When working on my last story, I came across a different article on CNN that piqued my interest: Ex-MLBer says He Still Supports Trump. I was a sucker and clicked on Bleacher Report and, of course, it's Curt Schilling. You can read Schilling's MLB biography online, he was one hell of a pitcher, but we're going to start with the Curt Schilling Story from April of 2016.
Curt Schilling, while employed by ESPN, shared a post on Facebook in relation to the Transgender Bathroom issue in North Carolina. ESPN deemed the post offensive and terminated him. As a free speech site, we should have said something at the time, but we didn't. I don't know if we missed it, or if it was buried under something else, or if I was ranting about soccer. Point is, ESPN took little heat, citing Schilling's repeated "abuses" of social media, including comparing extremist Muslims to Nazis and saying H. Clinton should be in jail.
Now, everything he said leaned to the Right. Way Right in some cases, but nothing I haven't heard before, and nothing so-whack job conspiratory that I questioned his sanity. ESPN had a right to fire him, but they shouldn't have. Why? Because ESPN is a sports network. Curt Schilling gave good insight into baseball and his personal political leanings should have been a moot point.
But they weren't. Far from it. With the events of Charlottesville still on the tip of everyone's tongue, I went to ESPN to escape from reality a bit and read about football or soccer. I shouldn't have been, but I was stunned by what I saw, so I did a screen grab:
R - The Story Leans Right /// L - The Story Leans Left
The main story is Jameis Winston on Hard Knocks: Okay, I guess, promoting a sports-reality show.
NFLPA head: 2021 strike or lockout very likely: A story about labor relations. It has to do with sports, but did they interview an owner? No, the executive of the players union. L
Durant: Won't visit White House over Trump: Hmmm. What was the score of this game? Oh, there's no game here. L
Red Sox: Yawkey Way, racist past have to go: Racism in Boston? L
Rescue group: Not giving Cards Rally Cat yet - A story from St. Louis Feral Cat Outreach? C'mon, this is too easy. L
Dungy, Tampa teams help pay to move statue: Tampa sports teams to move Confederate Statue? I think I know which way this story leans before I read it....LL
Titans' Jones fears anthem protest will cost him: Protesting the National Anthem? LLL
(Insider) McShay's 2018 NFL draft rankings: Top TEs: Real Sports. And I can't read it because I'm not paying ESPN to read a SPORTS STORY!
Again, what was the score of all the games above? No score. ALL of the top headlines were political and all of them leaned one way. Now did I say all of them were false? Absolutely not. What I am saying is, you can be political at ESPN, if you're political in the right (wait, no), LEFT way.
My personal opinion?
The NFL has the weakest union of the 4 major sports. I hope the players do strike. With all the dangers associated with football, the only one who's overpaid is the commissioner.
I live in Cleveland. I hope Durant dislocates his elbow patting himself on the back.
I've heard stories related to racism in Boston since Jim Rice. I like that John Henry waited for the political climate to change before he did the right thing. If it was the right thing, the political climate shouldn't matter, eh?
C'mon! The St. Louis Feral CAT OUTREACH?!?!?
I live in the North, I was unaware of a confederate statue in the Tampa Metroplex. To make a long story short, based on free speech issues, if you start yanking down statues, you are now crossing lines that are hard to un-cross. Namely, banning things you don't like. I don't like confederate statues, but tomorrow you could be banning stuff that I do like.
If you protest the National Anthem, but worry about it costing you money, maybe you don't quite understand how things work in the business world. Ask Curt Schilling.
I will never pay for the Insider.
If I win the Powerball on Saturday, I still ain't paying ESPN crap.
Editors Note: Originally published on 8-17-17, but when checking on some of the links, the article was accidentally re-posted to 8-19.