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Message: <blockquote data-quote="martinslanding" data-source="post: 182995" data-attributes="member: 277">Can't make this stuff up : <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/business/media/robert-lee-university-virginia-charlottesville.html?mcubz=1" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/business/media/robert-lee-university-virginia-charlottesville.html?mcubz=1</a><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/espn/index.html?inline=nyt-org" target="_blank">ESPN</a> hasremoved an announcer from its broadcast of the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_virginia/index.html?inline=nyt-org" target="_blank">Universityof Virginia</a>’s first football game next month because he has the samename as a Confederate general memorialized in statues that are being taken downacross the country.The network announced lateTuesday that the announcer, Robert Lee, a part-time employee who calls about adozen college football and basketball games a year for ESPN, would no longerparticipate in the broadcast of the Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville, Va., whichbecame the center of violent clashes this month during a white supremacistgathering.White nationalists andneo-Nazis flooded into Charlottesville, marching through the University ofVirginia campus with torches, to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue ofthe Confederacy’s top general, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/robert_e_lee/index.html?inline=nyt-per" target="_blank">RobertE. Lee</a>.After the violence inCharlottesville, which left one person dead, ESPN executives and Mr. Leedecided that for his safety it would be best to have him to work on a differentgame that Saturday, a network spokesman said.“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch gamesas the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of thecoincidence of his name,” ESPN said in a statement. “In that moment it feltright to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversationand we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become anissue.”Mr.Lee did not return a call seeking comment. The <a href="https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/msespn-pulls-asian-announcer-named-robert-lee-off-uva-game-avoid-offending-idiots/" target="_blank">website Outkick the Coverage</a> reported onMr. Lee’s removal on Tuesday afternoon.Before the demonstrations in Charlottesville, ESPN had plannedfor Mr. Lee to be in the announcer’s booth for the Virginia Cavaliers’ firstgame of the season, against the College of William and Mary, which will bebroadcast on the ACC Network. Mr. Lee will instead announce Youngstown State’sgame against the University of Pittsburgh, which will appear on the samenetwork.Mr. Lee, whose full-timejob is at a payroll services company in Albany, started announcing games forESPN and its other networks last fall, according to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-lee-27867447/" target="_blank">his LinkedIn page</a>. For the past 17 years, he has alsoannounced men’s basketball games for Siena College in Albany. He graduated fromSyracuse University in 1999 with a degree in broadcast journalism.Themove by ESPN drew swift condemnation online, from people who called thedecision absurd and said it was political correctness run amok.[ATTACH]16150[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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