Kornheiser's Comments Inappropriate, But Accurate

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

By all means, Tony Kornheiser should have been suspended from his excellent show, "PTI," for his remarks about Hannah Storm.

And while Kornheiser will be the subject of many conversations the rest of the week -- on television, the radio and especially the blogosphere -- one thing will get lost in the shuffle.

Though his comments were inappropriate and hurtful, they were 100 percent accurate.

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YOUR THOUGHTS: Does Hannah Storm Dress Appropriately For Television?

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Storm has no business wearing many of the outfits she wears. But we'll never know whether she just shows up in anyoldthing each weekday morning to do "SportsCenter," or if her employers might offer up the occasional verbal nudge for her to push the envelope with some of those form-fitting numbers. And don't even get me started on her frosting-fueled finger fellatio last summer.

Once Fox News realized it had a mega-hottie in Megyn Kelly a few years back, did you notice how her morning show with Bill Hemmer started to use more wide shots? There she sat on the set with the handsome Hemmer, but all eyes were fixed on Kelly's long, thin, brown legs, straight out of a Nair commercial, just perfect enough to prompt a priest to kick out a stained-glass window.

I get that television broadcasters use the sexy if they can, but have we forgotten about moderation? Storm's cake-suck effort and other similar behaviors have no place on live professional television. If anyone wasn't sleeping off a hangover Sunday morning, perhaps you caught her sexy red dress on "Sports Reporters" of all venues? Does anybody even think about credibility anymore?

The very self-aware ESPN, the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader In Sports, should certainly know its sports-addicted male audience still would be loyal if Storm, Sage Steele and Cindy Brunson worked elsewhere. Personally, I think Steele is average at her job and Brunson is worse, and with their makeup cakes and hurricane-proof hair, neither looks anything like a woman I would ever see in real life.

But apparently they rate well, so it's on with the show. Quality script-reading and skillful set banter be damned.

So, ESPN, if you're reading, let's make a deal. You use less of the sex appeal and skimpy outfits and I'll promise to enjoy "SportsCenter" a little more.

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