Posted on 09/26/2017 5:55:35 AM PDT by Enlightened1
ESPN turned into a running political talk show on Monday that centered around one man: President Trump.
Trump’s battle with the NFL over national anthem protests dominated ESPN’s morning and afternoon shows, which at times sounded more like CNN than a sports channel. ESPN’s analysts were overwhelmingly critical of the president.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith claimed during one segment that Trump’s attack on the NFL was part of a nefarious “grand scheme” from the president.
“I personally believe Donald Trump has a grand scheme, I think his aspiration is to own a network when this is all said and done and make sure he has his strong-arm of influence,” Smith said. “That is a different story for a different day.” He also compared Trump’s response to the national anthem protests to the comments he made on violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Smith claimed during another segment that the battle between Trump and the NFL isn’t about politics: it’s just about Trump.
“This is not about politics at all. This is about one man, one individual who continuously displays just a lack of decorum and respect and is as divisive as they come,” Smith said, before applauding LeBron James and other athletes who have criticized the president.
When asked if Sunday’s protests were primarily against Trump rather than against racial injustice, ESPN commentator and former NFL safety Louis Riddick simply responded, “Sure.”
“Sure, because the players felt attacked and disrespected. The players are like, you are going there name calling because we are trying to protest against something we have a right and freedom to protest against peacefully, and you make it personal and use derogatory names and paint us all with a derogatory brush?” Riddick said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
This includes Disney movies, etc...
I
Ah, it is great to have a President again after so long!!!
Time lies warner turner hbo owns cnn
Espn thinks they are msnbc
ESPN and the NFL are managing the decline with their heads in the sand. They are in the midst of self destruction. Business 101 FAILURE - stray from your core business and mission.
They both have managed to drive a train off the tracks at full speed and are still trying to steer the ongoing wreck.
At this point they are going to need to perform a branding miracle to recover. I doubt they can bring themselves to do it.
NASCAR and baseball are still in season, right?
As are college football and the NHL!
This whole thing is just unbelievable.
I’m not sure I fully support the characterization, but you could say that the President “trash talked” the athletes who don’t respect the flag.
What? Can’t they take it? Does trash talk totally upset a professional athlete? What if the other teams find out? Soon athletes will be trash talking on the field and making opposing players cry and lose the game!
Disney owns ESPN!
What networks/? does Disney own?:
Disney/ABC Television Group. Disney/ABC Television Group operates Disney’s broadcast television, cable television and radio businesses. ...
ESPN, Inc. ...
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts U.S., Inc. ...
Lucasfilm Ltd. ...
Marvel Entertainment, LLC.
If freepers are really serious about this issue, they can do a few things this week:
1. Cancel/cut their cable and go to a good internet to stream the tv shows they watch. Disney/ABC/ESPN and the above are owned by Disney. Each month they get a huge share of your monthly cable bill. Cut the cable, and they lose that monthly bite out of your bill. You will save a lot of money each month.
2. Use Sling Blue TV for streaming the channels you will watch. Sling Blue does not carry ESPN or Disney. So again the evil Disney/ESPN/NFL gay hate America liberals get nothing from you.
Talk and pompous threats are cheap and not that effective. Pulling the economic plug is like a laser guided smart bomb.
If you really want to smack/hurt ESPN/NFL/Disney just do #1 and #2 above. Also, you will save a lot of money each month.
Thirty seconds is long enough to give them a ratings count.
Never put a liberal in charge.
They will only hire other liberals.
Soon the entire place is infested and you go out of business.
airamerica
Trump EXPOSES ESPN as thinking like CNN is more like it.
The best thing is that even supporters don’t know Trump’s motive in the NFL tweets yet. And opponents just think it’s a “stupid 142 character message from an idiot who didn’t consider what he was doing”. His reason could be any or all of these or something else
* Make the media look bad and say stupid things.
* Get voters to further associate the D party with “US sucks” protests.
* Keep the D party focused on insignificant tweets rather than figuring out what their party stands for and putting together a sensible plan for 2018 and 2020 elections.
* Pump up his base
* Distract dems and the media while he gets something done that matters in areas where they aren’t looking/protesting. Distracting Rs in congress is also necessary for many conservative actions.
Seeing all of these “smart people” who still have no clue how Trump uses tweets after 2 years of him winning repeatedly is priceless.
Show me any class of working people that have a "right" to protest or freedom of speech to say any stupid thing they want while on their employers dime without fear of getting fired for it.
This is exactly why so many people are abandoning the National Felons League.
From the Sept. 19, 2011 issue of ESPN The Magazine:
THAT STORY BEGINS, as so many tales in modern American sports do, with Babe Ruth. History records various games in which "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played dating from the mid-1800s, but Ruth's last postseason appearances for the Boston Red Sox coincided with the song's first unbreakable bond with the sports world, in 1918. Game 1 of that year's World Series was notable for many reasons...There was also World War I, which blackened everything, including the national pastime. The U.S. had entered the war 17 months earlier, and in that time some 100,000 American soldiers died. Veterans who survived often came home maimed or shell-shocked from encounters with modern warfare's first mechanized mass-killing machines. At home, the public mood was sullen and anxious. The war strained the economy and the workforce, including baseball's. The government began drafting major leaguers for military service that summer and ordered baseball to end the regular season by Labor Day. As a result, the 1918 Series was the lone October Classic played entirely in September.
World War I wasn't the only issue weighing heavily on fans. On Sept. 4, the day before the first game, a bomb ripped through the Chicago Federal Building, killing four people and injuring 30. The Industrial Workers of the World were thought to be behind the attack, a retaliation for the conviction of several IWW members on federal sedition charges...
Although the Cubs festooned the park in as much red, white and blue as possible, the glum crowd in the stands for Game 1 remained nearly silent through most of Ruth's 1-0 shutout victory over Chicago's Hippo Vaughn. Not even the Cubs Claws, the forerunners to Wrigley's Bleacher Bums, could gin up enthusiasm...
With one exception: the seventh-inning stretch. As was common during sporting events, a military band was on hand to play, and while the fans were on their feet, the musicians fired up "The Star-Spangled Banner." They weren't the only active-duty servicemen on the field, though. Red Sox third baseman Fred Thomas was playing the Series while on furlough from the Navy, where he'd been learning seamanship at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Chicago...
Upon hearing the opening notes of Key's song from the military band, Thomas immediately faced the flag and snapped to attention with a military salute. The other players on the field followed suit, in "civilian" fashion, meaning they stood and put their right hands over their hearts. The crowd, already standing, showed its first real signs of life all day, joining in a spontaneous sing-along, haltingly at first, then finishing with flair. The scene made such an impression that The New York Times opened its recap of the game not with a description of the action on the field but with an account of the impromptu singing: "First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day's enthusiasm."
The Cubs front office realized it had witnessed something unique. For the next two games, it had the band play "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the seventh-inning stretch, to similarly enthusiastic crowds. By Game 3, a bigger crowd of 27,000 was in attendance. Not to be outdone, the Red Sox ratcheted up the pageantry when the Series relocated to Boston for the next three games. At Fenway Park, "The Star-Spangled Banner" moved from the seventh-inning stretch to the pregame festivities, and the team coupled the playing of the song with the introduction of wounded soldiers who had received free tickets.
Like the Chicago fans, the normally reserved Boston crowd erupted for the pregame anthem and the hobbled heroes. As the Tribune wrote of the wounded soldiers at Game 6, "[T]heir entrance on crutches supported by their comrades evoked louder cheers than anything the athletes did on the diamond..."
Still, the Series' most enduring legacy belongs to a song. Other major league teams noticed the popular reaction to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1918, and over the next decade it became standard for World Series and holiday games. In subsequent years, through subsequent wars, it grew into the daily institution we know today...
Congress didn't officially adopt the "The Star-Spangled Banner" until 1931 -- and by that time it was already a baseball tradition steeped in wartime patriotism. Thanks to a brass band, some fickle fans and a player who snapped to attention on a somber day in September, the old battle ballad was the national pastime's anthem more than a decade before it was the nation's.
-PJ
I think even Disney CEO Robert Iger realizes what a financial drag ESPN has turned into—and Disney’s success with its movies and theme parks may not be able to overcome that problem.
So what NFL player was hit with a bag of urine for his free speech attempts ? Did someone throw a brick at a player ? Did a College teacher hit someone with a bike lock ?
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