Month: September 2017

Fake News, NFL, Trump and Protests

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It looks increasingly like the NFL and its players are losing badly while Trump and patriotic Americans are winning. Remember when the whole thing started as a protest against “racism”, police brutality and America’s entrenched “unfairness”? Well, now it’s apparently about “unity and equality”, whatever that means.

Funny, but last nights’ expression of unity (locking arms) did not go real well for the players. Leftist news media like Yahoo is desperate to make you think that “fans joined the players” by locking arms, while the WaPo said that “some” fans joined in. I have yet to see any film or picture showing fans joining in. In fact, many brought flags, shouted “USA”, put their hands on their hearts and loudly sang the anthem. It was obvious who’s side they are on, and it was not the players. In the world of leftist media, I guess “some” might equal “two”. Very fake news. Alive and well. Let us call it what it is: left-wing propaganda.

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NFL, Leftism and Double Standards

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Funny, a backup QB kneels and insults his country, and his teammates have to respect his decision. A lineman who did three tours of duty and is a real hero decides to break from his team and show respect to the flag and country and he has to apologize. At least his coach didn’t throw him under the bus.

Coach Tomlin: Unsure Why Villanueva Apologized, ‘Had Nothing To Apologize For’

I heard an interesting theory. The NFL is allowing this in an attempt to suck-up to the far-left and take the attention off of head trauma and domestic violence. The unintended consequence is that it is alienating its core audience. Don’t these NFL geniuses know that the left will never stop? They will make them be down with “social justice” while still working to put them out of business. The left is not your friend.

The NFL, Protests and Trump

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Being a big football fan, more college than pro, but nonetheless, I am disturbed with what is going on in the NFL. As such, I decided to boycott yesterday, though I did sneak a peak at the final minute of a game I cared about.

I am sick and tired of uninformed, entitled millionaires who make money most people could only dream of telling us how “terrible, unfair, oppressive, inequitable, or racist” our country is. No, the US is not perfect. There is still racism (though nothing on the scale they would have you believe), there is injustice, there is corruption, there is want. But find me another country that is better. Find me one that is more equitable, free, fair, with more opportunity. Find me another where they could be doing what they are doing for that kind of money. When you disrespect the country, its citizens, its military by not standing at attention for the flag and anthem, you earn all the scorn you get. When you make statements as Colin K. has that cops are pigs and “slave catchers” you have crossed the line. Some defenders will say “first amendment rights”, but that argument does not hold water. The NFL is a private enterprise. It has every right to make its players stand at attention during the anthem. As employees of a private enterprise, the players have no first amendment rights in this case. If they did, they could also flip off the crowd anytime they wanted. The NFL has no right to police political speech of the players off the field, but on-field it absolutely does. Oh, and for the left, do not think for a moment that this is a free-speech issue, it is agenda pushing. Imagine for a minute if five or six players did an on-field protest against abortion. The left’s heads would explode!

Now, I have one critique of Trump although I agree with his “boycott” message. As usual his language was inflammatory while his message was not. It was stupid to say players are “SOB’s who should be fired”. I would have phrased it thusly: “If I were the commissioner or an owner, I would tell my players “stand for the anthem and show respect to the country, or you will be suspended. Continue to do it and you will be cut.” End of story.” But by being his usual blunt, sometimes stupid self, he has escalated things. Neither side seems to be winning yet though I suspect more will side with Trump than the NFL. NFL fans lean conservative, that is a fact. However, it bothers me that he would help elevate this firestorm when last week a mere six players protested, and this week it was 200. Some are likely simply angered at his language, and they have that right.

MSESPN and Politics In Sports

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Here is perhaps the best essay on politicization in sports media that I have read, and Clay Travis is far from a right-winger:

https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/first-amendment-espn-modern-media/

His point is, ESPN should not fire Jemele Hill despite her making some patently false, inflammatory and what could be interpreted as racist comments. It was done in private time, not on air. Unfortunately, MSESPN has dug itself into this hole by previously punishing or firing others for making comments that offended left-wing sensibilities, also in their private time not on air, thereby making it very clear which side of the political spectrum it sits on. Quoting Clay, here is the rub:

“ESPN shouldn’t be in the business of deciding what political opinions are appropriate and inappropriate, but when they fired Curt Schilling entirely for his political opinions nearly a year and a half ago they put themselves in the business of analyzing employee speech and determining what was permissible and what was impermissible. Rather than stand up to a left wing Internet mob that was upset with Schilling’s Facebook posts about transgender bathroom issues, ESPN could have simply said they disagreed with Schilling’s private beliefs, but didn’t believe those beliefs made him a bad baseball analyst. So ESPN had an opportunity to establish an important precedent with Curt Schilling, they could have simply said this to the online social media mob: “While many of you on social media may find this shocking, we employ tens of thousands of people to talk and write and produce shows about sports. And not all of them have the exact same opinion about political issues. Rather than demand that our employees avoid discussing politics or having any opinions on important issues facing our country, we’ve instructed all of them that those political opinions should never appear on our airwaves. But in their private lives, they may advocate for whichever causes and opinions they deem just. What they believe in their private lives is not our business so long as they do good jobs at work. We’re in the business of sports, not politics.”

ESPN must either allow all political speech by its personalities, or none at all. If it does not, it will soon be a footnote in media history.

The Left’s Attack On Speech

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Liberty is under assault from the far-left, especially as it relates to speech. Notice the progression. First the left tried to paint their opposition as simply “racist”. Then, they became “fascists”. Now, everyone is a “white supremacist”. The former is just odious, the latter “dangerous”. This is a conscience tactic by the far-left because they feel that if they can successfully brand their opposition as such, it legitimizes violence and the taking of rights. Their goal is to make all others second-class citizens or worse. It is right out of the Marxist, fascist, Alinsky playbook.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/13/free-speech-fight-really-smearing-right-racists/

Along the same lines, ESPN continues to swirl the toilet when one of its African-American anchors goes on a Twitter rant against Trump. This creature would have been fired on the spot if the rant had been about Obama, Clinton or any other leftist politician.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/12/jemele-hill-tweets-bad-espn-show-is-worse/