Any Boston fan can tell you that ESPN is a biased network catering to the NY elites at the expense of everyone else. It’s no surprise that they loved Schilling but got rid of Hill. THey calling themselves “The worldwide leader” is kind of an echo of “Fair and Balanced”.
Exactly, even local idols like Brady, Belichik and Kraft took a ton of grief for their MAGA links. Coach Hoodie and Mr. Kraft are still in that world, but Giselle read Tom the riot act (Trump or me, Tommy, choose wisely) and he did.
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Um, dude, did you get to this part of his remarks?
“And then here, all of a sudden, nobody talks politics on anything — unless we can use one of these sports figures as a meat-shield in the most cowardly possible way to discuss these subjects.”
I’ve heard many a guy say they watch sports or turn on sports channel to escape politics.
That they don’t want to deal with politics, they just want to relax and watch the game.
Hmmm, could that be ESPN point?
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or 
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Worldwide Leader always gave me a North Korean Dear Leader vibe.
Bristol is in that part of Connecticut that runs pretty close to 50/50 or maybe 60/40 NY. One of my nieces from NH has been dating a guy with a huge back tattoo of the Patriots that recently got a production job at ESPN. Hopefully, he’ll make a slight dent in the bias.
That said, I am a diehard Sox fan and I can’t believe how much I enjoy A-Rod’s baseball analysis. Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, or hopefully, it is a sign of belated maturity.
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yeah, and I disagree. ESPN is a sports network. Relating Trump’s racism to athletes of color isn’t using athletes as “meat shields”, its showing the audience how Trump’s racism has an impact on what those fans care about.
How can fans expect athletes to do their best, knowing that their efforts will put money into the pockets of owners who contribute to the political campaigns of racists? It doesn’t matter if they try to do their best, and ignore what is happening – its going to have an impact on them.
My guess is that the ESPN audience resents being confronted with “irrelevant” politics – and by not tying Trump’s racism into sports, his injection of racism was at best counter-productive when it comes to the people we NEED to reach.
It may make us feel good to hear him condemn Trump without a sports context – but WE don’t need to understand what the problem is. A lot of the ESPN audience does need to have the connection drawn.
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Yet even among other racist popular songs in the time period, Decker said, “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” stood out because it put the racism unambiguously front and center – as opposed to songs such as “Ol’ Man River” and “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” which expressed the same general theme in a less obvious way.
Make no mistake, Decker said: “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” isn’t just racist in retrospect. It was openly criticized as racist by African American audiences in the early 1930s, too.
Singer Mildred Bailey received a wave of letters urging her to stop performing the song in 1931, according to Varietymagazine, and African Americans called for radio stations to take it off the air. When a white actor hired by New Jersey’s governor tried to perform the song for an African American company of the New Jersey State Militia in 1935 – entertainment that was intended to boost morale – the soldiers booed and walked out, according to The Philadelphia Tribune.
I’m not sure who you’re referring to there.
An easy test is to ask, what is this person primarily famous for, why are they being honored?
Thomas Jefferson held slaves, but that’s not why he has a memorial in DC. His legacy is the founding documents of the United States and eloquent expressions of equality and justice.
Robert E. Lee held slaves, and his legacy is having led a traitorous secession against the United States.
Nathan Bedford Forrest is famous for fighting to preserve slavery, and for founding the KKK.
It’s not hard.
Seems like that was Dan Le Batard’s point, actually.
Thanks. You know, it’s like Stephen Vincent Foster and My Olde Kentucky Home: I think later verses mentions the ‘darkies’ working in the fields singing (har de har har HAR) but since nobody ‘knows’ the later verses it gets a pass.
I can’t go back ALL the time to think of evil, it’s like finding out Georgetown was built by slaves. So they did some kind of reparations to all the families of the slaves (because dammit people kept RECORDS of their breeding stock back then and isn’t ‘that’ disgusting) and changed the names of buildings donated by segs/racists.
BUT they don’t tear down the buildings; some of this stuff means something (like Smith’s version of the song really is a good one) and we HAVE to find a way to get around this.
I said it earlier this week, I grew up in the mostly-‘ethnic’ enclaves of Chicago and each block was different; if somebody said GO BACK to where you came from, well people would’ve been burning that person’s garbage cans, stuff like that. It IS an insult to anyone connected.
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EVERYBODY is losing money when they sell their Trump building condos, every building with his name on it.
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What, are you still pining away for a wide general re-release of “Song of the South”? Cuz Disney pulled that years ago before anyone could blithely accuse them of “being woke.”
Generally, I have always been intrigued in the attitude of white people who insist it’s POC that need to do all the forgiving and all the forgetting.
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Did you see this from McSweeny’s?
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Isn’t “Chuck Pierce” the guy from Tracey Wigfield’s Great News show?
EDIT: you weren’t kidding. Here are some sample article titles from link:
- The EPA’s New ‘No Surprise’ Policy Protects Everything Except the Environment
- Bill Barr Is Earning Every Dime They’re Paying Him
- Do These Mississippi Governor Candidates Spend Their Lives Running Away From Women?
- Democrats’ Minimum-Wage Bill Is as Dead as Impeachment in the Senate. Why’d It Get a Vote?
- This Was a Fascist Rally Down to Its Bones
- Attention Never Trumpers: Democrats Aren’t Scared Anymore
- The Unholy Trinity of Voter Suppression Is Having a No Good, Very Bad Week
- Congratulations, George Wallace, There’s a Party for You
- Another Irishman Betrays His Ancestors—and Mine
- John Paul Stevens Saw What Was Coming
- All the Best People Are Getting Shipped Out of Washington
- The Conservative Effort to Salt the Judiciary With Larval Scalias Is Close to Complete
Really?
I thought he said that politics should be being covered along with sports
Which is opposite of what I said that men tune into sports to checkout from politic.
Hank Aaron.
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The point you are missing is exactly the one that Dan Le Bartard repeatedly and explicitly makes: This isn’t about politics, this is about RACE.
Your argument is that we shouldn’t trouble the beautiful minds of a bunch of white men who want to indulge in the fantasy that everything’s just fine with the world if they can be entertained in the manner to which they have been accustomed.
His point is that sports has always been a place where things can change (Cf. Jackie Robinson). Racial issues are and have been huge in the sporting world. And that even so, ESPN is afraid to take on the issues that have motivated athletes from Muhammed Ali to Colin Kaepernick.
Wait. Are you a POC? Perhaps, not.
Race is solely political.
A complete social construct used as political wedge to divide the masses.
I didn’t make an argument.
I stated a POV I’ve heard from several men.
ESPN doesn’t want to lose ratings if the majority of males feel like those few I mentioned and simply want to relax and watch the game when they turn on ESPN.
No politics.
Race is politics.
Names or it didn’t happen.
I’m a man, when it’s national soccer games on the line, that’s warfare by other means.
Oh, and I cheer on teams from blue states.
So now you’ve heard from a man who is perfectly fine with politics and sports and doesn’t see much daylight between them.