LOUIS BURKE | Culture | Contact
At the close of the NRL’s Indigenous Round, Fox Sports has done the unthinkable and released a proactive apology for anything they said that may have caused offence.
NRL’s Indigenous Round is a once a year observation aimed to highlight significant social issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, issues which are most identifiable in a typical Daily Telegraph comments section.
After the round’s eight games were played, Fox Sports have made the decision to issue an apology for anything they said during the round, just in case.
“We apologise for having discussion panels with only one First Nations person present when we could have easily had more,” stated a junior Fox Sports PR rep, who doesn’t care if you accept this apology.
“We apologise for any bungled pronunciations of Aboriginal words”
“We also apologise for any inside jokes that the former players we hire as commentators have with their Aboriginal teammates which comes across as highly innapropriate when broadcast to millions of people between giggles”
“We apologise for anyone who acted surprised to learn any player was a First Nations person. But sometimes you know, it comes as a shock because you kinda have this idea of what an Aboriginal person looks like and then someone tells you that they are Aboriginal and then you tell them you couldn’t pick it and then you make it worse because you ask them to prove it”
“Oh. I’d like to include that statement as part of the apology as well, thanks.”
The apology itself has caused controversy with many non-Indigenous fans of the game saying there was no need to apologise as they weren’t offended.
However, many fans and ex-players appreciated the vague apology from Fox Sports, and said even with the gaffes at least they meant it. And that this is the type of self-awareness that diffuses the blatant racism we see in the AFL.
Although, it is still not known how Channel 9 still allowed Erin Molan near the coverage of the Indigenous Round after the year she’s had.
Rabbitohs versus Broncos tonight.
MORE TO COME.
