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Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has taken to the defense of ESPN MLB analyst Curt Schilling after the former World Series MVP tweeted out something he shouldn’t have, comparing Muslims to Nazis.
In a post on Facebook, Palin called out ESPN for being a “journalistic embarrassment” and saying the network has “zero credibility.” Here is her post in full:
ESPN IS A JOURNALISTIC EMBARRASSMENT
ESPN – what happened to you? Your intolerant PC police are running amok and making a joke out of you!
By picking and choosing who they’ll tolerate and who they’ll try to destroy, ESPN has zero credibility as a sound and reasonable media outlet. They suspended former major league great Curt Schilling because of his tweet:
“Only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?”
ESPN reacted about as fast as a Schilling pitch, wimpering, “Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective. We have removed him from his current assignment… pending further consideration.”
Two points — well, three, because Curt’s a pretty conservative/independent guy.
One — there’s been crude, rude bile spewing from the once-great sports network for years now. Trust me. I know. My name and reputation’s been in it. One ESPN affiliate’s on-air rant featuring their misogynist, animalistic “analysts” grunting and giggling through an entire x-rated celebration of violence against women didn’t even draw a chirp from ESPN’s wussified leaders. Look it up; I don’t want to have to recount it. ESPN radio affiliate in Las Vegas got its kicks out of convicted rapist Mike Tyson describing the next rape he’d want to see. (Warning, graphic language throughout that Sept. 20, 2011 broadcast.)
Two — Schilling’s tweet — was he wrong? No! In fact his stats were too generous in estimating Muslims’ attitudes. Reports show it’s 88% of Egyptian Muslims favoring DEATH for anyone who leaves Islam. The majority of Muslims in many other places share the sentiment. In America, these views could be correctly described as “extreme.”
The difference between Hitler’s army and the genocidal maniacs of ISIS is that the jihadists don’t have as much power… yet.
By denying the accuracy of Schilling’s tweet, ESPN shows its weakness as it buys into the propaganda of ISIS and other terror organizations, helping mislead the public about the very real threat of terrorism. It shows once again that ESPN would rather concentrate on liberal global politics instead of report well on our beloved sports.
From those of us who used to LOVE the network (to the point of addiction, some would confess!), I say to ESPN — you are awful in this. Stick to sports.
Gotta love the classic “stick to sports” line at the end.
Palin was referencing a 2011 ESPN Las Vegas interview with Mike Tyson in one of her points, where Tyson took several shots at Palin and made several offensive comments. Tyson went way overboard in a lot of ways in that particular interview, no doubt, but using that as an example of why Schilling shouldn’t have been suspended doesn’t really make any sense.
Schilling for his part, has since apologized.
I for one, am just disappointed that Keith Olbermann no longer works for ESPN, because his response to all of this (and Palin’s inevitable response to the response) would have been must-see-TV.