After several embarrassing fiascos such as the National Labor Committee’s discovery that her clothing line which claimed to support children’s charities was produced by South American child sweatshop workers, Kathie Lee Gifford probably thought that she could sink into comfortable oblivion. Afterall, hadn’t she saved herself by becoming a born again Christian at 12 and attending the Christian liberal arts school, Oral Roberts University? Evidently that sort of thing will reserve you a spot in heaven but won’t keep your earthly experience from resembling hell.

Recently, while appearing on the Today Show, Gifford recounted a conversation she had with Al Roker in which he supposed called her philandering husband an old man in a Chinese accent. Kathy Lee then tried to play innocent, saying that she should have sold the tape to TMZ and let Roker be screwed for his politically incorrect behavior, though really she had just screwed him by mentioning the incident on television in the first place.

The Asian American Journalists Association responded in a letter which said:

It's difficult to believe in this day and age, and immediately following an Olympics hosted by China, that "Today" host Kathie Lee Gifford chose to relate on national television an "amusing" anecdote about Al Roker sending birthday greetings to her in a mock "Chinese" accent.

 

If that weren't bad enough, Gifford decided to spice up her performance by squinting her eyes into slits…

To see such a high-profile television personality behave this way on a national network program ostensibly billed as a news show sends a signal across the country that mocking Asians in this way is acceptable. Let's be clear: Such "humor" based on highly offensive racial stereotypes with such an ugly history is never acceptable.

 

Kathie Lee Gifford, "Today" and NBC News owe America an apology.

I hardly know why it would be difficult to believe that the tactless television host would embarass herself. Certainly, Gifford’s actions were pretty imprudent and she might indeed want to consider apologizing if only for pragmatic reasons. Then there's always the issue of apologizing to Al Roker for throwing him under the bus.