WHEN TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH - New York Post

IT TOOK A VILE:Mark Madden of ESPN 1250 in Pittsburgh wasn'tfired until nearly a week after his insensitive comments about Sen. Ted Kennedy.

May 30, 2008 -- INTERESTING how things work.

On Wednesday, May 21, 1250 ESPN Radio-Pittsburgh sports and trash-talker Mark Madden - some might recall him as an announcer on Ted Turner's WCW pro wrestling TV shows - said this on the air:

"I'm very disappointed to hear that Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor. I always hoped Sen. Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated."

Madden, who got strong ratings in the holiest of demographics (young males) and had just signed a new deal, was neither fired nor suspended on that day. Nor the next.

Friday, though, the day his comment first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he was not on the air. There was a substitute for Madden on what was still being called "The Mark Madden Show."

Monday, however, Madden was still absent. It was then he was declared officially suspended.

On Tuesday, apparently on orders from ESPN's Bristol, Conn., headquarters, Madden was fired for what he'd said nearly a full week earlier.

Clearly, it took a while for such a determination to be made. Heck, had Madden's comment not hit a local newspaper and then Pittsburgh's newscasts, he might have escaped any punishment. It seems the delay in sacking Madden allowed his bosses to first suffer what he said, and then the fallout from it once it hit the newspaper.

After all, if the decision to terminate him was a genuine and unilateral response to his sin, why did it take so long?

Madden, remember, produced good ratings. And management certainly was aware that extreme trash-talk is a Madden specialty.

Sound familiar?

It's a reprise of the firing of Don Imus by MSNBC and WFAN for his racist remarks 13 months ago. Imus' dismissal also came one week after those comments. Only when the outcry grew intense did his employers terminate him. Only then were they moved to act, ahem, in good conscience.

So it seems clear that going extra low, by itself, won't get you fired. If you're a money-maker, being fired isn't necessarily a matter of management's or ownership's conscience and outrage. It's more a matter of waiting to see if the trash-talker's latest transgression makes news, then, if it does, taking everyone else's temperature. You know, to see if you and your money-making trash-talker can get away with it.

And now 1250 ESPN-Pittsburgh has to go get itself another Mark Madden.