Hank Williams Jr. Out At ESPN [6]
To top off all of the political correctness that we have seen over the past few decades in this nation, the figure at the beginning of the Monday Night Football events is now gone. ESPN has cut their ties with Hank Williams Jr. after comments made of Fox’s Fox and Friends where Hank Williams Jr. compared Boehner playing golf with President Obama would be “like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.” When I believed political correctness and double standards could not be any more pathetic, this one comes along. ESPN has been trying to sweep this under the rug, and while the NFL will continue to be a very popular league, this will be one of those things that will be the straw that broke the camels back for at least some of those who were and still are fans of the league.
There are many reasons why this is wrong. First let me say that there are conflicting reports as to who cut ties with who in this situation. Hank Williams Jr., via a press release, has said “By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.” No matter who cut ties with who and who is trying to save face in this situation, the underlying overreaction to what what said by Williams Jr. is the real topic of conversation, something ESPN and the rest of the sports world does not want to discuss. By pulling Hank Williams Jr.’s theme from the beginning of Monday Night Football, you are not only telling others who work at ESPN to keep their political theories to themselves, but you are also telling them that a small comparison to one of the most evil men in America is strictly forbidden. While that would be fine in many circles, the comparison used here was NOT comparing President Obama to Hitler directly, but comparing the actions of playing golf with the man like the Israeli Prime Minister playing with Hitler. The two are opposites, and that was the point of what Williams Jr. was trying to get across. The fact that ESPN and the rest of the media took a collective gasp when he said it does not mean he was comparing Obama to Hitler, because he was not.
More than that, though, is how the media has reacted to this. It seems to me that the media really went after Hank Williams Jr. pretty hard for what he said, yet there are people on the Left who make comments about Republican Presidents that are far worse, and they never get the media attention. How many of you remember the MSM covering Bill Maher in 2005 when he referred to Laura Bush as “Hitler’s dog” (Newsbusters [7]). Is Bill Maher still on television? Does he still go out and make a fool out of himself while making comments like this? Why was this not covered by the media and was the Maher not forced to apologize for his comments and lose his show? We saw none of this with him and his comments, and those are not the only ones we have heard from popular television personalities over the years about President Bush. But when it comes to President Obama and a comparison taken out of context, because the man does not sympathize with a cause that he sees as beneath him he is put through the media as if he committed a crime.
I know and you know what is going on here, and I do not like it one bit. If we are going to be a fair and just society, how are we to say that one man’s comments about a different President mean less than one man’s comments about the current President, when the former comments where made when the former President was in office. We are seeing so many similarities here, yet the only ones to stand up for Hank Williams Jr. are those who not only love the beginning of MNF and remember it as a kid, but also see the stark realization that the media is playing favorites. You can be blind if you choose to be blind, but it is clear what has happen there would have never happened to a Bill Maher or anyone else on the Left when commenting about President Bush. Political correctness will be the demise of this society just as much as bad economic policy, because once we are afraid to speak what is on our mind we lose. This nation was built on the backs of people who had an opinion about everything, not people who shut their mouths and begged the government for handout whenever they saw fit to do so. It would be un-america to NOT say what we believe to be the truth, and this is what Hank Williams Jr. did. He did not call President Obama Hitler, as Maher called the Former First Lady “Hitler’s Dog”.
Political correctness is damaging this nation to the point where we are afraid to speak up, and that is exactly what the radical left and the media want us to be afraid of. These individuals believe we should listen to them and get our information and base our opinions off of what they say and no one else. This is why we see the President tell the people just today that if the Republicans are against his jobs plan then they must not want to see teachers go back to work. Just because I may not like the jobs plan offered does not mean I do not like school teachers, but they make that stretch because they believe you and I will cave into the pressure of supporting something that will never work. They also know that if we do not agree with them they will tell us that we do not support those in the community that may have lost their jobs, which is a bold LIE if I ever heard one in my life. The same goes with anything else in politics or the media. The situation with Hank Williams Jr. is not about the fact the he compared Boehner playing golf with President Obama like Hitler playing with the Israeli PM, this is about showing Hank Williams Jr. and the rest of us that if we ever think about making a comment like that against Obama again, then bad things will happen to the rest of us as well. If you make a comment like that at your job, you will be fired if it is a place of liberal ideology. This is the precedent this sets, and ESPN is on the wrong side of this one.
While I believe he (Williams Jr.) could have worded it a little better, he has never been one to hold back his words. Why is ti now that we ask him to do so? This is America, a nation built on debate and discourse and there is nothing wrong with comparing situations when the comparison fits! In the other situations where we have seen those on the radical Left compare Bush to Hitler, it was much more direct than this ever was. Those who are out there that side with ESPN on this were also many of those who said nothing when President Bush was being berated in the media every single day. Those of us that can look at the situation without blinders on see the double standard and are not willing to sit by and not say anything while this happens to a person who speaks his mind. if we are to be fair, HBO should fire Maher and should have done it years ago. That would be the “fair” thing to do, would it not be?
While the NFL continues to move in the wrong direction, on and off the field, the people watching and the kids who will grow up hearing some flaky personality at the beginning of MNF will never have the pleasure of seeing what all of us have seen while watching the games since the very early 1990?s. You may take Hank Williams Jr. away from football, but you will never silence the man and the media will never win when it comes to trying to get the populace to believe that not speaking and listening to those who they tell us to listen to is better than speaking our mind and telling others how we feel.
