{"id":28812,"date":"2021-02-26T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=28812"},"modified":"2021-02-26T10:13:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T16:13:22","slug":"robservations-wgns-dan-roan-apologizes-calling-player-thug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2021\/02\/26\/robservations-wgns-dan-roan-apologizes-calling-player-thug\/","title":{"rendered":"Robservations: WGN's Dan Roan apologizes for calling player 'thug'"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Dan Roan<\/p><\/div>\n

Robservations on the media beat:<\/p>\n

One reason Dan Roan<\/strong> has lasted 37 years as a sports anchor at Nexstar Media Group WGN-Channel 9 <\/a>is that he's studiously avoided controversy. But now he's been forced to walk back<\/a> a comment that blew up on social media Thursday. In a post since deleted, Roan tweeted: \u201cBad news from Champaign on Ayo Donsunmu,<\/strong> nose broken by Spartan thug on Tuesday . . . no word on how long he\u2019ll be out.\u201d It apparently referred to Michigan State center Mady Sissoko,<\/strong> who was charged with a flagrant two foul and ejected from the game against the Fighting Illini. Roan immediately came under blistering attack for use of the word \u201cthug,\u201d prompting this followup tweet:<\/a> \u201cJust made aware of some issues with an earlier tweet \u2014 I used too strong a word and I apologize to the MSU player in question and to any who may have been offended by this. Not aware in any way that the word had any racial connotation<\/a> to it \u2014 that\u2019s not me, never has been.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bob Collins<\/p><\/div>\n

This Sunday would have been the 79th birthday of the great Bob Collins,<\/strong> the top-rated morning star of WGN 720-AM<\/a> who died in a plane collision in 2000. In tribute to their beloved colleague, staffers at the Nexstar Media Group news\/talk station will toast Collins at 7:48 a.m. today during Bob Sirott's<\/strong> morning show. (As is tradition, they'll pour from a bottle of Jack Daniel\u2019s<\/a> that was found in Collins's office and preserved by sports anchor Dave Eanet.<\/strong>) Joining in today's salute will be retired WGN morning host Spike O'Dell,<\/strong> who succeeded Collins, and retired agribusiness reporter Orion Samuelson.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ashleigh Banfield<\/p><\/div>\n

Monday will mark the debut of \"Banfield,\" a one-hour interview show hosted by Ashleigh Banfield<\/strong> on NewsNation, <\/a>the rebranded WGN America cable network owned by Nexstar Media Group. Originating from Banfield's home in Darien, Connecticut, it will air at 9 p.m. Monday through Friday (in place of the third hour of NewsNation's three-hour news block). Banfield's first guest will be filmmaker Aaron Sorkin,<\/strong> to be followed on later nights by Bryan Cranston, Robin Wright, Keith Olbermann, Mike Rowe, David Zucker<\/strong> and Katie Cole.<\/strong> Banfield, who worked for CNN, HLN, MSNBC, ABC News, NBC News, A+E, TruTV and Court TV, said she hopes to replicate the format of the late Larry King's <\/strong>\u00a0CNN interview show.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz<\/p><\/div>\n

Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz,<\/strong> a business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, <\/a>is the latest to call it quits, effective today. \"I\u2019m making a leap into media relations, and start a new job mid-March,\" she tweeted.<\/a> \"To say this was an agonizing decision is an understatement. I\u2019m immensely proud of the 15 years I spent at the Tribune and deeply grateful to the editors, managers and fellow reporters who have guided and championed me. . . . It has been an honor, and I will miss it.\" Elejalde-Ruiz, who grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Brown University, was a reporter for the Daily Herald and City News Service before joining the Tribune as a features reporter for RedEye in 2006.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s comment of the day:<\/a> Dan Miller:<\/strong> I cannot tell the difference between Scott Adams and Rick Odell. Both have radio voices that are melodious, articulate and confident. Both superb in professionalism, too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robservations on the media beat: One reason Dan Roan has lasted 37 years as a sports anchor at Nexstar Media Group WGN-Channel 9 is that he's studiously avoided controversy. But now he's been forced to walk back a comment that blew up on social media Thursday. In a post since deleted, Roan tweeted: \u201cBad news... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28812"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28830,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28812\/revisions\/28830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}