British-born ABC News 20/20 Correspondent Martin Bashir, best known for his sympathetic 1995 interview with the late Princess Diana, has apologized for sexist remarks made during an Asian American Journalists’ Association banquet on July 25. Below are a couple of choice quotes:
“I’m happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes. In fact, I’m happy that the podium covers me from the waist down.”
“(a speech should be)…”like a dress on a beautiful woman — long enough to cover the important parts and short enough to keep your interest — like my colleague Juju’s.”
His 20/20 co-host, Korean-born American Juju Chang, retorted, “See what I have to put up with?” Bashir’s remarks elicited boos from the audience.
Martin Bashir has been receiving treatment for a brain tumor since June.
55 Comments
Maybe the brain tumor has knocked out a filtration mechanism in his head, so his thoughts go directly to his mouth. That would suck. I think all men would get in trouble if the first think on their mind when they see a girl comes out without that halo/winged filter we are suppose to have.
Maybe Bashir is one of those people of Indian decent who think they are “asian?”
http://www.indiansareasian.com/
If you looked up “douchebag” in the dictionary, you’d probably find a pic of Bashir.
Depending on the type and site of tumour, his normal social inhibition could definitely be affected. This is actually quite a common sign/symptom of neurological lesions. Happens also to stroke victims and people with neurodegenerative disease.
I actually think it was funny. I’ll hoist a beer to the guy this evening. That said, any sane man in America knows he’d get his nads sheared off for saying something like that in that crowd, so the tumor explanation makes a lot of sense.
He called Juju Chang a babe? Well, that’s preposterous…the brain tumor must have also affect his sight.
Jeffrey Schneider is wrong. That sort of remark does have a place in some settings.
I want to be a social outcast in the same style that this man is a social outcast. Who cares what Asian babes think anyway?
Bashir? What ever happened to Hugh Downs?
wow, you can look like Neal Shapiro, and marry Juju Chang, huh?
Isn’t there like a 10 year age gap in facial features alone?
I seriously wonder if Juju is giving Neal any crap about not serving Neal’s parents, and spending all the holidays with Juju’s parents, and Juju preferably not cooking under any circumstances, etc.
It is true.
Korean women are world quality dwaenjangnyuhs.
Money and position comes foremost for them. Add to it, some other factors, they’ll abandon the duty of propagating the Korean race at a heart beat for a waekgookin.
I’m not even being racist here.
I’m also talking about going at a heart beat to rather producing Korean gened American citizens, versus mainland real ROK citizens.
It’s scary what kind of male faces those “ana-tainers”, and 30+ year old “talents” have pursued as husbands among US gyopos. Their faces are usually somewhat of a “protected” item.
Purely from observation, I’ve never heard of say, an American actress, marrying some fugly European rich guy.
Actually, I did. Actually, a first lady did that, too.
I stand corrected.
but, I think Korean women are stronger brew of dwaenjangnyuhs. Dudes of all colors in Korea, pick wisely.
wjk…. with your medical degree tons of Korean girls should be getting wet panties in your presence…. no?
wrong is still wrong.
something is wrong with Korean women.
this is, in relative to women from other backgrounds.
First gen, 1.5 gen, 2nd gen or all the above?
judging by Juju,
All of the above.
Some guys here have stated, their wives married them, because they thought, they would allow them, to “pursue their dreams of becoming _____ ”
Do American white girls do that?
It’s really something that should be addressed, criticized, etc.
Wait a minute, Hillary Clinton did something equivalent to that.
wkj..my KA buddy said the same thing and I personally know many Korean ladies marry other non-Koreans because they grew up watching how their father treated their mother and they didn’t like what they see…so root cause has with family environment. I also notice Korean ladies compare to Chinese or Vietnamese are always assure of herself and quick to dump their mate if good one come along…so they are not naive and maybe it has to do old saying by marry right to change destiny 팔짜..
There are many good non-Korean ladies out there looking for traditional manly Korean men..so you have job to propogate the Korean race through other way and it works well.
ABC News is pretty poor nowadays anyhow. It is only a matter of time before they sell this as a reality TV show called “Evening News”.
“Purely from observation, I’ve never heard of say, an American actress, marrying some fugly European rich guy.”
Really? Just of the top of my head: Princess Grace (Kelly), Candice Bergen, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy (kinda)…I’m sure I can come up with a few others, but I think I’ve made my point.
wjk… stop your Asian American male pity party. First of all it’s pathetic and second of all not true!
WJK ,believe me I would never marry a Korean girl…no thank you!! You can keep “your” women.
I would marry a Japanese or Chinese girl though, but never a Korean.
Why do the majority (not all) of Asian men, or at the very least Korean men, seem so insecure about non Asians being with Asian women?
I thought Nazism was a “white” person thing. Guess not.
And yeah, Bashir is an idiot.
wjk:
Don’t make me come after you, too, you 참 크래커.
Yes you are.
But other than being vaguely racist you’re saying that only Korean women marry men because it will give them a better opportunity for something? I beg to differ. Look at Hillary Clinton. I’m sure she married and stayed with Bill for all these years expressly for the advantage it gave to her political career. You know he’s not a good husband.
Women everywhere marry rich and powerful. Just because the definition of rich and powerful doesn’t include you doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with women.
Also, Juju Chang is ugly.
wjk,
You’re worth keeping around for your sheer humor value:
Wow.
That’s not only racist, but also extremely sexist and hypocritical, all within the span of 2 sentences.
3 for 2. That’s admirably efficient.
Re: #18
I’ll bite.
In no small part, it’s due to the pressure for Asian men to “carry on the pure bloodline”. Asian women, who are not part of the family tree, don’t have the same restrictions. So, they have much more relative freedom in marrying whomever they please.
So, the charge of “stealing our women” actually has some truth to it.
The anger over this injustice should really be directed towards one’s parents, grandparents, extended family, and society. But, that’s nigh impossible. So, it’s far easier to direct anger at whitey and/or his Asian girlfriend/wife/traitor/ho.
My personal opinion is that the patriarchal family tree bullshit is an anachronism that is long overdue for the waste bin of history. It’s all headaches, heartaches, and sexist imbalance for no benefit.
wow, you can look like Tiger Woods, and marry Elin Nordegren, huh?
Isn’t there like a 10 year age gap in facial features alone?
It is true.
Swedish women are world quality dwaenjangnyuhs.
Money and position comes foremost for them. Add to it, some other factors, they’ll abandon the duty of propagating the Swedish race at a heart beat for a halfbreed.
I’m not even being racist here.
I’m also talking about going at a heart beat to rather producing Swedish gened American citizens, versus mainland real Swedish citizens.
Purely from observation, I’ve never heard of say, an American actress, marrying some fugly European rich guy.
Actually, I did. Actually, a first lady did that, too.
I stand corrected.
In a certain context those comments would have been comedy gold, however at something PC sounding as the “Asian American Journalists’ Association banquet” it was likely to go down like a glass of soju in a mosque.
“I’m not even being racist here.”
Hey, I thought a criticism of Martin Bashir was not supposed to trump Martin Bashir.
Moral of the story: if you have a name like “Juju” don’t expect to be taken seriously.
What’s up w/the name Juju? Why couldn’t her parents give her a proper Korean American girl’s name like… Jenny (rhymes with Jin Hee), Julie (rhymes with Ju Lee), Esther (from the Bible), Grace (from the Bible), Susan (rhymes with Su Jin)…
It’s natural for women to marry up the socio-economic ladder, because going the other way is dysgenic and unnatural. Some people were lucky to be born with the right genes at the right time and place, good for them. For the rest, you simply have to work harder to improve your sexual market value, instead of bitching about it on web blogs.
As for Mr. Martin Bashir, I’ll take the heat and defend the man. The male gender in America has been plummeted into the ground by radical feminism and you can’t even express your natural, male sexual desires without someone yelling sexual harassment. At this rate we almost have to get brain tumor or cancer to grow some balls to speak our mind and be blunt about our desires. Kudos to Mr. Bashir, and all the middle-aged women in the audience should feel proud that a man would find them physically attractive.
If anyone is offended by my post, feel free to flame ME personally and NOT troll the blog. Thank you.
Not enough female readers at the ‘hole to troll you or the blog Jerry…
I protest. Juju is attractive, perhaps not the most photogenic person, but definitely not a woman most sane rational guys would be pushing out their beds.
She used to come on ABC’s World News Now and co-hosted the news with Anderson Cooper. I recall thinking that she’s pretty.
– I couldn’t care less about her marriage. She could be getting stuffed in the ass every night by Wesley Snipes for all I care.
“definitely not a woman most sane rational guys would be pushing out their beds.”
Now, how many guys can be both sane and rational? Surely not in a roomful of “Asian babes”.
Juju is married to Neal Shapiro, former NBC News President. Headline: “Another nice Korean girl marries well”. Other Asian American female journalists are acquitting themselves well here too. Big Brother host Julie Chen married CBS/UPN head Les Moonves. Of course, Connie Chung married Maury Povitch and now sports a yamulka.
Maybe the inability to marry up is what’s holding Asian American male reporters back? The Asian-American Journalists Association (AAJA) did a study in 2002 with the Annenberg School of Journalism in which an analysis of 25 major markets found that female Asian-American female reporters and anchors outnumbered men by five to one.
ok, checking back.
Korean males in general have the responsibility to carry on the family name.
You don’t think it’s a pity, there’s no man named Lincoln today, who is actually related to Lincoln?
Well, admittedly, many Kims, Park,s and Lees are not real ones. But even they want sons to carry their “fake” names to prosperity. Who knows? Maybe they are Kims, but weren’t legally Kims, because their moms were Ha-nyuhs, or Kisaengs, in which case, only King’s progenies were able to overcome that and become legit Yangbans, assuming they were lucky enough not to have real Yangban siblings or killed them off.
A lot of you have bad English comprehension skills. I already mentioned Hill Clinton. Do a more careful study of wjk.
In general, in my experience, Korean girls are more high maintenance, less physically active. I may have to stop my project of creating more Koreans, after all.
Just googled Juju Chang. I would not punt her from my crib for eating dim sum. Me so horny.
wkj… usually 70% of what you say initially makes sense. It’s the 30% you say at the end that feels like a curve ball out of left field and throws me in for a loop.
Once you finish your internship… go out more… experience life… smell the roses… talk to people…
…and disinfect that measuring tape!
Canucky–Dude, that chica’s a papered-over ajumma.
She’s too Americanized to be an ajumma… the North American term would be cougar…
@33 Likewise, there are no Americans bearing the name Washington who are descendants of George either. He had no offspring whatsoever. The Father of Our Country was sterile… think on that.
But he was pregnant with ideas!
@Wangkon:
Juju’s no cougar. Her husband’s several years old than she is.
WangKon936 says:
“Maybe Bashir is one of those people of Indian decent who think they are “asian?””
Umm WangKon…perhaps you should try looking at a map before you make ignorant statements like the one above. India is absolutely in Asia and anyone worldly enough would know that Indians are in fact Asian. Some Cambodians and Thai people look fairly different than Japanese and Korean people but that doesn’t negate the fact that they’re Asian. Same with Indians!
Rina,
Then why would some person even make-up a web site defending it?
Ever look at a map? Asia is HUGE… and contains Turks, Russians, Arabs, Israelis, Indian/Pakis AND (broadly defined) East Asians.
Today’s modern term “Asian” used in the context of describing a people’s group is GENERALLY thought of to refer to people of largely Mongoloid racial classification. Indians and Pakis are not Mongoloid, they are classified as non-European Caucasoid.
However, I will concede that racial classification of humans is a constantly evolving science so my understanding of all this may be outdated. But, what is not outdated is the fact that the term “Asian” is generally thought of as East Asian, basically east of Thailand (maybe Burma) up until Japan. Indians and Pakis would be considered “South Asians” and many Indians and Pakis call themselves such.
WangKon, you have stepped in something and will soon have to make a Bashir-style apology.
You’re a good guy who probably just doesn’t know what mistakes you made. Coming from an American perspective you probably just didn’t know.
First, “Paki” is an offensive term. But don’t worry, even Bush didn’t know.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....tthewengel
That’s generally true in the United States, but not in the United Kingdom, where English was born and “Asian” refers to people from South Asia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian
Sorry for picking on you Wangkon because I think you’re a good guy but this is a good example of “the world revolves around America” thing that annoys so many people when they interact with us Americans.
Now if we can get the Marmot to stop saying “Jap” I’ll be happy.
I know paki was considered offensive in the UK… didn’t know it was considered offensive everywhere…
I was just tired of typing “Pakistan.”
It’s not a matter of “the world revolves around America” at all. Americans have their terminology and the English have theirs, which they are free to use, and they do.
To be fair, since we’re speaking of giving offense, having informed us of what “Asian” means to the English, why don’t you tell us what the English call East Asians?
I, for one, calls my Russian roommate “my Asian brother”… also, “Alex”. He seems to prefer the latter.
Dogbert is right - it’s just the difference between American English and British English. As long as Americans don’t go around the streets of London and tell people to change the British terminology, no “world revolving around America” stuff is going on.
So, can you do me a favour (;-)) and let me know whether “Paki” is targeted to just Pakistanis, or Middle East population in general?
Eurgh .
I too googled to see what Juju Chang looks like.
Definitely NSFW.
DON”T DO IT PEOPLES, IGNORANCE IS BLISS!
Eurgh, that face haunts me. How do I eat breakfast now?
The Limeys got their panties in a bunch when Tiger Woods said he spazzed out at the British Open when he missed a putt. Who knew an innocent remark in America would be a deadly slur in the UK? Do we have to carry the “Political Correctness Dictionary” with us at all times, or tell the “victims” of perceived slights to get a life?
My vote is for telling the “victims” of perceived slights to get a life.
I hear the British also love the movie Free Willy and Bill Clinton’s nickname “Slick Willy.”
There is no one or the other, Wesge. A considerate person will be considerate of others. Even to try to do so there is no guarantee that one will suceed, as Tiger found out. However, there is no honor in rejecting any attempt.
the etymology of Spazzing out is the same in both British and US English, but perhaps this is an occasion of the PC movement being more advanced in England than the US. I’m sure Woods knows the errors of his ways, now. I don’t know what he thought the word spazz meant before he was educated by the british media. Anyhow, he was in Britiain, so he could be expected to follow British norms. What other words are similar in the US, i’ve seen retard and short bus on this site,.
I’m not a proponent of PC, just trying to enter the conversation.
It lies not in the mouth of the insultor to determine what the aggrieved person can percieve as an insult.
Were this blog not censored I would be able to demonstrate this by making a comment about for example, NES’s mother, that in some cultures could be ‘percieved’ as a slight.
Personally I prefer the maxim ’sticks and stone will break your bones but names wil never hurt you.”
#52 Peter
[NES picks up the engraved marble name plaque on his desk and whacks Peter in the back of the head with it.]
Did you just cyber-hit me. That feels kind of weird. Nice, but still weird.
“It’s not a matter of “the world revolves around America” at all. Americans have their terminology and the English have theirs, which they are free to use, and they do.”
I wasn’t meaning Americans aren’t free to use what they want. I was saying he was wrong to tell Rina she was wrong. In #43 Wangkon seemed to say that “Asians” doesn’t generally refer to South Asians and that’s that. Not in American usage, but in general usage.
“To be fair, since we’re speaking of giving offense, having informed us of what “Asian” means to the English, why don’t you tell us what the English call East Asians?”
I called Wangkon’s lazy use of “Pakis” offensive, not the use of “Asians”.
AFAIK English refer to people in East Asia as “Asians” or “East Asians”. I’m sure there are some offensive terms too.