Dave Lenihan

Dave Lenihan was a talk radio host in St. Louis, MO.

Condoleezza Rice controversy

Lenihan achieved some degree of notoriety while working as a host for KTRS, a radio station in St. Louis. During his show on March 22, 2006, he accidentally uttered a racial slur while speaking about United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Lenihan had been speaking about Rice's dream to become commissioner of the National Football League. He said, "She's been chancellor of Stanford. She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."

Listeners immediately called in to voice complaints, and twenty minutes later, station president Tim Dorsey went on the air to announce that Lenihan had been fired. Lenihan had been with KTRS for less than two weeks at the time of the incident.

Lenihan claimed that he had meant to say "coup", and was at a loss when trying to explain the Freudian slip, stating that he never uses that term and thinks that Rice is "a fantastic woman". Rice accepted his apology, saying that this slip was an example of a "birth defect" that slavery has put into our democracy, and that racial tensions take generations to heal. Although she accepted that the comment was most likely a slip of the tongue, she made no comment on whether or not it reflected his personal opinions about her.

Before working at KTRS, Lenihan was a host for WGNU, another radio station in St. Louis. He is not currently involved in talk radio.

Dave Lenihan was an assistant professor of neuroanatomy at Logan College of Chiropractic in Chesterfield, MO at the time of the radio incident. He is also a licensed chiropractor and has a doctorate in neuroscience, and claims to have sold one of the largest networks of chiropractic practices in the world. He is now teaching neuroanatomy at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/23/djfired.rice.ap/index.html CNN's coverage of the incident.]
* [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-03/27/content_552593.htm Rice accepts Lenihan's apology.]