A pair of high school announcers in Houlton, Maine were fired on Thursday after making comments body-shaming girls basketball players during a livestream.
Jim Carter and Steve Shaw, a former athletic director and coach, respectively, had been broadcasting games for about a month, according to the Portland Press Herald. In a 40-second video that made its way onto Twitter, one of them was heard saying, “two girls out here extremely overweight. Awful.” The two laughed and exchanged more derogatory comments without realizing their microphones were on during a game between Central Aroostook and Easton high schools.
“I started getting phone calls immediately,” WHOU station director Fred Grant told the Press Herald.
Carter told the Press Herald that he apologized to the superintendent of the school with players he commented on. A retired teacher, Carter has written three books about high school basketball in Aroostook County. Shaw was inducted into the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame in August.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Carter told the Press Herald. “Hopefully everybody can get through this and be OK.”
Joseph Leach, a parent of one of the girls on the team, expressed shock when reached by the Press Herald.
“I was home after the games and somebody shared the video with us and I instantly knew it was Jim Carter and Steve Shaw talking,” Leach said. “And I really just couldn’t believe what they were saying, honestly.”
Grant issued an apology on behalf of the station.
“It’s in writing, it’s verbalized, it’s repeated,” Grant said. “They know the deal. It’s a colossal failure by them.”
