On ESPN’s First Take a week* ago, Bristol Race Relations Guru Skip Bayless extended an invitation to former 2 Live Crew rapper/official South Beach strip club welcoming committee/part-time Miami New Times columnist Luther Campbell to debate him on his stupid show.
*Or months? Years? Eons? I don’t know. I don’t watch First Take, because it’s stupid (see above), and when I had to because of work time seemed to move slower than usual.
Alas, the invitation has since been recanted. That’s according to Uncle Luke, who today told the New Times that he was informed, by way of his publicist, that First Take’s talent booker had taken back the invite.
“My New Times piece got me on the banned list,” Campbell says. “Skip only wants token people to go on the air with him.”
The New Times piece in question is a February 28th ditty in which Luke calls Skip the following, with varying degrees of accuracy.
- The “Rush Limbaugh of sports journalism.” (Fair.)
- The architect of “a cottage industry playing the role of the angry white guy.” (Very fair.)
- A “master of manipulating issues about race and ethnicity in professional athletics to make himself millions of dollars.” (The fairest.)
- A journalist who made his way “attacking African-American players as a young cub reporter.” (Yeah, but it’s important to point out that he’s also famous for questioning the sexual orientation of a white quarterback.)
- A man who “most African-American journalists and sports celebrities don’t like.” (Well, we haven’t conducted any polls recently, but if this piece was to be believed he’s well-liked by his co-hosts, the majority of whom are black. We’re not sure about black athletes — they seem to be split between dislike and indifference. White punters, though, want him to fall onto a burning pile of AIDS needles.)
- A man who “Black columnist Stephen A. Smith recently flipped” off on air. (That wasn’t a real flip-off, Uncle Luke.)
- A man who “Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs called” a douchebag. (This happened.)
- A man who Charles Barkley anointed “biggest jackass in the history of journalism.” (This happened, too.)
- A man whose race-baiting hucksterism is “pulling in viewers.” (Questionable.)
In any event, we’ve contacted ESPN PR and asked if Uncle Luke’s invite was indeed rescinded because he called Skip Bayless a “Modern Day Minstrel.” When we hear back, we’ll let you know.
