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Attendees of the AP Sports Editor convention in Orlando, Florida have no doubt been enjoying themselves — after all, what better place to study the retardation of sports gimp Mitch Albom than from the plush confines of the Ritz-Carlton? Alas, the conference has been soured by color lines when black and Hispanic attendees were denied equal treatment:

Late Monday night, 30 minutes after Greg Lee, Graham Watson and Anthony Witrado were told that it was the bar s last call, Witrado, 23, a reporter at the Fresno Bee, noticed the staff still serving a group of six or seven middle-aged white men.

If you say that final call is 11:45, then it s final call for everyone, said Lee, 31, senior assistant sports editor at the Boston Globe, in the conference newspaper today. Not 11:45 for one set of people and 12:15 for another set of people. I just want to see consistency, treating every customer the same way, no matter what they look like.

All joking aside, it's nothing short of reprehensible when racism stands in the way of a journalist's professional drinking duties.

Three At Convention Say They Were Ill-Treated at Ritz-Carlton [E&P]