NC State announcer will be reinstated after comment caused suspension | Opinion
Gary Hahn, the longtime radio voice of the N.C. State Wolfpack, was ostensibly updating an out-of-town score during State’s Dec. 30 bowl game in Charlotte. But when he introduced it with the words “Down among all the illegal aliens in El Paso,” he opened an entirely new contest between left and right.
After the game, Hahn’s employer, Learfield Communications, suspended him immediately and indefinitely, but the company said on Tuesday that he will be reinstated on Jan. 14.
Hahn’s comment about the Sun Bowl in El Paso became a Rorschach test for one’s political views. People took to Twitter and the N.C. State fan website Pack Pride to defend or criticize the sportscaster who has called Wolfpack basketball and football games for more than 30 years.
Conservatives regard Hahn’s comment as a simple statement of fact about a surge of migrants into El Paso that was prominent in the news. Said one Twitter comment: “We have a border problem and there are a ton of illegal aliens in El Paso. What part is not a fact?” Said another: “This is ‘woke’ garbage! I’m a huge fan of Gary Hahn and he should be reinstated immediately.”
But a commentator on the Pack Pride website said he was stunned by Hahn’s comment as he listened while driving along U.S. 64 west of Apex. “I nearly ran off the road and went into Jordan Lake when I heard it,” he said. “Talk about an unneeded black eye on a topic we have no reason to even be opining upon.”
Others said it wasn’t a political issue, but a professional one. Play-by-play announcers are supposed to describe the game, not politics. One Twitter post, responding to Hahn’s defenders, said: “His job was to commentate. Period. I seem to recall y’all having an issue when LeBron (basketball player LeBron James) spoke out and all we could hear was he should shut up and dribble. Keep that same energy!”
N.C. State Athletics Director Boo Coorigan struck that stick-to-the-game note in a statement on Tuesday. “The broadcast of N.C. State Athletics events should rightly focus on the student-athletes and the competition,” he said. “We will work with Learfield to ensure broadcasts meet N.C. State’s expectations.”
No one can read Hahn’s mind for his political views, but one thing is clear. Whether he misspoke or spoke too candidly, what he said was mean-spirited and inaccurate. True, “alien” is a statutory term, but “illegal alien” has been rightly driven out of common usage. The AP Stylebook directs journalists to use other descriptions as does the Department of Justice. Acts are illegal. People aren’t. To persist in calling migrants aliens is to deliberately alienate them.
The men, women and children huddled in El Paso are not breaking the law. They are appealing to it. Under international law, migrants have a right to seek asylum. It’s not their fault that migrant surges and border bottlenecks occur. U.S. immigration law badly needs reforms, and the system for addressing asylum requests needs more judges and other resources.
For a perspective on Hahn’s comment, I spoke with Paul Cuadros, an associate professor at UNC’s School of Journalism and Media. He is also one of the founders of the Carolina Latinx Center at UNC.
“I don’t know who he is referring to in his comment or his description because it is completely inaccurate as to what’s happening at the border,” he said. “It’s also very dehumanizing. There are other ways to describe people who are in the country without authorization.”
Cuadros said it was particularly painful that the comment focused on El Paso. In 2019, the city was the site of a mass shooting by a white supremacist who targeted Hispanics. Twenty three people died.
Hahn’s immediate suspension was appropriate, Cuadros said, but he didn’t call for Hahn to lose his job. He said Hahn is an employee of a private company and that decision belongs to Learfield.
A suspension and an apology should be enough – and there should be an apology. It’s a first offense after 30 years of calling N.C. State games. And if the criticism is that Hahn’s comment reflected intolerance toward migrants, the response should demonstrate tolerance toward those who make and truly regret a mistake.
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 1:13 AM with the headline "NC State announcer will be reinstated after comment caused suspension | Opinion."