One of the reasons why sports is a popular pastime among Americans is because it has tended to be non-partisan. It is news which mentally reconnects aged athletes back to their glory days, while stoking local loyalties and friendly rivalries and forgetting the tumult of news from the "real world".
Unfortunately, the trend in the media has been to politicize everything, including sports news. More than seeing sports through a lens of political correctness, the sports media has segued into political propaganda.
A case in point was a ESPN Sportscenter social media sharing in regards to President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba after 55 years of bilateral hostility.
ESPN authorized a Tweet which whitewashed the brutality of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist regime by promoting propaganda that Fidel was a sports fan.
After a couple of hours of consternation, ESPN withdrew the post, but the damage was done by humanizing the despot. One of the reasons that Cubans believe that they won their long standoff with the United States is because of Fidel's romancing the American press.
It may be true that Fidel is a big sports fan. Fidel even yearned to play for the Yanquis in his youth. But ESPN featuring such factoids during a controversial trip to Cuba by President Barack Obama amounts to propaganda. Mr. Obama will remain in Havana to see a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game rather than return to Washington after the coordinated Brussels terror attacks.
To give a truer picture of the sporting Castro, it is important to understand how Fidel Castro used sports as a weapon to enforce his communist ideology.
A more accurate picture of Fidel Castro's sporting sense is captured by hitting the links with the bloody revolutionary Che Guevara.
It is dubious that Che's favorite sport was golf. More likely it was coaching firing squads.
Unfortunately, the trend in the media has been to politicize everything, including sports news. More than seeing sports through a lens of political correctness, the sports media has segued into political propaganda.
A case in point was a ESPN Sportscenter social media sharing in regards to President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba after 55 years of bilateral hostility.
ESPN authorized a Tweet which whitewashed the brutality of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist regime by promoting propaganda that Fidel was a sports fan.
After a couple of hours of consternation, ESPN withdrew the post, but the damage was done by humanizing the despot. One of the reasons that Cubans believe that they won their long standoff with the United States is because of Fidel's romancing the American press.
It may be true that Fidel is a big sports fan. Fidel even yearned to play for the Yanquis in his youth. But ESPN featuring such factoids during a controversial trip to Cuba by President Barack Obama amounts to propaganda. Mr. Obama will remain in Havana to see a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game rather than return to Washington after the coordinated Brussels terror attacks.
To give a truer picture of the sporting Castro, it is important to understand how Fidel Castro used sports as a weapon to enforce his communist ideology.
A more accurate picture of Fidel Castro's sporting sense is captured by hitting the links with the bloody revolutionary Che Guevara.
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| [L] Che Guevara [R] Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro |
It is dubious that Che's favorite sport was golf. More likely it was coaching firing squads.
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