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The Reds and Fox Sports Ohio share in Thom Brennaman’s shame

There is no reason for Thom Brennaman to work as a broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds, or quite possibly anyone else, ever again. I don’t think there’s another reasonable conclusion to be drawn after Wednesday evening, when during the first game of a doubleheader against the Royals, the longtime play-by-play announcer used a homophobic slur to describe an unknown place, apparently unaware that the broadcast had returned from a commercial break and that his microphone was live. Brennaman continued to work the broadcast through the first four innings of the Game 2 before handing the broadcast off to Jim Day with the following on-camera apology:

After the second game ended, the Reds issued the following statement, which included an announcement that Brennaman had been suspended:

The Reds’ statement was doubled down on by the account for Cincinnati’s Fox Sports network, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group:

Statement from FOX Sports Ohio:
The language that Thom Brennaman used this evening is hateful, offensive, and in no way reflects the values of FOX Sports Ohio.