TN GOPer Racism: state hospitality lobby CEO compares Michelle Obama to chimp

[doeriver]

Nothing Funny About This Monkey Mail
http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2010/03/nothing_funny_about_this_monke.php
By Liz Garrigan Fri., Mar. 5 2010 @ 9:37AM



Walt Baker, the prominent CEO of the powerful Tennessee Hospitality Association (a Tennessee lobbying organization) who was a key figure in gaining approval of the controversial $585 million convention center, sent the kind of "joke" email last night -- comparing First Lady Michelle Obama to Tarzan's Cheetah -- that might stop even Michael Richards in his tracks. (The entire email on the jump.)

Sent from what looks to be a personal address, Baker forwarded the racist missive -- introduced with this: "Quoting Larry the Cable Guy ... I don't care who you are, this is funny" -- to 12 prominent Nashvillians, including mayoral legislative aide Toby Compton, Nashville Convention & Visitors' Bureau head Butch Spyridon, lobbyists Joe Hall and Peter Heidenreich, former Scene editor and publisher, respectively, Bruce Dobie and Albie Del Favero, and Nashville Post reporter Ken Whitehouse.

Coming from a hospitality czar, the post didn't strike recipients as particularly hospitable.

"I don't think it's funny -- period," Dobie says. "Anything else I have to say about it I've already let Walt know."
Whitehouse calls the email "disgusting."

Del Favero was on the way to his office when we reached him and says he hadn't yet opened the email. "It's probably in my inbox waiting on me. But I've never known Walt to send anything that is politically incorrect."

"Who all got it?" Del Favero asks. When told, he responds, "Oh, how stupid!"

UPDATE: Baker says he meant no offense and sent it to what he considered to be "a select group of friends." "If anybody wants to make a political agenda out of it, they're wasting they're time," he tells Pith.

"It's not a political statement," Baker continues. "It was done in the spirit of having some fun with some close friends. It was something that was forwarded to me, and I forwarded it to a couple of people that quite honestly I thought might find some humor in it like I did."

Apparently, they didn't.

"I've gotten some emails back from folks," he says, "and that's fine too."

more ay hyperlink...

TN hospitality executive's e-mail compares Michelle Obama to chimp
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100306/NEWS0202/3060339/-1/NLETTER01?source=nletter-news
BY NATE RAU AND NICOLE YOUNG • THE TENNESSEAN • MARCH 6, 2010

The CEO of the state's hospitality industry came under fire Friday for an e-mail he sent to a group of public figures comparing first lady Michelle Obama to a chimpanzee.

Tennessee Hospitality Association CEO Walt Baker's e-mail was sent to Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau; and Toby Compton, Mayor Karl Dean's legislative liaison; in addition to public relations executives and members of the Nashville media. The story was first reported on a blog site for the Nashville Scene.

The e-mail compared Obama to Cheeta, the chimp sidekick in movies about Tarzan, a character based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' tales of an English lord raised by apes in an African jungle.

more at hyperlink...

[Tippy]

1. Baker should lose his job over this...Instead of promoting Nashville

He has shown his true self...saying he ment nothing political is a joke. They are sticking tax payers with a bill when our economy is in shambles...

[doeriver]

2. fired

fired