ESPN should not be congratulated for suspending Parker, though that's undoubtedly the desired reaction in Bristol. Instead, those within the network who have decided to abdicate any sense of journalistic responsibility in favor of a craven desire for ratings and "buzz" should probably take a few minutes and consider that they created and nourished an environment by which Rob Parker, who had made multiple professional missteps before, could thrive by saying stupid stuff and getting away with it. ESPN should not feel good about suspending Parker, because ESPN had no qualms about re-running "First Take" on Thursday with Parker's comments entirely intact. Those in control had a chance to run damage control, but they didn't. And primarily, they didn't because they didn't see the need.
ESPN didn't suspend Parker because his comments ran afoul of the network's ethics. They did so because his comments did not get the desired reaction.
In the end, whether Rob Parker is fired from the network or not, it's up to ESPN to decide where it wants to go from here. Does ESPN simply replace Parker with another idiot to serve its desire for ethically challenged programming, or will this serve as a wake-up call to the fact that when you put people like Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith in charge of a sandbox and let them run roughshod all they want, you're going to get this kind of garbage over and over again?
Given ESPN's recent history, we're going to assume that the network will do away with the effect, and ramp up the cause. And that will leave the rest of us to wonder whether "Embracing Debate" is a worthwhile endeavor at all.