CEO of Fox Sports Responds to PAAIA’s Letter of Concern over Haddadi Remarks

December 21, 2009, Washington D.C. – In a letter dated December 8th, David Hill, Chairman and CEO of Fox Sports Television Group responded to PAAIA’s letter expressing concern over the insensitive on-air remarks about Grizzlies Iranian center Hamed Haddadi during a November 18th broadcast of their game against the LA Clippers.

In a letter to Senior Executives at Fox Sports, PAAIA conveyed the Iranian American community’s outrage and its condemnation of such remarks, while also commending Fox Sports for taking immediate action in addressing the situation.

According to several media sources, Fox Sports suspended announcers Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith for one game after a complaint was file by an Iranian American season ticket holder. In addition, they issued an apology on Friday, November 20th, regretting the remarks that were made by the announcers and apologizing to Haddadi and anyone else who was offended.

In his personal letter, Hill expressed appreciation for PAAIA’s communication and conveyed that Fox Sports takes such matters extremely seriously. “You can rest assured the incident, which was unfortunate, was isolated,” wrote Hill. “In fact if you look at our record you will see we have zero tolerance for any slur, or perceived slur.”

Click here to read David Hill’s letter to PAAIA.

Click here to read PAAIA’s letter to Fox Sports.