffet, Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Michael Bloomberg, Steven Spielberg, Madonna, the Waltons, the Hiltons or the Johnsons can hook them up. Every time I think race is no longer an issue, someone like you opens their mouth.

By Ginger

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Hey Mike: why don't you and your other pointy white-hooded family and friends, light up the ol' giant cross and put on your own concert for all those poor little Applachian children? What no talent? No skills? No intellect? No surprise.

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