When The Cowboys owner locked arms in a kneel down with his team on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, the NFL jumped the shark (see Sundance). The NFL has made its choice, delineated its stand, in the culture wars and its fans are taking notice. NFL players may have the right but that right comes with a responsibility that cannot be ignored or shirked.
Rich Lowry: No Way to Treat Old Glory – “The American flag is not to be trifled with.â€
The late political scientist Samuel Huntington marveled at its place in our national life: We pledge allegiance to it. The national anthem celebrates it. An incredibly elaborate code stipulates how it is to be displayed, handled, and maintained. It even has its own holiday.
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The NFL players who kneel during the national anthem — a phenomenon that increased exponentially after President Donald Trump colorfully demanded that they stand — are disrespecting the most potent and enduring national symbol of the most patriotic nation on Earth.
Not only are they wrong to do so, they aren’t delivering the devastating rebuke to Trump that they may imagine.
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This is why the NFL kneelers are cutting against the American cultural grain, besides picking the wrong target on the merits. The American flag isn’t a Confederate monument — indeed the opposite. Our military fights under it. The flag drapes the caskets of the fallen and is folded in a solemn ceremony at military funerals, with practically every movement fraught with religious and patriotic meaning. It is not to be trifled with — unless you intend to insult the country for which it stands. When William Driver transferred control of his flag to Union troops, he is reported to have spoken “triumphantly, with tears in his eyes.†So many years later, Old Glory still elicits the same heartfelt sentiment. May it always.
Investor’s Business Daily: NFL To Fans: Drop Dead — How’s That For ‘Lack Of Respect’? – “Whether you agree with them or not, the NFL players and the executives that run the National Football League have really stepped in it, damaging their brand and alienating millions of fans and potential fans for no real good reason.â€
Like it or not, and whether it’s fair or not, many Americans feel that professional athletes as a whole lead a privileged existence, working only part of the year and earning millions for their efforts. When they’re seen leading “protests” by disrespecting the flag and the national anthem — and all the high ideals and sacrifice those symbols represent — it’s too much.
Yes, Trump intentionally tweaked the football players on Friday, after his back-and-forth with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors led to the president disinviting them from a White House visit. Trump then turned his attention to the NFL players for “taking a knee” to protest racism.
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The NFL’s official response was pathetically tone-deaf and could have been written by the NFL players union. Heck, maybe it was.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell castigated Trump for his “divisive comments” and “an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL.”
Lack of respect for the NFL? What about respect for the nation’s flag and its anthem, and for those who died defending them and what they stand for? What about respect for your own fans, many of whom still believe that America, though not perfect, is the greatest country on Earth? It’s no wonder that many of the protests were met with a chorus of boos.
Nor is this, as many self-righteously claim, a matter of “free speech.” NFL football players have the right to express what they believe, however odious or wrong it may be. But businesses have a right not to employ those who intentionally damage their businesses by reckless behavior and comments.
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Sure, the players have a right to disrespect the flag and the anthem. As we noted, people have fought and died for those rights. But fans also have a right to be disappointed, offended and angry. Roger Goodell, the team owners and the whole NFL enterprise better wake up before it’s too late.
Douglas Ernst: Limbaugh mocks NFL national anthem protests: ‘There’s no way Donald Trump loses this’ – “Radio host: ‘The owners, as I discussed earlier, are scared to death’â€
“The left is attempting to publicly damage, take hold, whatever, of the NFL,†Mr. Limbaugh said. “And people who are not political — and there are a lot of those in this country, more than you would think — are seeing it. And they don’t like it, and now there’s a president speaking out against it. In public, it is Democrats who are now showing up to be the party supporting actions against the flag. The Democrats are being seen as the party that encourages protest against the anthem and the country itself. I’m telling you, sports media guys and gals, there’s no way Donald Trump loses this, the way you’ve got it going.â€
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“I was personally saddened,†he said. “I did not watch the National Football League yesterday, and it was the first time in 45 years that I made an active decision not to watch, including my team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.â€
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“The owners, as I discussed earlier, are scared to death, folks,†Mr. Limbaugh said. “They’ve got to come down on the side of their employees or their customers. They are trying to find this middle ground and they’re doing that with liberal political language like, ‘We’re for unity and solidarity,’ and it doesn’t fly because this isn’t unity. Nobody’s being unified. The divisiveness is happening on Sundays.â€
Ralph Z. Hallow: Sure, players can kneel — and NFL’s customers should walk – “The fabulously wealthy players who take a knee not in thanks for the privilege of being American and living in America but in disgust at both are expressing ignorance of — or disrespect for — some amazing things about America.â€
The kneelers, in what must be one of the most colossal displays of ignorance and irony on record, thumb their noses at the only nation that, thanks to its press and academics, has made too many black Americans think they have a cultural and racial right — even obligation — to resist lawful arrest and to kill law-enforcement officers for trying to carry out arrests.
Nora Princiotti: Taking on Trump: For some, president’s words could not go unchallenged – “There were twin strands of feeling intertwined in the response from most players Sunday.â€
The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech protections from the government only. The NFL, as an employer and a private company, would have the right to discipline players for acts of protest or even release them, as the president suggested. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on ABC’s This Week that players “can do free speech on their own time.â€
The NFL and its owners largely disagreed.
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The president had gone after them, their teammates and friends, and it was personal. It also served as a reminder of the power they hold as athletes to influence and to control the national conversation, so it was political too. Stick to sports is a misleading phrase. In a way, the title of the NFL’s Sunday Night Football spot was, too.
If Sunday made one thing clear, it’s that what happens inside the lines has never been separated from what goes on outside of them.
Cheryl K. Chumley: Mike Rowe’s timely reminder: Citizens true bosses of NFL – Rowe is right but misses when it comes to the President as do so many others. The President was not ordering or instructing the people, he was leading. The President was reflecting the mood of the country and where the “true bosses of NFL†stand. Rowe was disappointed at the President’s appeal because he did not realize it was made as a spokesman for the ‘true bosses’ who are also speaking in other ways as well. The President’s comments were exactly what Rowe was honoring. See also Ace on Rowe’s comments.
“I felt a similar bemusement when the commissioner issued his response, followed by the president of the player’s union,†he said. “Their comments, along with the comments of many of the players themselves, were perfectly reasonable, perfectly understandable, and perfectly in keeping with their First Amendment rights. But they were also perfectly arrogant. Because they, too, presuppose that millions of fans will continue to watch them play a game, no matter what.â€
Cheryl K. Chumley: Interior’s astonishing deep state: 30 percent ‘not loyal to the flag’ – “Ryan Zinke, secretary of the Interior Department, said that almost a third of his agency’s employees aren’t exactly President Donald Trump supporters — or fans of the American flag, for that matter.â€
It’s one thing to work in the federal government for people with whom you politically disagree. It’s another thing entirely to work in the federal government of a country you don’t entirely support.
In a different day, a different time, that’d be cause for a red flag followup from U.S. intel agents concerned about government collapse or takeover from communist-aligned enemies, or otherwise anti-American forces.
But now?
Anti-Americanism, non-patriotism — these are just modern day expressions of free speech.
Wesley Pruden mocks the President’s attention to the anti-American antics as insignificant when there’s issues like North Korea and disaster recovery. Perhaps he needs to re-think priorities? Or Perhaps he is further indication of just how deep and serious the devaluing of patriotism and loyalty really is?
What many also seem to miss in trying to find calm in stormy seas is the matter of false witness. Ed Stetzer illustrates this in wondering about what a Christian should do. There is a difference between unpopular speech and false witness that must be acknowledged by anyone parading a mantle of Christianity. See Heather Mac Donald: Hard Data, Hollow Protests – “FBI crime figures paint a very different picture of crime and policing than this weekend’s demonstrations suggest.â€
The FBI released its official crime tally for 2016 today, and the data flies in the face of the rhetoric that professional athletes rehearsed in revived Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend.
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Four studies came out in 2016 alone rebutting the charge that police shootings are racially biased. If there is a bias in police shootings, it works in favor of blacks and against whites. That truth has not stopped the ongoing demonization of the police—including, now, by many of the country’s ignorant professional athletes. The toll will be felt, as always, in the inner city, by the thousands of law-abiding people there who desperately want more police protection.
That’s the hard data. The soft data about claims of racism and oppression and other propaganda points is even worse for calling false witness on those supposedly just exercising free speech.
Richard W. Rahn: If oppression could inspire happiness – “Socialism has yet to generate the utopia it promises.â€
Why do so many embrace a system — socialism — that has always failed, whether it was a form of state socialism or the various utopian communities started in the United States and Europe over the last couple of hundred years?
We praise the benign socialism that is practiced within the family, churches, some social or civic groups where the members look out for each other in case of need. It works as long as it is voluntary and members are free to leave.
In contrast, government socialism is coercive and denies the fundamental right to opt out, no matter how repressive or incompetent it becomes.
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The takeover playbook remains the same. State socialism is incompatible with liberty — and if a majority of the people are aware of the facts, socialism loses.
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State socialism is a product of ignorance — and thrives among those who have not read history, let alone Orwell and Hayek.
Lamar Smith: Alarmism in climate reporting – “One-sided media coverage emphasizes sensation over facts.†It’s not only in the schools that the mind is prepared, it is also in the propaganda a.k.a Fake News™. It is a broad front, too.
it is rare that a day goes by without some misleading, exaggerated or flat-out false statement about climate change showing up in the media. Often, journalists knowingly publish false information with exaggerated headlines to grab readers’ attention. This strategy comes at a high cost. Trust in the media is at a record low, with only 27 percent of Americans having confidence in them. What’s more, Americans’ trust in news from the internet is at an all-time low of 16 percent.
The way the media operates today does not help increase the public’s trust. Day after day, the media publishes biased news to push a one-sided agenda. Recently, The New York Times printed a front-page, headline-grabbing story alleging that a draft climate change report had been leaked supposedly to prevent the administration from hiding it. Further investigation revealed that this draft of the report had been public for months. In an interview, multiple authors of the report said they had not heard or seen any sign of suppression or censorship by the White House.
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There seems to be a culture of relishing climate scare tactics by the media. Unfortunately, the media tries to indoctrinate Americans by limiting the news to support only the networks’ views and agendas. Because of its actions, the media perpetuates misunderstandings and the exaggerated fear of climate change. This makes for bad policy and undermines our democracy.
IBD notes another case: Media Ignore Puerto Rico Devastation, Then Blast Trump For Not Tweeting About It — Sad.
Bias: The mainstream press paid little attention to the devastation in Puerto Rico all weekend. Then they noticed that President Trump hadn’t tweeted about it since Thursday. Now that they can attack Trump, they suddenly care.
On Monday, headlines everywhere all made the same exact point
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If Trump’s obsession with tweeting about trivial matters — while his government is taking action — is an abuse of his position, isn’t the media’s obsession with the same trivial matters just as bad, if not worse?
John Hinderaker: For the White House Press Corps, Football Is Issue #1 – A press briefing story that illustrates just how corrupt the Media really is.
Reporters seem to think that Trump is vulnerable on the anthem, but I suspect that they are wrong. I think Trump speaks for most voters when he expresses disgust with pampered athletes who go out of their way to show contempt for their country. And on company time, no less.
Choose your fight. The President has shown a gift in OODA Loop tactics. (wikipedia) The turmoil in his opponents camp is primary evidence.