THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Nominations for Worst Human Being on Camera This Week

Non-sports post.

Here’s one: Stephen Fowler.  He even managed to inspire someone to start a website dedicated to him.  I also think that he is likely the biggest coward in the world, because there is no way in the world he would speak like that to someone who is physically imposing.  He is a bully, a coward, incredibly mean-spirited, and uses his children as pawns in his game.

I am shocked that this family agreed to go on the show, and more disturbed that the producers let this go on, with the children caught in the crossfire.  His wife apologized.  Her website seems to be down, but thanks to Google Cache, here is her post, and below that is his post also courtesy of Google:

Where I stand

February 6, 2009 at 9:28 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Tuesday, Feb 3rd, 2:00 pm
Dear Clients, Colleagues, Friends and the interested public.

I deeply appreciate the compassionate outpouring of support many of you have shown as I struggle through this most difficult time.

Now that I have had a few days to gather the courage, I would like to share with you where I truly stand. I too am utterly appalled by my husband’s behavior during the swap. I had not see the footage until Friday night, so didn’t fully know how incredibly badly he had behaved until I saw it on national TV. I knew he was not proud of his behavior and that he had many misgivings. I did not know he had been aggressively cruel and insulting on so many levels. This has been impossible for me to comprehend.

While I completely condemn his behavior I feel confused because he has been a loving and dedicated husband and father for many years. This in no way can rationalize his inexcusable behavior. It is simply an explanation of why it has taken me this long to make a statement. I have asked Stephen to get professional help.

Finally, I know that I created offense as well. When I made the statement about the parents not having advanced degrees, I was responding to direct and probing questions from the director about what level of education I thought the Long’s had. I certainly don’t think people need college degrees to live intelligent and valuable lives, and was not passing any kind of judgment with my comment. My edited comment regarding being an American was actually an acknowledgement that being born here isn’t enough of a reason to be proud. We each need to make meaningful contributions that we are proud of and acknowledge other’s contributions as well. We create community and we try to live honorably and that is what makes us proud but it’s not our birthright. I am grateful to be a part of this country.

Again, thank you for your heartfelt comments.

Blessings,

Renee

...

A Message from Stephen Fowler

February 6, 2009 at 8:29 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Stephen wrote this of his own volition, without input from me. I offer it without comment.

I hope you will take this as a sincere and unequivocal apology. I have been completely taken aback by the response my behavior generated and it has taken a while for me to figure out what to say. I’m not doing this to try and redeem myself. Rather I’m trying to try and undo some of the hurt that people have obviously felt as a result of my comments.

Clearly I behaved like a complete jerk and I am deeply sorry for all the offense I have caused. I’m not going to hide behind excuses, I showed an extraordinary level of stupidity and arrogance. I will do my best to address most of the criticism directed at me. If I miss something out, however, it is not because I do not deem it important, it is just that there is rather a lot to cover.

First off, let me say I am deeply sorry for the terribly insulting way I treated Gayla during the show. She is a very pleasant person and clearly did not deserve to be treated that way. In fact, no one deserves to be treated that way. I was a bully, and it was just plain unacceptable. Once again, I offer my sincere apologies to Gayla, Alan, and their boys.

Some of my remarks obviously made me appear unpatriotic. Well that was just dumb. I chose to become a US citizen because I deeply respect the values upon which this great country is based. For the record, I think the US is an amazing country and I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather live. And while I do not happen to believe the Iraq war is a good idea, I do have a huge amount of respect for all the personnel who serve in the US military. They have the toughest job in the world and I am truly grateful for the sacrifices that they make to protect this country.

I used gross generalizations about Midwesterners and I am deeply sorry for any hurt I caused with these statements. My comments were just stupid and made me look like the one who is undereducated. Some of my best friends are Midwesterners, which shows how truly dumb my comments were.

I also deeply regret that my actions reflected badly on the environmental organizations with which I am affiliated, and were of disservice to the environmental movement as a whole. I’ve resigned both my nonprofit board positions and would ask you to not judge these organizations by my actions. I offer my sincere apologies to all the staff and board members.
Further, I regret that my remarks made me come across as a person who disrespects overweight people. I do not disrespect anyone for being overweight and I deeply regret that my remarks suggested I do. My wife has devoted her career to helping people and my comments reflect poorly on her and her heart-felt work. I apologize for my extreme insensitivity to her clients and her mission. Please don’t judge Renee by my actions.
I also want to apologize to my family and friends and thank them for their support, which I scarcely deserve. I believe we can all grow from experiences and I will work to ensure this experience teaches me to become a better, more compassionate person.

Finally I want to be clear that these are my words and I have received no input from anyone else, not even my wife. I hope this apology will be taken in the true spirit it was given.

Stephen