Why are people so quick and eager to rush to judgment in this country?

Many years ago, Howard Cosell, the famed TV commentator on Monday Night Football at the time, was watching a wide receiver run with the ball when he exclaimed, "Look at that little monkey go!" The player was black. You can imagine what happened next.

Howard Cosell was called a racist and the predictable controversy unfolded. Cosell was a lot of things — obnoxious, overbearing, opinionated — but racist was not one of them. He was an established friend and proponent of the black athlete. He had simply meant to demonstrate how quick and agile the player was. Finally, the likes of Jesse Jackson, Rachel Robinson (Jackie's widow) and Bill Cosby came to his defense, and Cosell was not reprimanded or fired (although it seems every biography of Cosell's long and distinguished broadcasting career still includes a retelling of the incident, some 25 years after it happened).

Nowadays, Cosell would be suspended or fired a la Don Imus, and Jesse Jackson would be picketing his office. Early last month, Kelly Tilghman, an anchor on the Golf Channel, was discussing Tiger Woods' dominance of the golf tour when she noted that the young players on the tour should "lynch him in a back alley." It was a shocking juxtaposition — the black athlete and lynching — but did anyone really think she had that in mind when she said it? It was an accident. She was suspended for two weeks, and the incident will follow her the rest of her career.

It's remarkably easy to make a mistake these days. Donna Brazile, manager of Al Gore's 2000 campaign and a CNN commentator, recently discussed about how guarded everyone must be. According to an AP report, she has warned CNN against referring to a "back row" of commentators on its New York set because it could be taken wrong if the "back row" contains black commentators.

Beware, it's a verbal minefield out there.

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Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. Please send e-mail to drob@desnews.com.