The Eagles – Redskins game just completed, Cris Collinsworth commented how difficult the week had been for Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb during the “week of Rush Limbaugh “ as he termed it.
All during the game Collinsworth made tangential references to L’Affaire Limbaugh. At the end of the game he finally said, “ after all the progress we have made why would anybody want to take us back.”
I know exactly how Cris feels.
I felt the same way when I heard that, according to some reports, Donovan McNabb apparently felt the Eagles would have paid him more if he were white.
I felt the same way when Chicago Cubs Manager Dusty Baker recently said that blacks play better in warm weather and whites in cold weather.
I felt the same way when I read a column in the San Francisco Chronicle that said the 2002 U.S. Winter Olympics team was 95 percent white and not diverse enough.
I felt the same way when I read that in 1995 Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon applauded NFL star Kellen Winslow for making a political speech during his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Winslow condemned Justice Clarence Thomas for opposing racial quotas.
I felt the same way when I heard Jesse Jackson’s comment about the hiring of Dennis Erickson as coach of the San Francisco 49er's. Jackson said, "While Erickson may be a fine coach, his hiring is indicative of the NFL's history of recycling White coaches and affording them two and three chances to be head coaches, while Black coaches continue to wait in the wings for opportunities to succeed or fail." (Incidentally, Rush Limbaugh during his very first appearance on the ESPN Countdown TV show said that the Erickson hiring might be an example of how African – American coaches may be used as pawns by white NFL owners. Limbaugh said that two African – American coaches were interviewed with much publicity. Yet Erickson was hired and nobody even knew that San Francisco was interested in him as coach. Of course none of this was ever mentioned by the sportswriters who vilified Limbaugh).
I know how Cris Collinsworth feels. I can understand that he wants race not to be included in sports or in society. Yet it is. However, before Collinsworth can unctuously condemn Limbaugh for an impolitic and boring remark, he must evaluate his colleagues. Are sportswriters liberal? I never thought them to be. I always believed sportswriters to be apolitical. However, after this week I must say that opinion has changed.
The wholesale invective directed towards Limbaugh and the similarity of the diatribes lead me to believe they are ideologically – if not politically – kindred spirits. At least in two instances I can verify that they are obtaining their information about Limbaugh from the same sources. It is a liberal source with a vendetta against Limbaugh.
Collinsworth should know that the media is liberal. There are anecdotal, empirical, and scholarly studies that indicate this.
One example is the May 22, 2003 memo Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll sent to the writers of the LA Times. He was “concerned about the perception---and the occasional reality---that the Times is a liberal, "politically correct" newspaper.” The article he referenced was about abortion. He felt it promoted the pro-abortion perspective. One example was that the Times‘ article seemed to believe that, “the scientific argument for the anti-abortion side is so absurd that we don't need to waste our readers' time with it.“
Carroll wrote, “I'm no expert on abortion, but I know enough to believe that it presents a profound philosophical, religious and scientific question, and I respect people on both sides of the debate. A newspaper that is intelligent and fair-minded will do the same.“
Just as Carroll said about abortion one would trust that the sportswriters of America know that they are no experts on solving racial prejudice. They would know that there are profound philosophical and even religious differences about how to accomplish that noble objective. Unfortunately they seem more inclined to label anyone who does not share their politics or ideology a racist. They would rather demonize people than debate them.
Whether he realizes it or not L’Affaire Limbaugh is exactly what Collinsworth was talking about. He just does not understand that it is not Limbaugh who is being a Neanderthal it is his journalistic colleagues.