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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

JavaOne: Sun Apologises for Bad Judgement

I've put off this thought for a few days but it's still at the front of my mind so I have to comment. I went to the JavaOne After Dark party this week and watched our invited entertainer, Dennis Miller, give a show that had a number of very funny observations in it - I was creased with laughter as my companion would confirm.

However, in the middle he veered off into a five minute tirade of bitter, unfunny and very racist comments about French people and then for the rest of the show peppered the content with comments about many other nationalities such as Germans, with a big emphasis on right-wing American politics. I enjoy political humour and tolerate a great deal of breadth but I found him very offensive - and this coming from an Englishman, defending the French...

I'm not keen to be a party-pooper but even James Gosling felt the need to comment in his Thursday keynote. I think Miller was a profoundly bad choice of entertainment for an international techno-geek conference and I was ashamed to work for Sun as I watched delegates troop out of the room following these comments (one Englishman shouting out "racist!" as he left). My deepest apologies to friends, customers, colleagues and even enemies - I have commented internally that even the Java condoms are in good taste compared to Miller, I have no idea which out-of-touch marketeer thought Miller appropriate. Sorry.

[Also posted to blogs.sun.com]

posted at 3:54 AM (UK) | |