Friday, October 07, 2011

Are you ready for some football?

I'd understand the banishment of Hank Williams, Jr. if there was some even handedness in the exile of celebrities. Keith Olberman remained on NBC football telecasts long after he has said some of the most stupid and offensive things to be heard outside Pacifica and Air American. Janeane Garafolo, Bill Maher, Kanye West. All of these people remained in polite society. I could go on.

The other thing I dislike about the affair is the inability of the chattering mob to think critically. Williams was not comparing Obama to Hitler. He was just trying to suggest two diametrically opposed figures whose cooperation seemed to him as unlikely as between the President and Speaker of the House.

Of course, the analogy was stupid. While we thing that the divide between Democrats and Republicans is enormous, it's nothing like the existential divide between the Nazis and the Jews. But Williams is a singer not a scholar and artists are often only lightly tethered to the real world.

So, yeah, I'm ready for some football. I might really be ready for some football by tomorrow. I am foolishly optimistic about the Packer game. 44-27.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

After the way ESPN treated Rush for his harmless, if stupid, comments about McNabb a few years back, the network's commitment to its wingnut celebrities is obviously in question here. It's astonishing that they can't stand by their people and take the heat from the liberal media.

GB 55, ATL 21

krshorewood said...

You know Rick with freedom comes responsibility, something the right wing crows about when it comes to the things you cherish, like knuckling under the demands of your boss. But you seem to overlook that when it comes to what you say or when it comes to guns, what you spray.

Rick Esenberg said...

I hadn't recalled arguing that persons are legally required to "knuckle under" to their boss or free to shoot whomeever they want. Perhaps you can provide a citation?

Jeff Simpson said...

I know that actual research is not high on the list of the right wing cheddarsphere, but just an FYI Maher WAS fired and was off TV for awhile before he moved to HBO.

For the record, I think the person who should have been fired was whoever made the decision to keep using a 30 year old song as the intro and not come up with a fresh idea every year.