I would give the benefit of the doubt if this was a position that would have lots of air time in a very important game, but this isn’t that, and it seems like ESPN used this man as a prop in its executives’ promotional activity without regard to his best interests. Like MaineLonghorn said, whether a suggestion is really a suggestion depends on who is making it and why.
@Busdriver11 --I am fourth cousin five times removed from Emerson. So we are kin! 
(or fifth and four, I forget.)
Please, you really believed this is true?? This is their spin of event.
I believe Robert Lee would have continued doing his UVA game had ESPN not intervened. They discriminated against Robert Lee because of his Asian last name. They did this to avoid their perceived discrimination. Everytime I think “we” as a society cannot get any dumber… I am proven wrong.
Don’t know if anybody mentioned, but this Robert Lee (announcer) can’t go by “Bob” because there is already a sportscaster named Bob Lee.
I wonder how long it will be before someone in Charlottesville erects a statue of Robert Lee (the announcer).
People who have the same name as someone notorious must have a tough time sometimes. Depending on circumstances, you might have to change your name.
Even in the most liberal of liberal corners of the internet, everyone is going “what? no. stop.”
No one wants this. Whoever thought this was a good idea needs a new job.
Very cool! You must be brilliant and gorgeous, no doubt. It runs in the family. 
As ML said, when the employer makes a “recommendation” or a “suggestion,” the employee would be foolish not to listen. That employment at will thing…
Yes. Can you imagine being a Manson in the late sixties? Or a Gary Ridgway? Yikes!
He should change his name to Abraham Lincoln. Easy peasy
^^Nah, some short and beardless people will be ripping down Abraham Lincoln’s statues sooner or later.
In the Washington Post story on this matter, I thought it said that sportscaster Lee was the one who initiated the question as to whether or not he should call the UVA game.
By the way, Robert Lee is a common name in the U.S. Anyone remember the journeyman quarterback who led (and nearly completed) a miracle turnaround one season for the perennial sad sack Atlanta Falcons back in the mid-1970s? Bob Lee. And what about comedian Bobby Lee of MAD TV?
ESPN would have been better off not bringing it up even though they were likely concerned about recent tensions as a result of recent events.
Gosh, it must suck to go through life attributing ulteriors motives to every thing said or done by people or an entity one has no personal knowledge of.
It’ll be interesting to see if something leaks that gives us a better idea what really happened with broadcaster Lee.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please, folks! I am having to edit and delete a bunch of posts. Don’t make me close this thread.
The funniest double name situation I’ve heard of involves Isiah Thomas the younger, who is not related to Isiah Thomas the elder, except for a bet between two Dads.
Funny how ESPN has had no problem at all with the double Isiah situation.
I think moving him created WAY more attention than ignoring the situation would have done.
There’s some interesting dialogue about this in the media. Not the rant that ESPN flew off the handle, but the sorts of rattle and memes that had already started circulating around the name Robert Lee, others with the name being targeted (using the term loosely,) joked about, whatever, a sort of group stupocracy.
This chat also notes how quick our current culture us to leap on one side of an issue: that ESPN is overreacting, is ultra liberal wimpy, or has done this for attention, etc. (Sound familiar, eh?)
The first tweet ruckus (of course, from that stupocracy,) was that ESPN fired him for his name. Ironically, several with the tag lines, “I’m not kidding!!!,” “This is true!!!” or the like.
Yeah, right. At this moment, my view is simply: a network moved a guy from one game to another.
Happens.
The attention this resulted in is from us.
We are not the only country with this issue. A statue of Mahatma Ghandi was the issue.