This past week we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in the media.
The Good
Tom Jones, Senior Editor of The Poynter Report, writes:
Malika Andrews, host of ESPN’s new NBA show “NBA Today,” is wasting little time exerting her voice to weigh on controversial basketball topics. Hosting the “NBA Countdown” pregame show before a preseason game this week, Andrews had a strong take about Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who has not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.
Andrews said some players are saying it’s an “individual choice,” but Andrews continued by saying, “I understand in some ways taking that approach or maybe that’s just what you say facing forward, but that is the antithesis of what a pandemic is. You do not have the privilege of just looking at yourself. You have to look at the people next to you because that’s how we got to this being the most deadly pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people in the United States. That’s not all on Kyrie, but it’s on all of us to do our small part and his small part is in that locker room.”
That’s good stuff from Andrews: smart, to the point and passionate. ESPN is going to be happy with its decision to give Andrews an increased role in its NBA coverage.
Malika Andrews is the first Black female to host “The NBA Countdown,” so good for ESPN for continuing to increase diversity and good for Andrews for intelligently calling out the selfish Kyrie Irving.
The Bad
This past week was the 25th Anniversary of Fox News. Washington Post columnist Max Boot wrote on October 12:
Last week, Fox “News” Channel celebrated 25 years since its launch. More than 700,000 victims of covid-19 were not available for comment.
Oh, I’m not suggesting that Fox is responsible for all, or even most, of the covid deaths. That would be the kind of cheap shot you would expect to be aimed at the “libs” by the “fair and balanced” network. What I am suggesting, however, is that the covid death toll is higher than it would have been if Fox did not exist.
This is, after all, the most watched basic cable network in America. In September, it averaged 2.49 million viewers a night in prime time, and its impact is magnified by social media (such as Facebook), where its clips often go viral. What Fox says matters. So what has Fox been saying about the worst pandemic in a century?
From the start, Fox hosts dismissed “coronavirus hysteria,” compared the pandemic to the seasonal flu, and opposed lockdowns and social distancing. “I’m not afraid of the coronavirus, and no one else should be that afraid either,” Jesse Watters said on March 3, 2020. On March 9, Sean Hannity said: “This scaring the living hell out of people — and I see it, again, as like, ‘Oh, let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.’” On April 8, Tucker Carlson announced that the “short-term crisis . . . may have passed,” and “it hasn’t been the disaster that we feared.”
Fox News prime-time hosts continue their murderous hypocrisy by lying to their viewers about the effectiveness of vaccination while getting vaccinated themselves and complying with the Fox stringent vaccination policy. Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham should watch Malika Andrews on ESPN.
The Ugly
John Gruden. Gruden “stepped aside” as coach of the NFL Las Vegas Raiders, according to the Washigton Post “amid a burgeoning controversy over racist, homophobic and misogynistic language that he used in emails over a span of approximately seven years before he agreed to return to the NFL in 2018 as the Raiders’ coach.”
The NY Times reported:
Gruden’s departure came after a New York Times report that N.F.L. officials, as part of a separate workplace misconduct investigation that did not directly involve him, found that Gruden had casually and frequently unleashed misogynistic and homophobic language over several years to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league’s momentous changes.
He denounced the emergence of women as referees, the drafting of a gay player and the tolerance of players protesting during the playing of the national anthem, according to emails reviewed by The Times.
Tom Jones of The Poynter Report wrote:
During the “Sunday Night Football” telecast on NBC, analyst Tony Dungy said, “What Jon Gruden did in that (racist) email — definitely insensitive, definitely inappropriate, definitely immature — I thought he attacked the character of a man. But he apologized for it. He said it wasn’t racially motivated. I have to believe him. I think this was an incident that was 10 years ago. He apologized. I think we need to accept that apology and move on.”
Interestingly, Gruden replaced Dungy as head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2002 and immediately won a Super Bowl. After additional emails came to light on Monday in the Times story, many who had accepted Gruden’s initial apology, such as Dungy, were widely criticized. That led Dungy to use his Twitter feed to clarify his comments on “Sunday Night Football.”
Dungy tweeted, “On @SNFonNBC I commented on an email sent by Jon Gruden. I did not defend it. I said ‘inappropriate, immature, attack on a man’s character. Wrong!’ I did not attribute it all to racism and said given a single incident 10 yrs ago we should accept his apology and move on.”
Dungy continued, “Now more emails have come. More inappropriate, immature, wrongful attacks on the character of people from all walks of life. I don’t defend those either and given the apparent pattern of behavior the Raiders did the appropriate thing in terminating Jon Gruden.”
Dungy then concluded with, “That being said, if Jon Gruden shows TRUE remorse — and more importantly changes his mindset and actions — I would forgive him. As Christians that’s what the Bible commands us to do because that’s what God does for us. I know that’s not popular but it’s biblical.”
Dungy then posted a quote (Matthew 6:14-16) from the Bible: “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Many of Dungy’s Twitter followers responded to Dungy’s tweets, and Dungy engaged with several to share his beliefs.
Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina — who covers sports media and hosts a sports media podcast — wrote, “It does seem like Tony’s standard M.O. for any and all controversies is ‘let’s forgive.’ Well, that’s a cop-out. You can forgive, but you can also call for consequences. Every incident should be judged on its own. Sometimes a person deserves a slap on the wrist. Sometimes they deserve 24 hours of getting crap on social media. Sometimes they deserve to be fired. The blanket take on every single issue can’t be, ‘Let’s forgive and move on.’ Tony Dungy should do better and so should NBC’s studio show.”
Not surprisingly, the usual conservative middle-aged white guys — radio host Clay Travis, podcaster Matt Walsh, Donald Trump Jr., radio host Jesse Kelly and Newsmax’s Greg Kelly — took to Twitter to complain about a fellow white guy losing his job for saying a bunch of awful stuff that can’t possibly be excused or defended. Kelly called it “cancel culture (expletive)” and said Gruden was “totally screwed over,” while the others used the tired whataboutism arguments. It was all about what you would expect.
I think you can forgive someone as a person, as an individual, but not as someone who has authority over, influence over or leads others. The job of an NFL coach is not only to create offensive and defensive strategies but also to create a culture, communicate team values and motivate coaches and players, over half of whom are Black.
