Hypocrisy at its best
One Italian-American leader says there’s still anger in his community over remarks made by NBC golf commentator Johnny Miller.
Last month, during the U.S. Open, Miller referred to golfer Rocco Mediate as looking like “the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool.” Later, while discussing the prospect that Mediate might win, Miller said, “Guys with the name ‘Rocco’ don’t get on the trophy, do they?”
“It was really an outrageous statement,” says Ciongoli. It doesn’t only demonstrate what Johnny Miller thinks about “men named Rocco,” he says, but it shows that the media tolerates denigration of Italian-Americans that it would not permit to be directed against other ethnic groups
Miller’s comments were criticized, and he later apologized, saying that his intention was to convey affection and admiration for Rocco’s everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage.
But some Italian-Americans, including A. Kenneth Ciongoli, chairman of the National Italian-American Foundation, say Miller’s comments demonstrate a wider double standard in the media.