Radio host defends mocking accent

WFAN’s Keith McPherson mocked a caller’s accent and defended the commentary after another caller questioned the decision.

Tensions can run high between New York Mets and New York Yankees fans during the Subway Series. And after the Mets won their third straight game over the Yankees Tuesday night, Chippy in Queens called WFAN and accused McPherson of having bias. McPherson is a Yankees fan and according to Chippy, the WFAN host only bashes the Mets.

“I don’t know what the hell you just said,” McPherson said in response to the caller. The radio host claimed he bashed the Yankees throughout the entire show and proceeded to imitate the caller’s accent. “I don’t know what you’re saying, bro. I couldn’t understand you and the little bit that I picked up, you’re wrong.”

Shortly after seemingly mocking Chippy’s accent, another caller, Abe in Brooklyn, chimed in and told McPherson, “Don’t make fun of a guy whose got a foreign accent because he’s making fun of your take, come on, man. You’re better than that. That’s too low of a move for someone whose on a radio station this popular in New York City.”

McPherson had two options. He could say, “You’re right, sorry about that, Chippy” and move on, or he could double down. The WFAN radio host chose the latter.

“That’s a return serve,” McPherson argued. “All I could make out of his call was, ‘You’re biased, you bashed the Mets, you don’t bash the Yankees.’”

Was the response to Chippy worthy of retribution? No. But it was lower than a return serve. McPherson may not have been able to make out everything Chippy was saying, but even if all he could make out of the call was, ‘You’re biased, you bashed the Mets, you don’t bash the Yankees,’ then there was already plenty for him to respond to. There was no need to bring up the accent as an issue, just argue the point about holding bias when it comes to the Mets and Yankees.

“You answer what he said,” Abe in Brooklyn continued as he questioned McPherson for mocking Chippy’s accent. “You can’t make fun of his foreign accent because you couldn’t hear him. Come on, Keith.”

“I definitely can. I think it’s a return serve. It’s fair. I couldn’t understand what he said,” McPherson responded. “I talked back to him in his accent…None of this is that serious. None of this is that personal. We’re all strangers…I’m not taking back anything I say or do on this radio station, I stand on it. his action is his action. We can agree to disagree. The radio is live, I can’t take it back and I don’t take it back.”

McPherson couldn’t take it back, but he was given the opportunity to at least recognize making fun of an accent may have been unnecessary. Instead, McPherson chose to double down as another caller attempted to check him. The issue was never about McPherson defending himself against bogus claims that he won’t bash the Yankees, the issue was mocking the caller’s accent, twice.

Shortly after the back and forth with Abe, McPherson addressed the call with Chippy again before closing out his Tuesday night show on WFAN.

“Chippy, don’t take it personal,” McPherson said. “I couldn’t understand what you were saying, bro. We’re grown men. This is sports talk. This is debate. This is back and forth. You took a shot at me, I’ll take a shot at you. And if you take it personal, take it personal. And if anybody feels disrespected or feels like that was low, that’s fine. I really don’t care. I don’t think it was. I have no idea what kind of accent he has.”

[ WFAN ]

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