And now…sports.
The “woke” wave that has become a staple of the American Left has been damaging all sorts of American institutions from journalism to the police to the once routine of peaceful protests. Now the target is sports – and being woke is doing real damage to this once revered American institution.
Here’s the headline from over at Breitbart:
Ratings Crash for NBA, MLB After Protest-Filled Debuts
The story says this:
“As the NBA and MLB return from their coronavirus-imposed hiatus, it appears TV viewers are not interested in what the increasingly woke leagues have to offer.
With both baseball and basketball draped in all sorts of Black Lives Matter and social justice symbolism for their opening games, a substantially smaller number of fans tuned-in to the rest of the week’s games.”
The article gets into the weeds of the numbers, but suffice to say they are abysmal if you are in any way professionally connected to either league or any of its teams.
The question is… why? And no, it isn’t the virus that’s responsible for this precipitous ratings drop. The answer is obvious: Woke, far-left wing politics.
This exact problem has been focused on repeatedly over the years by once-NFL enthusiast Rush Limbaugh. Said Rush on Monday, bold print supplied:
“So, folks, it is clear the American people, a majority, have no interest in watching something with BLM all over the pitcher’s mound, Black Lives Matter all over the signage in ballparks. They don’t want to tune in and watch a bunch of players kneeling during the American national anthem. They just don’t want to see it.
And I hope the people in the NFL are watching this. I doubt it because I think Twitter runs American sports now. I think Twitter and Nike are running professional sports. We know they’re running the NBA, and we know that China is running the NBA. The NBA is in bed — Nike and China is who the NBA I think considers their loyalties to be aimed at.
But I’m telling you these ratings crashes have nothing to do with the fact there aren’t any fans in the stadiums. The American people just don’t want to be preached to by a Marxist, pro-communist organization while they are trying to get enthused and excited about the return of major league professional sports. It’s not complicated to understand at all.”
Exactly.
For the life of me I cannot understand why those running sports teams have let themselves be essentially bullied into plunging their teams into hot button political issues – and only selective and leftist issues at that.
To see how this game really works, the other day some students showed up in Washington, DC – where Mayor Muriel Bowser had made it abundantly clear she thought street murals were just fine by having “Black Lives Matter” painted on a main DC thoroughfare. So the students – they would be called Students for Life – showed up outside of a DC Planned parenthood Office. Here is the headline from CNS News:
Students for Life Activists Arrested for Chalking ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ Outside of D.C. Planned Parenthood
The group sent a letter explaining what they would be doing to Mayor Bowser. It read in part:
“Having opened the streets of your city for public expression, Students for Life of America (SFLA) and The Frederick Douglass Foundation (FDF) requests the opportunity to add our voices to those concerned about the treatment of people of color in America. Black Lives do matter, born and preborn, as too many people are lost in America today from causes that should be addressed and prevented for their disproportionate impact on minority communities….”
There was also a separate statement by SFLA Executive Vice President Tina Whittington, which said in part:
“We know from Planned Parenthood’s racist founder Margaret Sanger that ending black lives was a goal of the organization, and given the placement of Planned Parenthood abortion vendors and their marketing campaigns, that practice continues. But pro-life people in Washington, D.C. and across the country want to make it clear that every life matters and deserves a future.”
And….for saying and doing this, the students were…arrested.
Now. Can you imagine if, instead of being students, these kids were athletes playing for the NBA or MLB? Can you imagine if someone walked out onto a basketball court or baseball diamond with ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ emblazoned on their jerseys or on the pitchers mound of a baseball game?
Of course you can. You know that this would never, ever be allowed to happen. It’s OK to kneel for the national anthem in protest – but to stand up to protest the abortions of black babies? There is not a prayer this would be allowed.
America’s sports fans are not dummies. They aren’t stupid. They know the game being played here – and it isn’t basketball or baseball.
So…they refuse to turn on the television and watch.
Good for them.
