I waited until I had actually watched her piece before I weighed in. My observations:
1. Those who claim the object of her humor was ridiculing Georges parents for overloading him with extraciriculars are being disingenuous. Listen to her inflections-she clearly used ballet as the punchline in her piece. And after all, no one laughs at parents who enroll six year old boys in kindersoccer or T ball, and sarcastically comments Let's see how long that lasts.
2. Was her piece hurtful? was an apology mandatory? Hard to say. Men who embrace dance as a career have probably learned to laugh off such ignorant attitudes, but prejudices are composed of a thousand small slights, so the outrage was ultimately beneficial. GMA at least thought up a positive mea culpa-too bad the producers were asleep at the wheel and didn't kill her piece BEFORE IT AIRED.
3. Should Lara be fired. Yes-but not for bigotry or stereotyping, but intellectual laziness. She should have known that Diana was a strong supporter of Ballet and all the arts. She should have learned the lessons of Billy Elliot, film and musical. If you have a high powered job on network tv, do a little homework, for God's sake!
