ESPN, which dumped baseball analyst and former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling after his anti-transgender Facebook post, has now turned on police singing the National Anthem at sports events, slapping an “authoritarian shift at the ballpark.”
In its upcoming June 6 magazine, columnist Howard Bryant went on a rant against police officers singing National Anthem before baseball games. “Why don’t more athletes speak out on behalf of their communities? Perhaps more of them would if there wasn’t a chilling force looming over them,” said the article.
“Policing is clearly one of the most divisive issues in the country – except in the sports arena, where the post-9/11 hero narrative has been so deeply embedded within its game-day fabric that policing is seen as clean, heroic, uncomplicated. Following the marketing strategy of the military, police advocacy organizations have partnered with teams from all four major leagues to host ‘Law Enforcement Appreciation’ nights, or similar events,” Bryant wrote.
He added: “Nobody seems to care much about this authoritarian shift at the ballpark, yet the media and the public are quick to demand accountability from players they consider insufficiently activist. They blame these black players for not speaking up on behalf of their communities, ignoring the smothering effect that staged patriotism and cops singing the national anthem in a time of Ferguson have on player expression. It’s indirectly stifled, while the increasing police pageantry at games sends another clear message: The sentiments of the poor in Ferguson and Cleveland do not matter….While athletes are routinely criticized for ‘not doing more,’ it is conveniently ignored how deeply their employers have mobilized against the most powerless elements of their fan base.”
The column follows the end of Schilling’s work for the sports network and ESPN’s removal of his heroic game in a special about the 2004 Red Sox.
Bryant in his column even slammed the practice of teams using military camo in his rap on law enforcement.
He wrote, “There is not just deceit in these practices but also an insulting distortion of history and images. The Chicago Blackhawks ostensibly honored Veterans Day with a camouflage jersey containing the Blackhawks’ logo in the center, clearly uninterested in the colliding imagery — the systematic removal of native tribes occurred at the hands of the U.S. Army. Since 9/11, America has conflated the armed forces with first responders, creating a mishmash of anthem-singing cops and surprise homecomings in a time of Ferguson and militarized police.
Tensions continue to mount in aggrieved communities, yet the LA Dodgers pandered to police by holding Law Enforcement Appreciation Night in September.”
His rant is our Mainstream Scream of the Week and wins five out of five screams.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: “Bryant perfectly reflects the continued decline and fall of ESPN into embarrassing political correctness, censoring Curt Schilling but providing a platform for far-left political pontificating, including the rants of the very angry and race-obsessed Bryant. It’s doubtful many in ESPN’s audience share Bryant’s disgust of police officers singing the National Anthem.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
