Ten years ago, Doug Gottlieb found himself in hot water when he joked that he was part of CBS’s March Madness coverage in order to provide the “white people perspective.” The radio host marked the “anniversary” of the incident by discussing what happened and why he felt like he could say it.
“Ten years ago, yesterday, I tried to crack a joke on the set of CBS and it did not go well,” Gottlieb said on his In The Bonus podcast.
Gottlieb was sitting alongside Greg Gumbel, Greg Anthony, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley when he made the comment, which didn’t land particularly well.
As Gottlieb recalled, he initially tested out the joke in various radio interviews, including with then-CBS Sports Radio hosts Gregg Giannotti and Brian Jones.
“They found it hilarious,” Gottlieb said. “No one said, ‘Don’t do that. They should have. Somebody should’ve said, ‘Don’t do that.’”
There’s one big problem with Gottlieb’s anecdote. Giannotti didn’t work for CBS Sports in 2013.
“If you’ll allow me, I’d like to clear my name for a little bit,” Giannotti said on Wednesday’s edition of Boomer and Gio on WFAN. “Here are my issues with this. One, I wasn’t there. This was 2013 before the incident. I wasn’t even there. Two, he is placing blame now on whoever he told this to stop him and say ‘Don’t do this on the set!’”
Co-host Boomer Esiason said that he could understand why Gottlieb was confused as the show on CBS Sports Radio he was probably referring to was MoJo, hosted by Brian Jones and Chris Moore. That show became Gio & Jones in 2015 when Giannotti came over to CBS Sports Radio from Pittsburgh’s 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh.
