Tech at Night: We need a pro-innovation FCC. We need fewer pro-regulation Republican Senators, too.
Sorry for missing Tech at Night on Friday. After that near-miss with a cold, I decided to start the weekend a little early that night. But we're back. So with five days of news to catch up on, let's see what we have here.
Here's a reminder of why Net Neutrality was a terrible idea. Making people pay for what they use creates opportunities for innovation. If ESPN wants to negotiate bulk rates for wireless data, let them!
And yet that John McCain would add more regulations. We need less micromanagement of cable, not more.
P.C. and the NBA
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III started tongues wagging when he posted this cryptic message on Twitter: “In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness.”
This was in response to liberal activists showing their rabid intolerance by demanding, so obnoxiously, that the Washington Redskins be renamed the “Redtails.” But the sentiment absolutely fits the reaction to professional basketball player Jason Collins proclaiming “I’m black and I’m gay” in Sports Illustrated.
‘Glee’ on the Gridiron?
If liberals in the sports media have their way, your favorite sporting event will soon be a little more like an episode of “Glee.” Writers and talking heads at outlets from ESPN to NBC Sports are in a full-court press. They want to see openly gay athletes in American sports, no matter what it means for the games, the fans, or the athletes themselves.
Perhaps envious that their news colleagues get to cover – and advocate for – what a Washington Post reporter recently called “the civil rights issue of our time,” sports journalists have been long been obsessed with gay athletes. Commentator after commentator have taken to ESPN’s website to assure us “the issue of sports and homosexuality isn't going away,” to call a football player “intelligent and articulate athlete when he made a stand for gay rights,” and to wonder where the gay Jackie Robinson is.
‘Glee’ on the Gridiron?
If liberals in the sports media have their way, your favorite sporting event will soon be a little more like an episode of “Glee.” Writers and talking heads at outlets from ESPN to NBC Sports are in a full-court press. They want to see openly gay athletes in American sports, no matter what it means for the games, the fans, or the athletes themselves.
Perhaps envious that their news colleagues get to cover – and advocate for – what a Washington Post reporter recently called “the civil rights issue of our time,” sports journalists have been long been obsessed with gay athletes. Commentator after commentator have taken to ESPN’s website to assure us “the issue of sports and homosexuality isn't going away,” to call a football player “intelligent and articulate athlete when he made a stand for gay rights,” and to wonder where the gay Jackie Robinson is.
Keith Olbermann Begging ESPN to Hire Him
After a few months crying in the bathtub, disgraced left-wing television personality Keith Olbermann has crawled back out into public view in an effort to beg sports network ESPN to hire him back.
Nothing has come of his efforts so far but the New York Times reports that Olbermann has at least been given a meeting with ESPN president John Skipper.
AP, ESPN, and the League Itself Don’t Like the Lack of ‘Diversity’ in This Year’s Coaching Changes
There were eight coaching changes in the National Football League during the past few weeks. It must be assumed in the absence of contrary evidence that each franchise's owners made their choice based on who they believe has the best chance to take their team to the playoffs and Super Bowl.
The "problem" is, according to league's human resource people (are those really full-time jobs?) and their eager supporters at the Associated Press and ESPN, all eight new coaches are white. As a result, barely four months after the league earned a "high diversity hiring grade" from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport ("its third consecutive A grade on racial hiring and its first C-plus for gender hiring"), the "Rooney Rule," which requires that teams interview at least one at least one minority candidate for head coaching and top managerial jobs, is not good enough (bolds are mine):
ESPN Drops Racial Loudmouth Rob Parker
ESPN has parted ways with Rob Parker, a commentator for the sports network who caused a national controversy by saying that Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is “not one of us” and only “kind of black” because he is engaged to a white woman and is rumored to be a Republican.
Parker made those comments on December 13 and was suspended by ESPN for 30 days. Parker apologized for his remarks but has since defended them by saying he was taken “out of context.”
ESPN Suspends Analyst Rob Parker for Insulting Redskins QB Robert Griffin III
Cable sports network ESPN has suspended its commentator Rob Parker following his offensive racial tirade against Washington Redskins player Robert Griffin III. In a segment on yesterday’s First Take program, Parker said that the rookie quarterback was “not one of us” and that he was only “kind of black” because he is engaged to a white woman, is rumored to be a Republican, and has spoken in favor of racial neutrality, sentiments that the sports analyst derided as “cornball.”
“Following yesterday’s comments, Rob Parker has been suspended until further notice,” network spokesman Josh Krulewitz said in a statement. “We are conducting a full review.”
ESPN Analyst Rob Parker: Redskins Quarterback Robert Griffin III Not Really Black Since He Might Be Republican
Update 14:23. Rob Parker has been suspended for his offensive remarks.
During the Thursday edition of the ESPN show First Take, analyst Rob Parker injected racial issues into the game as he took a bitter swipe at Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, criticizing him for being engaged to a white woman and possibly being one of those evil, nasty Republicans.
“Is he a brother or a cornball brother?” Parker said. “He’s not really one of us. He’s kind of black, but he’s not really, like, the guy you want to hang out with.”
CNN Anchor Questions If Libya Should Even Be a Campaign Issue
When a news anchor's Obama-friendly question is slapped down by even a liberal columnist, it's whacky. CNN's Carol Costello wondered if Libya should even be a campaign issue, but both her guests -- liberal and conservative -- answered in a resounding affirmation on Monday.
Citing the father of dead Ambassador Chris Stevens, who deplored the tragedy becoming a campaign issue, Costello asked "So I think the Ambassador's father spoke out too late because Libya has already become a campaign issue. I guess the question is should it be?" [Video below the break. Audio here.]
Media Lions Roar at Christian Athletes
During the first centuries of Christianity, Christians were thrown to lions in arenas to be jeered by mocking crowds. Today, Christian athletes face the taunts of a media strongly opposed to their faith.
No Christian athlete draws more media catcalls than New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow. CBSChicago.com writer Dan Bernstein dismissed Tebow as “little more than an affable simpleton” and slammed his fans as “lunatic-fringe cultists.” Columnist Rabbi Joshua Hammerman of The Jewish Week expressed his desire that Tebow’s Broncos would lose a playoff game because a Broncos victory would “buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants.” Radio host Craig Carton was the latest to jump on the anti-Tebow bandwagon, calling him a “fraud” and complaining that he “clearly thinks he is Jesus” on his August 14 radio show.
Sports Media Launches Olympic-Sized Blitz from Left
The Olympic Games, which begin this week, is an exhibition of the sportsmanship, teamwork, and the competitive spirit that make sports so enjoyable. But for many in the media, sports is just another excuse to engage in divisive political commentary. The sports media transform an apolitical past-time into a forum for their own politics.
Progressives have actively attempted to remake the Olympics into a celebration of their own political ideals. From calls to make the summer Games “a forum for the promotion of LGBT rights,” to criticism of the International Olympic Committee as “the 1 percent of the 1 percent,” lefties care less about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat than using the world’s biggest sporting event to pound for their pet causes.
Play Diagrams and Stats Aren’t Enough? ESPN Mag Gets Naked
Is it time for ESPN Magazine to don the “plain brown wrapper” and move to the very top back of the magazine rack where curious youngsters can’t catch a glimpse? It may be, at least for one issue a year.
The fourth annual “Body Issue” of ESPN is scheduled to arrive at newsstands on July 11. Like the Sports Illustrated “Swimsuit Issue,” the magazine takes a break from balls and strikes and receivers’ routes to stop and ogle sexy people. In this case, however, all are famous athletes (of both sexes) and all are photographed naked.
The shots are risqué and made barely decent by minimal coverings or clever camera angles. But according to ESPN’s website, readers are supposed to unapologetically “gawk” at the naked bodies in appreciation of their athleticism. “Just imagine how it would feel to inhabit those bodies,” it said. “To leap, punch, and throw like a god.” ESPN apparently thinks its readers incapable of that leap of imagination while contemplating athletes in uniform, or a tee shirt and shorts.
One of the most widespread of the six circulated covers this year features a completely nude Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots with a peeling sticker in between his thighs. Others include New York Knicks forward Tyson Chandler with an exposed rear end, and WNBA star Candace Parker in a similar pose with a basketball in front of her chest. Twenty five more naked athletes are showcased within.
The “Body Issue” came about as a way to increase sales back in the desperate times of 2009. Showing athletes in the buff turned out to be a successful venture with a reported 35 percent spike in advertising revenue, and twice the amount of normal sales according to a CNBC report by Darren Rovell. A decision was then made to make it an annual “celebration of the athletic form.”