WHAM/Rochester's Bob Lonsberry Blasted For Comparing 'Boomer' To Racial Slur In Tweet

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An extreme comparison of the term "Boomer" to a racial slur earned iHEARTMEDIA News-Talk WHAM-A/ROCHESTER host BOB LONSBERRY a rebuke from DICTIONARY.COM and many others in a tweet that went viral, reports the ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE.

Referring to the trend of young people dismissing Baby Boomers' complaints with the hashtag #OKBoomer, LONSBERRY, in a since-deleted tweet, wrote, "'Boomer' is the n-word of ageism Being hip and flip does not make bigotry ok, nor is a derisive epithet acceptable because it is new." Comparing "Boomer" to the N-word drew a tweet from DICTIONARY.COM saying, "Boomer is an informal noun referring to a person born during a baby boom, especially one born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1965. The n-word is one of the most offensive words in the English language."

Also weighing in were celebrities like comedian/actor JOHN MULANEY ("If you're comparing the badness of two words and you won't even say one of them, that's the worse word") and JEOPARDY champion KEN JENNINGS ("Don't worry, I'm Mormon like this guy so it's okay: I can call him a boomer with the hard 'r'"). One responder also noted that LONSBERRY was suspended from his show in 2003 for calling the first black mayor of ROCHESTER a "monkey" and "orangutan." And another noted several LONSBERRY tweets insulting millennials (misspelled) as "whining narcissists," "least skilled and most entitled," and "long on confidence, short on ability."

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