CNBC Reporter: NYC Marathon Winner Is A Citizen, But Not An "American"
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Nov 04, 2009 8:00am
Jeez, between this guy and Pat Buchanan, what is up with NBC Universal?
Over the weekend, Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the New York City Marathon since 1982. But CNBC's Darren Rovell isn't impressed. Darren Rovell doesn't think Keflezighi is really an American.
On his Twitter account yesterday, Rovell wrote "NYC Marathon winner Keflezghi may be a citizen, but can't count as American."
Rovell explained his bizarre views in an article on CNBC's web site:
It's a stunning headline: American Wins Men's NYC Marathon For First Time Since '82.
Unfortunately, it's not as good as it sounds.
Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he's not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies.
"Technically American"? No: Keflezighi is American. Not on some technicality or by virtue of a loophole. He is, simply, an American -- and he isn't any less American simply because he did not share Darren Rovell's great good fortune to have been born in the U.S.
For the record, Keflezighi was born in Eritrea, but has been a naturalized citizen for 11 years, having immigrated to the US twenty-two years ago at the age of 12.
As the daughter and wife of naturalized American citizens, I find this wholly offensive, although I suspect that had Keflezighi had the Scandinavian looks of my husband, there would be absolutely no qualification of his citizenry.
UPDATE: Rovell apologizes:
All I was saying was that we should celebrate an American marathon champion who has completely been brought up through the American system.
This is where, I must admit, my critics made their best point. It turns out, Keflezighi moved to the United States in time to develop at every level in America. So Meb is in fact an American trained athlete and an American citizen and he should be celebrated as the American winner of the NYC Marathon. That makes a difference and makes him different from the "ringer" I accused him of being. Meb didn't deserve that comparison and I apologize for that.
Login or Register to post comments.
I don't think so.
rearrange the letters, and change one "r" to a "g".
I don't get it.
He dyed his hair.....Damn Ginger kids!
Running around with that red hair, and watching Gilligan's Island all the time!
LOL. Thanks I thought you were going to leave us hanging on your word game.
I also came up with inggre. But that doesn't make any sense.
reging, but that just means......
To be in a state of apathy towards all things, most notably study. from the Urban Dictionary... would that apply?
Smoking a j and having a good time. Yes.
Ginger?
Is he a red head?
"(a)... champion who has completely been brought up through the American system."
Jeezus, what a choad.
. .
know it.
But sometimes people say stuff - people that should know better because they're like on the teevee's - and it's almost hard to believe.
This stupid dickhead just exposed the fact that he's a filthy racist right out in the open.
And WTF does a sports figure's story have to do with CNBC, except perhaps for endorsements, etc.
Nice going, Rove-ill.
because it's a sports story? And they do report sports on CNBC?
Just another clue-free wanker trying to get a by-line for the day. No brain cells at work..probably none to PUT to work...destined to remain a wanker all his miserable life.
But if you saw Colbert's bit on different announcers trying to pronounce his last name, you had to laugh. Everyone seemed clueless and to hear one after another try was funny.
Good on the dude for winning and all other Americans should be proud of him.
Although seriously, should a network with a Pentagon reporter named Miklaszewski and a cable morning co-host named Brzezinski have any problems with Keflezighi?
What colour(s) are Miklaszewski and Brzezinski? Do they have tans?
Dude--
That apology was just as bad as the original remark!!!
Stop digging, STFU, and seek some "sensitivity training"!
but I think he needs to study history. To hell with sensitivity training.
Well, he became a citizen late in life, too,
That's what I've always heard was called a back door apology or not an apology at all. Congratulations to this young man.
has his practice in Cleveland.
Wait 'til Comcast gets a hold of NBC.
Here is an appetizer: Ben Stein is Comcast's Spokesman...
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091013-...
...Faux 'News' is about to get a new 'friend'.
(Ed Snyder ain't no friend of yours, or mine).
Wow the Birther movement moves out of the political arena and embraces Main Street!
:) Asshats!
on the American Empire.
You're fired.
Come to think of it, CNBC has no black anchors. Never has. I could be mistaken but I used to watch a fair amount of it over the years and I can't recall a black face.
Anyone else notice that?
if you asked them politely, they'd put some of their anchors in black face.
not business, dontcha know... /snark
even have black guests..
Must be part of their company's blackout policy.
Also goes to show you how a liberal netwrk like msnbc can co-exist with a conservative network quite well.
curled up by the fire, his pipe in one hand, his Wall Street Journal
in the other watching CNBC just does not strike me as, well......
especially with curt's tongue continually hanging out... ;)
does the Constitution make that an issue of note? Rovell is either a racist or a moron - probably both.
a birther.
These pasty white guys really can't deal with being confronted with dark skinned men.
The freaks that feel insecure by mere color should seek therapy. This is not their world to control anymore. That brief time they got in the limelight is gone now.
Their insecurity doesn't stem from a fear of color.
flies in the face of what America is....
and what it wanted to be....
or...perhaps used to be and wanted to be.
France called...they want that statue back.
Alexander Graham Bell was an immigrant. So by this fucktard's reasoning we can't be proud that Bell came here because no one let him do his thing in Scotland. This country is great because of all the people that came here to be great because their old country was holding them back.
Darren Rovell is an ignorant fucker. Twitter should be shut down because people are too stupid to handle it.
the atomic bomb or rockets and the space program.
The first liquid fueled rocket in the world was flown by Robert Goddard and the US had a nice little rocket program going down at Caltech until the military decided that they people involved were way too weird and they liked the buttoned-down Germans better.
This Rovell guy probably cheered when the U.S. got kicked from hosting the Oympics in Chicago.
but was not part of the original colonies.
I guess that mudblood is not a halfbreed citizen after all. ~Slytherin
Don't know what qualifies him to write about sports...is he a real American ???(doesn't look native, to me).
But, I'm betting 'Rovell' at one time was 'Rovelli', and that he has the great good fortune of being an American because his relatives hopped a boat and passed through Ellis Island some time back.
He should just shut up!
* Supermarket Bathroom Attendant
* Auto Shop Chariot Specialist
* Zoo Pelter
* Sushi Chef at PETA Event
* United States Marine Corps Choreographer
* Fox News "Liberal"
Marine Corp choreographers. That Iwo Jima flag retake was awesome!
they really WILL scratch your eyes out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv_Q9MtfRHk
That Supermarket Bathroom Attendant job's pretty important.
with a group which included a guy whose name here is fictitious but close to what I will call him: Wallace Jefferson Redd III. Wally.
He was from Mississippi. During a sprint race Wally kept cheering
"Go, white man, go!" He was cheering a Russian against a black American. The war in Vietnam was going on at the time.
I assume anyone who styles a number after their name is an insufferable prat. It's rarely wrong, and it saves a lot of time.
Another cnbc cretin sparks outrage. Fire him!
learning their stupid from Rush.
bailing out troubled sports franchises. Perhaps rail about the salary cap?
I did not follow the link directly to his apology. Did the Headline read: Marathon Reporter Head Empty?
Just goes to show that attitudes must form very young to continue to flourish like this...
Goes to show you that we've forgotten what it means to be an American.
in Airhead-Treeya. Its a tiny enclave surrounded by real reporters.
Dumb , just reeeeeeeeal dumb .
So...why do all the closet racists feel it is safe to "come out" now? Even if they are only talking in code?
Or is that "doody"?
http://satiricalpolitical.com/2009/11/04/righ...
Next on CNN, Darren Rovell will host a special presentation on how black people are taking over sports. His special guest will be Rush Limbaugh.
Rush "If you set aside their athletic skills, the only reason they are successful is because of the media and the fact they are black."
there'd be a lot more whites competing."
In a follow up report, Darren will discuss whether or not the supremacy of white athletes in sports has officially ended.
Technically Rovell is an idiot and a bigot.
For you to be an American you have to be born within the United States. Or in MCcain's case, Panama. (insert irony)
We had no problem calling Alberto Salazar an American when he dominated the marathon for so many years...
Alberto Salazar was born in Cuba.
then again that was before the Lou Dobbs era of CNN mainstreaming xenophobia.
and blessed with American corporate and organized crime control
for six decades thanks to the US of A and Wm. Randy Hearst.
with the reasoning behind his remark. If someone immigrates here and wins a sports contest the next day is that really the same as if they have lived and trained here most of their life?
As a hypothetical lets say a child is born here, the next week his parents move back to their home country. Their child at 18 decides to come back to the US as a citizen and then wins a sporting event shortly after, is that a "win" for America? IMO I would say no.
In Keflezighi situation I would say yes.
Here's a hypothetical. If by chance a KKK member is driving on a unlit dirt road late at nite and reflexively avoids hitting a dark skinned man crosing the road, does that mean he is no longer a racist.
You clowns really kill me. Do you stay up at nite thinking this shit up, or does it come to you naturally?
AMERICAN CITIZEN. NATURALIZED AMERICAN CITIZEN. Not open to debate, discussion, evaluation or inclusion in any conversation simply because someone FEELS it should.
-meaning, they definitely don't stay up at night thinking about it. They 'believe' what they believe because they just do, because to believe otherwise would put them in the group with the traitors and America-haters and Communists (liberals/Democrats!) and that just wouldn't be good. It's dogma. 'All the good people believe _____ and I know I'm a good person so that must mean I believe _____ too and that's the way it's always been and always will be and to question things too much would just be Bad For Society.'
Let's assume the Jamaican bobsled team had been made up of four Swiss men who were born to Swiss parents, raised in Switzerland and had moved to Jamaica the previous year so they could become citizens and race in the Olympics as Jamaicans. Do you still think they would have captivated the hearts of Jamaica and the world? Of course not. Because while they would be Jamaicans, they would not really be Jamaicans when it came to evaluating their bobsledding skills. I believe that was what Rovell was trying to say, though the premise was false since Keflezighi has been in the country for the vast majority of his life and either way Rovell was woefully inartful and offensive in the way he worded it.
You apparently are not aware of the difference between 'immigrant' and 'ringer'.
its "nationalism". The glorification of "homeland" over the individual, where WHERE you were born means more than who or what you are. In this guy's eyes, you're only "American" if you are 2nd Generation, born on this soil and raised in the "American Way".
It's an obsolescent idea, which needs to be discarded by all forward-thinking persons.
I think the 'American system' of immigrants working hard to complete the process of becoming U.S. citizens is a bit more important than the 'American system' of marathon runners being trained by potbellied white guys.
.
`How many times I hear that America is the "greatest country in the world" then you see this sort of crap...........
...what a surprise...ANOTHER sports commentator who is an ass and a bigot.
"Well, I wouldn't be against those people from other countries if they'd just follow the system and become citizens legally, like many do." Cloaked racism, as we thought.
The last American to win the NYC Marathon, Alberto Salazar, was also foreign-born. He was born in Cuba. They're still both Americans.
This article is jingoistic bullshit. Natural born is the technicality, only mattering in presidential elections. This whole fucking country was founded on, and operated by the non-natural born. Who is this ass hat?
I ran a table tennis club at a community college and in a newspaper article i wrote that no american-born student had won a singles tourney. the purpose of this was to applaud the diversity of the participants and show what an international sport ping-pong is. the members of the club were pretty happy with the article, so i thought all was well.
so imagine my surprise when i was called a racist by the student government president because mentioning that no american-born student had won a tourney implied that i was rooting for them. and that meant that i was pro-white. friggin what?
thats right, some people actually interpret 'american-born' as 'white only' despite that in addition to korea, brazil, and cuba, one of the tourney winners was german.
If you read the link Nicole provided it is pretty clear that Rovell's belief is that only the lack of money in the sport prevents the "real" Americans from pursuing success in marathon running.
This doesn't present a very complimentary picture of US athletes does it? He should apologize to them all.
Darren Rovell is described by CNBC as a Sports Business Reporter. What CNBC forgot to add at the end of his title was Hack Who Does Not Do Any Research.
Mr. Rovell writes as if Meb Keflezighi somehow just appeared on the running scene and didn't mention his previous running accomplisments. Mr. Keflezighi (until now) had never been described as being "technically not American." In fact, Mr. Keflezighi won a silver medal in the '04 Olympics for the Marathon. And before graduating from UCLA, he won FOUR NCAA titles participating in cross country and indoor / outdoor track and field.
One more thing about Meb Keflezighi. He was also awarded multple "All American" honors. Not "All Technically American" honors.
They are just drip, drip, dripping out of the woodwork.
When I look up Rovell:
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=name+origins&page=1&...
Ancestry.com has no idea where the name comes from and there were only handfuls in a couple handfuls of states as late as 1920. Not exactly Mayflower society material. Sniff. Cheap poser.
Login or Register to post comments.