Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

HBO's Gumbel: Lack of Blacks Makes Olympics 'Look Like a GOP Convention'
Newsbusters.org ^ | 2/16/05 | David Pierre

Posted on 02/16/2006 7:25:32 AM PST by Airborne1986

There were some eye-opening remarks from Bryant Gumbel on the most recent episode of HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. According to a transcript posted by a television columnist named Seth Frelich, Gumbel said the following in his closing monologue last week (emphasis mine):

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying ... Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alankeyes; alvinwilliams; armstrongwilliams; bigot; blackracism; blackwell; bryantgumball; bryantgumbel; clarencethomas; colinpowell; colorblindsociety; condoleezarice; crucifyhim; cynthiajenkins; debithomas; gop; gumbel; hbo; hermancain; homosexualagenda; idiot; jackass; jcwatts; kenblackwell; keyes; kwan; liberalbigot; lynnswann; mediabias; michaelsteele; michelekwan; olympics; parker; powell; racebaiting; racialdivision; racism; racist; racistcoloredglasses; rice; rodpaige; rogersjohnson; shermanparker; sos; sowell; starrparker; steele; swann; theclimateisracist; thomas; thomassowell; thomasstith; watts; williams; winsomesears; yvoneebrown
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260261-271 next last
To: i_dont_chat

I'm not offended that you are a racist...I was simply stating a fact.


221 posted on 02/16/2006 1:09:28 PM PST by reflecting
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 219 | View Replies]

To: psjones

Is Bryant Gumbel black?


222 posted on 02/16/2006 1:15:00 PM PST by Rummyfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: DBrow
He may be a moron, but someone is paying him big money to say these things publicly.

I doubt if his money is very big any more. He went from Today on NBC to some morning show on CBS that no one watched and now has only this show on HBO.

223 posted on 02/16/2006 1:17:01 PM PST by Rummyfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: reflecting

Funny. That's exactly what I was doing. Stating a fact.


224 posted on 02/16/2006 1:21:37 PM PST by i_dont_chat (I defend the right to offend!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 221 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
I would agree that the Olympic Winter Games jumped the shark with the inclusion of all the X-Games crap.

Moguls, freestyle, half-pipe? What the heck is all that? Skiing should consist of the downhill, giant slalom, and slalom. Period. The rest is inflation for broadcast purposes.

225 posted on 02/16/2006 1:21:42 PM PST by Rummyfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: af_vet_rr

Regardless, he chose a moronic way of making his point. I wish people like Gumbel could say their points and be done with it. He doesn't like the Winter Games. Simple as that. Big deal. One either likes the Olympics, and doesn't care what he has to say about them, or dislikes the Olympics, in which case I don't see the point of all the ranting and railing, since it's easir to just not watch them.

He tries to get some wit out of that or make a statement, and he makes an idiot at best out of himself.


226 posted on 02/16/2006 1:24:12 PM PST by baseballfanjm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986
Skiing and figure skating are expensive sports requiring more equipment and/or individual coaching.

True generally but not one hundred percent. Bill Johnson, the first American to win the downhill gold, grew up poor and virtually on his own. Bode Miller also comes from a lower middle class background. However, the skaters, Kwan and Lipinski and the girl from 1992, Kristi Yamaguchi, got a lot of parental support for the training and competition.

227 posted on 02/16/2006 1:32:43 PM PST by Rummyfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986
So far I've seen a grand total of about 15 seconds of Olympic coverage...bigots like Gumbel will inspire me to keep it that way.
228 posted on 02/16/2006 1:43:40 PM PST by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: radiohead
(plus, I miss John Candy)

Me too. UNCLE BUCK was my favorite....

229 posted on 02/16/2006 1:45:28 PM PST by Rummyfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 203 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986
Meanwhile here's a pic from Gumbel's glass house...BG and his second wife.


230 posted on 02/16/2006 1:47:58 PM PST by Graymatter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986

Bryant Gumbel: "The Bill Clinton of the Media"

http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/A3115_0_2_0_C/


231 posted on 02/16/2006 1:50:50 PM PST by Graymatter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Heatseeker

I'm glad you brought up Debi Thomas. I was just thinking about her the other night and couldn't recall her name. I believe that when she was skating Revlon learned she wasn't sponsored and became her sponsor.


232 posted on 02/16/2006 1:59:54 PM PST by radiohead (Hey Kerry, I'm still here; still hating your lying, stinking guts, you coward.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 216 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986
"GOP's Swann Song " IBD; Section: Issues & Insights

Date: 2/13/2006

With the withdrawal of Bill Scranton, former Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver Lynn Swann was expected over the weekend to receive the endorsement of GOP leaders to be the party's nominee for governor of Pennsylvania against incumbent Democrat Ed Rendell.

Swann, who played for the Steelers from 1974 to 1983 and helped lead them to their first four Super Bowl victories, joins Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also running for governor, and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, running for the U.S. Senate, as candidates who have Democrats worried that a key part of their base - a part taken for granted - is now in play.

"These are not throwaway candidates in states where the GOP has no chance of victory," says Dick Morris, political guru and former adviser to President Clinton. "These are real candidates, chosen where there were plenty of white alternatives, that are en route to their party's nomination, with real chances to win."

Steele hopes to be the first black GOP senator since Massachusetts' Ed Brooke in 1967 became the first African American to join the world's greatest deliberative body since Reconstruction.

There, Steele would steal some of the spotlight from Illinois Democrat and media darling Barack Obama.

Swann and Blackwell hope to become the first black governors of either party - ever.

The candidacies of these three men belie the stereotype of a GOP as a group of racist conservatives who most recently ignored poor blacks in New Orleans and who, as NAACP Chairman Julian Bond recently put it, "would have the American flag and swastika standing side by side."

Democrats know that Republican outreach increased President Bush's share of the black vote from 8% in 2000 to 12% in 2004, dooming John Kerry's candidacy and helping expand a Senate majority that gave us Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Sam Alito. Addressing an NAACP audience last fall, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said, "If you give us a chance, we'll give you a choice."

Blackwell, a former college football star who stands 6 foot 5 in his stocking feet, is a true fiscal and cultural conservative in the mold of Ronald Reagan. He rejects the victimology espoused by many black leaders such as Bond. Instead, he champions things such as school choice and lower taxes as providing the growth and opportunity that blacks and all Americans need.

Steele, a Catholic who once trained for the priesthood, joined the Republican Party after being inspired by Reagan's failed 1976 presidential bid. At the GOP convention in 2004, Steele demonstrated that he has charisma, warmth and a keen grasp of public policy He has already won statewide in Maryland, as has Blackwell in Ohio.

Now Democrats face not only Steele and Blackwell, but Swann as well. Their possible victories and the prospect of a presidential run by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has Democrats afraid, very afraid, that playing the race card will no longer pay off.

If the black vote is genuinely in play come November, American politics and society will be changed forever - for the better.

233 posted on 02/16/2006 2:05:54 PM PST by alrea
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986

Gumbel is an ass, but the Winter Olympics is idiotic.


234 posted on 02/16/2006 2:50:05 PM PST by presidio9 ("Bird Flu" is the new Y2K Virus -Only without the inconvenient deadline.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Finalapproach29er

Gumbel played hockey in college, believe it or not. That's the winter sport I watch.


235 posted on 02/16/2006 2:54:38 PM PST by TroutFishingInAmerica ("I remember, with particular amusement, men in three-cornered hats, fishing in the dawn")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986
a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.

A paucity of brains that makes Bryan Gumball look like a raisin in a bowl of oatmeal.

236 posted on 02/16/2006 3:28:42 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: baseballfanjm
He tries to get some wit out of that or make a statement, and he makes an idiot at best out of himself.

Exactly - I've watched his show here and there, and he blew an incredibly huge opportunity.

Rather than play the race card, he could have had a whole show devoted to "should sports that are judged be considered a sport or be ranked besides sports that are measured with points or stopwatches or some other tangible method".

Hell, he could have filled a two hour show discussing just that one issue, and could have gotten plenty of big names involved.

He went into "open mouth, turn off brain" mode instead.
237 posted on 02/16/2006 4:57:46 PM PST by af_vet_rr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 226 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986
Stupid is as Stupid Does


238 posted on 02/16/2006 5:11:13 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Ok, I'm a white guy and I'll say it! The NBA is anti-white! The NFL is anti-white! Major league baseball is anti-white! They're all racists!


239 posted on 02/16/2006 5:20:23 PM PST by Doc Savage (Of all these things you can be sure, only love...will endure.......................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Airborne1986

I don't call him Bryant Dumbel for nothing.


240 posted on 02/16/2006 5:21:25 PM PST by DarthVader (Conservatives aren't always right , but Liberals are almost always wrong.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260261-271 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson