ESPN censorship alert: If you go to ESPN's main page and use the search box above the menus at the left, you get redirected to the main page if you enter "Easterbrook" or "TMQ" or "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" or "Gregg Easterbrook." I also entered some non-sports related words, and everything else came up with at least some results, even if they were not sports related.
More PC problems at ESPN: Gregg Easterbrook (Tuesday Morning Quarterback), which whom I have mentioned many times on this blog, may have just been fired by ESPN.
Like I said with the Rush Limbaugh episode, this is ridiculous. I'm quickly losing all respect for ESPN. I think the problem (as many others are stating above) is that they are owned by ABC/Disney. They're too PC for their own good, and it's soon going to start affecting their broadcasting and reporting, and I believe it already has.
TMQ was one of the two best columns on ESPN (along with Bill Simmons), and one of the few reasons to check into the website for anything besides updated scores.
As as much as I don't like Tim McCarver, FOX's sports coverage is slowly overtaking ESPN. They're in no position to take them over anytime soon, but one has to wonder what kind of idiots are in charge at ESPN.
About the original controversy: I read the Easterbrook post on Kill Bill soon after it was posted. I cringed when he mentioned that the executives were Jews, because I thought it didn't really have anything to do with the issue of violent movies. I immediately knew this would blow up, and I was fairly sure that he would apologize or clarify his remarks. I did not remotely think that this would affect his TMQ column. Maybe Easterbrook understands the menace of political correctness now.
One of the worst things about this is ESPN's removal of the past TMQ columns and the erasure of his existence on their web site. I have a lot of friends that read TMQ and enjoy the column, but they don't read blogs and as of right now I'm fairly sure that they are not aware of this controversy. If ESPN doesn't notify their audience of their decision and reasoning, come Tuesday afternoon they're going to be overwhelmed with folks wondering where TMQ is. And then they're going to have to respond.
UPDATE: This page lists all of ESPN's Page 2 columnists, and Easterbrook isn't listed as of right now.
Free speech squelched once again: I blame John Ashcroft.
UPDATE: Peter King weighs in. I agree mostly with his assessment of McNabb. And he's right that the quarterbacks generally get more credit than they sometimes deserve when their teams win.
Limbaugh's jab was directed at the media. The sports media may not be obsessed with race, but the general media is. It's probably their favorite subject next to themselves, as I've heard someone else put it.
Someone on the show should have called Limbaugh on what he said. Only they know why they did not. But I do not think we should forget that race is a very legitimate issue in professional football. Their absurd rule on interviewing black coaches for positions is Exhibit #1. How many jobs is Denny Green going to interview for anyway?
Here's a little more background on the original story.
In the end, I think Peter King is mostly right. What Limbaugh said may have been factually wrong, but it wasn't racist. It's not surprising to see Al Sharpton, Wesley Clark, and Howard Dean (all of whom want to govern this country) call for someone to be fired for exercising their free speech rights. They complain about the current administration stifling speech (without offering proof), yet have no qualms about doing it themselves.
UPDATE #2: Still no word on Al Sharpton's protest in front of Wrigley Field calling for the firing of Dusty Baker for his racist remarks. I'll keep you posted.
Quit my job and am starting law school. Going to be a lot of work, but I'm going to try to keep the blog going. Probably keep mostly the same content (some legal stuff, current events, and of course, sports). I'll try to stay pseudonymous, but I'm sure I'll give out enough details along the way for someone to pinpoint my school, and possibly me as well. Let's get it on!
Well, I'm just posting another apology for the lack of posts. Been really busy at work the past couple of weeks. I'll make no promises when I can get back to this, but I hope to do it ASAP.
Apologies for the extreme lack of posts the past week or so. I'm making a major change right now, so I'm a little limited in time. But I'll try to get something going agan soon.
Rabbi Michael Lerner presents his situation in today's OpinionJournal. Basically, he wasn't allowed to speak at an ANSWER rally because he believes in an Israeli state (and the other organizers, not just ANSWER, are going along with the ban). He seems surprised at the anti-Semitism on the far left. But if he's been paying any attention at all in the last 40 years, he'd be well informed of the intolerance of many on the left.
UPDATE: The Prof has more, including a link to ANSWER's reply.
For all the books that have been written about the American character, it's amazing how few have analyzed what exactly this dream actually means. Jim Cullen has brightly decided to investigate the concept, and the result is "The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation."
Now it should be said that Mr. Cullen starts with certain disadvantages. He holds a Ph.D. in American civilization from Brown University and teaches at the expensive and exquisitely politically correct Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Manhattan. It's a challenge for anybody to write well about America from such a parochial milieu.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Cullen covers ground that will be immediately familiar to any New Yorker with a degree in American studies. He has sections on the Puritans, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, the growth of suburbia in the 1950s, Las Vegas and Hollywood. Meanwhile, he leaves out all those aspects of America life that don't appear on the famous New Yorker map of the U.S.
He has almost nothing to say about modern business. He has almost nothing to say about evangelicalism or Pentecostalism, arguably the most influential creed of the 20th century. (There are millions of American Pentecostals right now, starting from scratch about a century ago, and there will be, by conservative estimates, one billion Pentecostals in the world by 2050.) He has almost nothing to say about life in, for example, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Arizona, which are not exactly unimportant parts of the country. Moreover, Mr. Cullen has that annoying Upper West Side habit of assuming that everyone within earshot shares his progressive views. He peppers the book with swipes at Republicans and conservatives that will make liberal readers feel good about themselves but will annoy everyone else.
And:
Yet he [Cullen] has intelligently spotted a core rift in the American body politic, and maybe in the global one too. On one side are those who believe that, despite its shortcomings, American society does offer "an open field and a fair chance," encouraging important virtues. On the other are those who believe that, though some get ahead through merit, the gospel of equal opportunity is basically a sham. The wrong people end up with money, power and prestige. The wrong human qualities get rewarded.
If you went around the world and separated the people who admire the U.S. from those who oppose it, I suspect that this would be the crucial issue on which the two sides divide. America is not just a democracy; it represents a certain culture of competitive mobility and the personality traits and aspirations that go along with that. And this book reminds us that politics is not merely a clash of interest but a clash of dreams.
Here's an OpinionJournal article which hits the nail right on the head in discussing the problems with France and Germany.
Germany labors under heavy socialist policies--high taxation and crushing regulations that suppress growth. Its economy can barely employ German citizens, and many immigrants--a lot of whom are Muslim--are prohibited from working, forced to sit idle for years on welfare. Germany needs to do a better job at assimilating its immigrants. It can do that by cutting taxes, removing obstacles to business expansion and allowing immigrants greater freedom in taking jobs and starting businesses.
And then onto France:
Germany isn't alone in its blinkered priorities. French bureaucrats patrol the streets at night, looking for any business with the audacity to violate the 35-hour workweek. Meanwhile violent crime goes unchecked. Like other European countries, France refuses to assimilate immigrants. Consequently, there's a large population of Muslims--many from former French colonies--who are held in poverty collecting welfare checks for years.
France doesn't take crime seriously. Prisoners, even felons serving long sentences, are allowed to wear street clothes inside prison. This makes it relatively easy for prisoners to blend in with visitors and simply walk out the front door. That's how Ismael Berasategui Escudero, an alleged Basque terrorist, was able to trade places with his brother and escape from Paris's La Sante prison in August. Guards didn't even know he was gone until the brother stepped forward six days later.
Copyright © 2002, Charles Martel