You normally won’t read a word about St. Louis media on these pages, but this one really caught my eye. It involves a veteran host named Don Marsh, who’s now 80 - and has worked in local radio in that city for decades.
 
Earlier this week, the longtime pro – who works at a public radio outlet - was interviewing an old friend, a 75-year-old woman who was a former anchor at a St. Louis TV station. Right before the convivial chat began he told her, “You look great.” She didn’t take any offense and thought nothing about it.
 
But not long after, Marsh was called into a management meeting where – according to him – they lit into him for it.
 
“I said, ‘Are you basically saying what I did was wrong?’” Marsh told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “He said the manager made a gesture with his hand “like it’s right on the edge. And I said, ‘That’s it, I’m done.’”
 
He quit on the spot, saying he’s fed up with political correctness going so far, you can’t even tell an old friend they look good.
 
Management insists that wasn’t the reason for the meeting but won’t say what they called him in for. Now there’s great division about who’s right and whether he crossed a line.
 
If Marsh’s version is correct, I’d have to say I agree with him. While I’m all for being sensitive, we’re getting to the point where we’re censoring ourselves into a silence that not even George Orwell could have anticipated. Pretty soon, all we’ll have left is hand gestures.
 
And they really don’t work too well on radio.

Host says he quit because bosses asked him about remark to female anchor