Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2016

Bloody Hell: PC ESPN Goes 1984 on Red Sox Nation History



In George Orwell's prophetic novel Nineteen-Eight Four (1948), the protagonist Winston Smith slaves away at the Ministry of Truth (MiniTrue) erasing all sorts of inconvenient truths that deviate from the powers that be's current line.  Essentially, the novel anticipated historical revisionism for the purposes of political correctness.


2004 World Series Championship Ring
Sadly, the same process can be seen at ESPN. Curt Schilling, a former Major League Baseball player who gained notoriety for his heroic bloody sock pitching performance of game six in the 2004 World Series.  Schilling's clutch performance pitching on a bad knee set up the Boston Red Sox to break the nearly century old Curse of the Bambino, coming from a 3-0 deficit to win the MLB World Championship over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Five years ago, ESPN produced an hour retrospective of this incredible come from behind playoff rally titled "Four Days in October".  Schilling's performance was prominently featured.





However,  ESPN recently fired Curt Schilling from his on-air job because of  personal social media commentary concerning transvestites and those citing gender dysphoria from using whichever bathroom he/she/zhe prefers at that moment.  Subsequently, less than a week later, when ESPN 2 reran "Four Days in October", the chronicle of Schilling's crucial play (and the bloody sock) was strangely missing. In this case, one ought to call the channel "The Deuce" with good reason.

All week, Schilling has been proclaiming the unchecked political progressivism at his former employer, as well as noting that more than a few have displayed overt racism.  But because Schilling violated today's shibboleth of "transgender" acceptable, it seems his memory must be erased at what is purportedly a sports channel.


So know that Disney/ESPN is not only spewing liberal commentary within their sports coverage, they also have taken it upon themselves to rewrite history.  Perhaps one of the 1984 IngSoc mantras will become more poignant "Ignorance is strength". 

Friday, April 22, 2016

ESPN Cans Curt Schilling Over Transgendered Bathroom Tweet



ESPN fired former Major League Baseball star pitcher and TV Color Commentator Curt Schilling because of sharing a meme on transgender bathrooms on Twitter.

Disney owned ESPN insisted that the company was dedicated to inclusiveness, so it terminated someone with a view which different from the current politically correct line.  It is intriguing that Disney owned ABC Good Morning America report blurred out the image of a transvestite who would have been eligible to use whatever bathroom which he/she/zei felt like using.  It seems that the ideals of diversity and inclusiveness can not be particularized in a reductio ad abusurdum.


This was not Schilling's first run in with social media PR challenges.  A couple of years ago, Schilling went on attack mode against a Twitter troll who sexually harassed his daughter  sparked by congratulations over admission to Salve Regina University.

Later in 2015, Schilling was suspended from covering the Little League World Series for sharing a controversial tweet which compared Muslim "population infiltration" with Nazis.

There seems to be an academic and corporate corporate push to be intolerant towards "ciscentrism" and those who do not acquiesce to "the new normal" regarding self designated transgendered bathroom fluidity. It is dubious if ESPN would punish an employee for sharing progressive political memes.

Bruce Springsteen, et ali, have forgone concerts in North Carolina while the Bathroom Law is in effect. The NBA has threatened to pull the All Star game unless the Tar Heel State relents on traditional notions that those with male genetalia should not evacuate their excrement around little girls. During a NBC Today Townhall meeting, Manhattan mogul Donald Trump insisted that just not worrying about transgenders using whatever bathroom they like is no problem.

From its inception, DC-Jockularity recognized the convergence of sports and public policy.  ESPN's aggressive application of standards reinforces the idea that ABC/Disney/ESPN is a progressive entity which pushes its agenda even unto sports coverage and will not brook dissent.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

ESPN Sports Cuban Propaganda

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. 


[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.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

WI Nanny State Police Seeks to Ban Badgering High School Cheers

Jay Bilas  on Toughness and Sports Fans

In late December, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association urged state high school administrators to enforce "guidelines" pertaining to sports fans. WIAA Communications Director Todd Clark inveighed against unsporting behavior, particularly in student cheering sections.  To wit, the WIAA wanted to ban chants as: "Fundamentals"; "Air ball"; "You can't do that"; "We can't hear you."; "Overrated"; Scoreboard" and "Season's over".  There is some thought that even the patriotic "USA" chant may be verbotten.  Per the WIAA's guidelines, these cheers could lead to a suspension.

Much to the WIAA's chagrin, these guidelines went viral on social media and were subject to considerable derision and some pointed First Amendment protest.

ESPN Sports Analyst Jay Bilas took to Twitter to mock the well-intentioned Nanny State sportsmanship dictat with reductio ad absurdum zeal. Bilas suggested a replacement tersely cogent cheer for "Air Ball" with the thoroughly polite " "We note your attempt did not reach the rim, but only to alert the clock operator that a reset is unnecessary."

High School students in Ashwaubeon, Wisconsin chose to make a symbolic protest against the WIAA's assault on their free speech rights by putting duct tape over their mouths at a basketball game.




 None of these cheers are even vaguely bawdy, such as the cheer of frustration: "Nuts and bolts--we got screwed".  These nanny state rules (disingenuously veiled as "guidelines") seems to demand sucking the spirit from zombie-like seat warming fans as their teams effectively compete for their participation trophies.




Once the story acquired national attention, the WIAA tried to back down. WIAA Executive Director Dave Anderson tired to quell the media maelstrom by issuing a "Sincere Apology" email which insisted that there were no new directives, no new rules, no new mandates, and no new enforcement expectations. Parsing Anderson's email, the key is phrase is new. Reading between the lines, the chants were just examples of unsportsmanlike behavior that WIAA guidelines prohibit.

The WIAA mandate touched upon Bilas bailiwick for "Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court" (2014). Bilas did recognize that there are ways of unruly fanaticism that crosses the line without over-regulating kids. Bilas recalled while he was playing basketball at Duke in the 1980s, the University President wrote an open letter challenging fans to behave better and be creative without crass cheers. This prompted the Blue Devil student section to react to bad calls with the cheer: "We beg to differ". A more modern approach might be to remind students that they should not do something they would not want put on television lest it go on their permanent records.

This is more than a high school sports story. It  exemplifies the totalitarian instincts political correctness which demands conformity from feckless fans. The WIAA follow-up employs the non-apology apology, denying the directive is anything new. It also shows the micromanaging mien of the Nanny State which nudges people through rules masquerading as "guidelines".  Lastly, it imposes overbearing burdens on people without challenging them to find creative alternatives to encourage more civil cheering.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Barack Obama on His Morning News Choice


Well, it seems that for Barack Obama, politics is not his favorite sport in the District of Calamity. Here's hoping that that the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) does not get the short shrift to Mike & Mike in the Morning.





Friday, March 30, 2012

ESPN Spikes "Rise Up and Register" NASCAR Ad Campaign



NASCAR race car driver Blake Koch wanted to promote a campaign to educate fans on the importance of participating in U.S. elections. Koch teamed up with the “Rise Up and Register” campaign, but it seems that ESPN did rejected the ad supposedly due to the religious and partisan overtones.

See the cancelled ad for yourself:




It is curious that ABC/Disney was so concerned about controversial overtones of the ad, as there were neither allusions to religion or Republicans.  The worst one could say about it is that it depicted an American flag.  Perhaps it would have been permitted if it showed the Obama Stars and Stripes.

Their mission statement notes “ Rise Up and Register firmly believes that increased electoral participation will yield tremendous benefit to our great nation at a time when our problems seem to mount daily.”

One wonders what was the real rationale for not allowing Rise Up and Register’s advertisement of Koch’s car 41 campaign to be aired.  Are networks purporting to be prissy about allowing advertisements of controversial commercials?

READ MORE at the DCBarroco website