My Tuesday column elaborates on a post from yesterday:
Early last month, during an NBC Sports football telecast, legendary sportcaster Bob Costas reacted to the murder-suicide perpetrated by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher by delivering a brief yet incisive editorial warning of the dangers of the American gun culture. Naturally, the gun culture, and especially the psychotic gun fetishist Ted Nugent, lost its collective shpadoinkle and retaliated with furious anger until Costas retracted his remarks.
I don't think he should have backpedaled, of course, but he's in a tight spot in which his job is to appeal to the broadest audience possible and political statements, however true, tend to be greeted badly by the half that disagrees with the statements.
So if sports and politics aren't supposed to cross their streams, why on Earth would NBC Sports sponsor the largest gun show in the world, and in the wake of not just the Jovan Belcher story, but obviously the Oregon mall shooting and the Sandy Hook massacre? By the way, you read it correctly: the biggest gun show in the world. [continue reading]