Are you ready for some Football?

[Value Buy]

msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/ESPN-pulls-intro-after-Williams-Obama-comments-100311?GT1=39002

[Value Buy]

Updated Oct 3, 2011 9:54 PM ET
BRISTOL, Conn. (AP)
ESPN pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s classic intro song from its broadcast of Monday night's NFL game after the country singer famous for the line ''Are you ready for some football?'' used an analogy to Adolf Hitler in discussing President Barack Obama.


In an interview Monday morning on Fox News' ''Fox & Friends,'' Williams, unprompted, said of Obama's outing on the links with House Speaker John Boehner: ''It'd be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.''

Asked to clarify, Williams said, ''They're the enemy,'' adding that by ''they'' he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Anchor Gretchen Carlson later said to him, ''You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president.'' Williams replied, ''Well, that is true. But I'm telling you like it is.''

''While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to 'Monday Night Football,''' the network said in a statement. ''We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast.''

Williams released a statement through his publicist, saying: ''Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme — but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president.''

ESPN did not say whether the intro, synonymous with ''Monday Night Football'' since 1989, would be used again after this week's Colts- Buccaneers game.

[Value Buy]

Channel flipping tonight, the Ed show on MSNBC was having a field day with the Tea Party over this issue with Hank Williams Jr.

[Tennesseer]

Henryclay started a thread about this an hour go.


www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=politics&action=display&thread=14942


Are you ready for some merging?

[handyman2]

Reads like he was making a joke but a dumb one.

[Bluerobin]

So much for freedom of speech!

ETA: I think it was an apt comparison to illustrate two mortal enemies. When I heard the news clip, he didn't indicate which was Hitler.

[Value Buy]

Myself, I do not have an opinion on this issue. I do not know whether ESPN is overreacting, or is correct in their suspension.
I do know it is a football game, and football is not about political correctness.
Could the few black members here, please chime in, and address the issue, and let us know how they feel about the situation?
Much ado about nothing, or a correct response from ESPN?

I know I was "ready for some football", and missed the opening song. Gets the juices flowing.....but I can go on without the song, if necessary. After all, the song is there, to entice the audience to stay enthralled with the game, hence raising ad revenues for ABC. In other words, just another advertising gimmick.......

[Waffle]

I saw a bit of the clip, it certainly didn't seem like H.W. Jr was joking. After the Hitler remark, he referred to Obama as the enemy. To me, the later press statement didn't sound anything like the man who made the Hitler remark. I think some handlers told him he needed to make that statement.

I don't like hearing the president compared to Hitler, but I'm also not particulary concerned about what H.W. Jr has to say. If ESPN hadn't pulled the song, they probably would have been accused of supporting H.W. Jr's remarks. Inadvertenly, he has put them in a bad spot.

[Bluerobin]

I thought he was referring to Boehner as Hitler.

[Tennesseer]

Oct 4, 2011 7:29:01 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Myself, I do not have an opinion on this issue. I do not know whether ESPN is overreacting, or is correct in their suspension.
I do know it is a football game, and football is not about political correctness.
Could the few black members here, please chime in, and address the issue, and let us know how they feel about the situation?
Much ado about nothing, or a correct response from ESPN?

I know I was "ready for some football", and missed the opening song. Gets the juices flowing.....but I can go on without the song, if necessary. After all, the song is there, to entice the audience to stay enthralled with the game, hence raising ad revenues for ABC. In other words, just another advertising gimmick.......

Here is the questionable quote:

"It'd be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.''

Other than the current president being black, how would black people have any greater insight into this comment than any person of another race?

Replace President Obama's name with former Presidents Clinton or Bush's name and then replace Boehner's name with former Speakers of the House Gingrich or Pelosi and you still would have the same adversarial pairs.

[Waffle]

Tennesseer

For the following statement,

"Other than the current president being black, how would black people have any greater insight into this comment than any person of another race? "

[fairlycrazy23]

Well, if ESPN had not removed the opening song, I would never have heard the quote at all.

[reformeddaytrader]

Are you ready for some Football


I prefer Faith Hill singing " Are You Ready For Some Football" rather than Hank Williams Jr ...so adios Hank you screwed the pooch once again with your off the cuff remarks

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Anyone old enough to recall when Jimmy "the Greek" was fired for making racial comments a few decades ago?

[reformeddaytrader]

Oct 4, 2011 8:50:43 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

Anyone old enough to recall when Jimmy "the Greek" was fired for making racial comments a few decades ago?

Yea and Al Campinas the GM for the Dodgers.. And Howard Cossell was also accused of being racially insensitive as well a few times but Old Howard talked his way out of it and offered a sincere apology for using the term "little monkey" to describe a black NFL football player.

[mmhmm]

That wasn't all that long ago, was it, Savoir Faire? Seems like it was in the 90s. Jimmy wasn't a racist. He just made a really stupid comment. Don't know if Hank is actually a racist; however, he sure made a stupid comment.

[reformeddaytrader]

On January 16, 1988, he was fired by the CBS network (for which he had been a regular on the NFL Today since 1976) after commenting to WRC-TV reporter Ed Hotaling in a Washington, D.C. restaurant that African Americans were naturally superior athletes at least in part because they had been bred to produce stronger offspring during slavery:



“

The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way, because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs and he's bred to be the better athlete because this goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trade'n the big… the owner… the slave owner would, would, would, would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have ah, ah big, ah big, ah big black kid see…[1]
”


According to the New York Times obituary, Snyder expressed regret for his comments, remarking: "What a foolish thing to say." While his CBS co-workers supported the decision to fire him, Irv Cross said in the "30 for 30" documentary about Snyder that he worked alongside Jimmy for a long time and never heard any racist comments nor detected any racist attitudes from him.

[Bluerobin]

Actually, I was less offended by Jimmy's remark than by Howards. At least Jimmy's had some base in actuality. Slaves were treated like animals and "bred" for size.

[mmhmm]

Thanks, rdt. I remember when poor Jimmy got the axe for that stupid comment. He really meant nothing by it. Heck, his driver was one of his best friends and the driver was a black man. Jimmy wasn't a racist, at all.

[billisonboard]

Oct 4, 2011 6:49:40 GMT -5 Bluerobin said:

So much for freedom of speech!
...

Amendment I (addendum)

American corporations shall make no business decisions based on American citizens exercising their freedom of speech.

[formerroomate99]

Honestly, we all know that Hank wouldn't have faced the same consequences if he had said the same thing about Bush or any other Republican politician.

[Tennesseer]

Oct 4, 2011 9:43:00 GMT -5 formerroomate99 said:

Honestly, we all know that Hank wouldn't have faced the same consequences if he had said the same thing about Bush or any other Republican politician.

And you determined this by reading your tea leaves this morning?

How soon some forgot the President Bush/Dixie Chicks incident.

[cme1201]

dissidentvoice.org/Articles3/Jayne_Hitler-Bush.htm



newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2009/08/13/cnn-video-2006-bush-hitler-mustache-no-outrage-called-look-alike

archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Bush%20Hitler%20Comparison

www.freedomworks.org/blog/bstein80/moveonorgs-ad-comparing-bush-to-hitler

And for me the biggest kicker.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1557447/Bush-like-Hitler-says-first-Muslim-in-Congress.html

"It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that," Mr Ellison said. "After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."

the internet is full of it's okay to say one thing to one group yet can't be turned back against that group.

People cheered and clapped and had a great time when it was GWB being made into the incarnation of evil, from Democratic Underground to Moveon.org, to the blogosphere and even in the American Congress, portraying Bush as Hitler was OKAY, now it's a sign of Racism or violent rhetoric, my how the political stage changes when your guy is in the big seat.

[thyme4change]

So much for freedom of speech!

Again, the first amendment says that the GOVERNMENT can't restrict your speech. Hank Williams Jr is not being arrested for his comment, or taken out by the CIA. He was fired from his JOB, which was provided by him by a private corporation. Private corporations are allowed to make decisions based on people's speech. Nothing in the constitution prevents that.

Would you walk up to your CEO and tell him he is a big idiot and his wife is ugly and expect to keep your job? You are free from government prosecution, not personal consequences.

Now - stop pretending you are some big constitutional scholar.

[theamazinggomez]

The hairstyles are not very similar. What was Hank trying to compare?

[Bluerobin]

Thyme, they may be able to control what you say on the job, but Hank was not on the job.
He was correct in what he said, and has every right to say it. Some of us did not misinterpret the comment. My take that he was comparing Boehner to Hitler, since Hitler also did not like blacks. He compared two symbolic mortal enemies. Very apt, if not appropriate.

[Tennesseer]

Oct 4, 2011 12:32:19 GMT -5 Bluerobin said:

Thyme, they may be able to control what you say on the job, but Hank was not on the job.
He was correct in what he said, and has every right to say it. Some of us did not misinterpret the comment. My take that he was comparing Boehner to Hitler, since Hitler also did not like blacks. He compared two symbolic mortal enemies. Very apt, if not appropriate.

Does HW Jr. collect any royalties each time 'Are you ready for some football' is played as the football game intro? If yes, he is being compensated for his work.

[thyme4change]

He absolutely had the right to say it. And ESPN absolutely had the right to terminate his contract.

Thyme, they may be able to control what you say on the job, but Hank was not on the job.

If you feel you can do whatever you want when you are "not on the job" try picketing your company on your day off.
I know someone who got fired for getting drunk while wearing a company t-shirt. It wasn't on company time, but it was expressly forbidden by company policy.

His employment is NOT protected by the first amendment. No matter what you think, the first amendment does not force private corporations to employ people who exercise their right to free speech.

When you are a public figure, everything you say is part of your "brand." If you say something, no matter how correct, or how legal it is to say, that statement can tarnish your "brand" and the people who pay for your brand can use your overall reputation as part of their decision making process. He should have known that any controversial political statement (and pretty much every statement involving the name "Hitler" is considered controversial - like it or not) will effect how his brand is perceived. ESPN doesn't want to be part of that. So, they bailed.

[Bluerobin]

Tenn, I haven't read his contract. Have you? What do his royalties have to do with free speech? He was not on the job when he said it, and should NOT be censured in any way.

[Bluerobin]

ESPN should be thankful they have any viewers for Monday Night Football. That is how pathetic their brand is. Any extra publicity should be welcomed.