Lee Goodwin

From the time I saw the news, I thought it was a prank. The more I read, I knew it wasn't. The more I read, the more I thought: this is a sick and scripted serial. This is what they want.

The more I thought, the more I now believe that ESPN doesn't care what average Americans think of reassigning an Asian announcer named Robert Lee from a Virginia game in Charlottesville. ESPN is a part of the Fake Reality, a postmodern phenomenon that seeks to undermine not the United States as a country but the American people by any means necessary.

Lee, who is Asian, was assigned to announce the Cavaliers Sept. 2 opener against William & Mary. However, due to the recent controversial rally and ensuing counter protest that occurred in Charlottesville on Aug. 13 and 14, ESPN decided to reassign Lee to the Youngstown State/Pittsburgh game instead.

Lee, the voice of Siena College men's basketball team who lives in Albany, New York, works part time for ESPN, and announces about a "dozen football games a year for ESPN (according to heavy.com). He started as an ESPN announcer in 2016, working college football and college basketball games.

Here's ESPN's full statement:

"We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch the games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment it felt right to all parties. It's a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue."

I bet. I guess it was just a freak coincidence that Lee was assigned to cover a game less than a month after the violence in Charlottesville, when they could have easily picked any other announcer who wouldn't have such a coincidental name.

FoxNews reported, "ESPN notes that assignments are switched all the time."

That might be so. But why the added coverage and raging responses? This is what they want.

Here's more:

New York magazine reporter Yasha Ali received an email Wednesday morning from an ESPN executive (no attribution) that stated, "This wasn't about offending anyone. It was about the reasonable possibility that because of his name he would be subjected to memes and jokes and who knows what else. Think about it. Robert Lee comes to town to do a game in Charlottesville. The reaction to our switching a young, anonymous play by play guy for a streamed ACC game is off the charts reasonable proof that the meme/joke possibility was real."

Sounds like predictive news to me. Not to mention, even if there was no rally in Charlottesville, given the history of the Confederacy and General Robert E. Lee a Virginian what in the name of Jefferson Davis is ESPN doing assigning Robert Lee to a UVA football game in Charlottesville?

I have a strong gut feeling the network knew exactly what it was doing, and it wasn't doing alone. It's possible they had help from other sources. These types of decisions are probably done in meetings. Lee could have done any number of lower-rated games. He could have worked the Central Connecticut at Syracuse game Friday, Sept. 1.

The really offensive part of the email refers to memes and jokes targeted at Lee. This smacks of someone projecting prejudice at a third party and assumes that spectators will undoubtedly slander Lee. If ESPN wanted to make a statement, it should have not broadcast the game. Period.

The unnamed executive goes on to state, "So, when the protests in Charlottesville were happening, we raised with him the notion of switching games. Somethine we do all the time. We didn't make him. We asked him. Eventually we mutually agreed to switch. . . No bigger until someone leaked it to embarrass us and him. They got their way. That's what happened. No politically correct efforts. No race issues. Just trying to be supportive of a young guy who felt it best to avoid the potential zoo."

Okay, Mr. Executive, but the fact remains: why did ESPN assign Lee the game to begin with? Not only was it presumptous at the least, it was even more pretentious and rudely patronizing to suggest that, for his own safety, he switch games.

As for Lee, he isn't talking about it, and I can't blame him. He deserves to be left alone, but ESPN, they've been in business for nearly 40 years and should no better.

And as for the "leak" the executive speaks of, isn't that poetic justice? The media love leaks; they make for great breaking news.

I don't know why this story became what it did. But it did, because it was supposed to. Nothing happens by chance, at least nothing of this caliber.

I'm sure the execs at ESPN are rubbing their hands together and planning the next "leak" as we speak.

Contact Lee Goodwin at 717-762-2151, lgoodwin@therecordherald.com or on Twitter: @LeeG_RH

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COLUMN: Anatomy of a smear - Waynesboro Record Herald