The College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and Notre Dame, postponed from New Year’s Day to yesterday afternoon because of the deadly terrorist attack on Bourbon Street began with a solemn rendition of the National Anthem, a moment of silence, and a defiant crowd chant of “USA! None of this was deemed worthy of broadcasting by the main platform for the event on cable, ESPN. After all, they had ads to sell.
ESPN cut to a commercial break as the moment of silence began, and deliberately—don’t buy the narrative that it was inadvertent—chose not to let the national audience see the emotional prelude to the game including the “U.S.A!” eruption from the crowd. Disney and ESPN are so blinded by their institutional wokeness that they couldn’t recognize that the pre-game ceremonies had cultural and societal significance.
Whitney Houston’s soaring rendition of the National Anthem at the 2001 Super Bowl was more memorable and important than the game that followed, and so was the crowd reaction to the song in the wake of the Twin Towers attack. The Boston Red Sox ceremony honoring the dead and maimed after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 was covered on Boston’s sports network, including David Ortiz’s now immortal outburst, “This is our fucking city!” How hard could it have been for Disney’s lackeys at ESPN to recognize that what would come before this latest sporting event following a terrorism tragedy would be not just newsworthy but inspiring?
Too hard, apparently: too hard for Disney’s hard left ideologues and propagandists who see the National Anthem as a salute to fascism and expressions of patriotism as deplorable. Fox News snarked, and appropriately so, “Too bad the players didn’t kneel during the anthem in the name of Black Lives Matter. ESPN would surely have shown that, as it did during the NBA playoffs in 2020.”
Bart Marcois, a deputy assistant secretary of energy during the Bush II administration, posted on Twitter/X: “ESPN made a deliberate choice to hide the national anthem and moment of silence at the Sugar Bowl. Why, ESPN?”
Oh, isn’t it obvious why?
Author and journalist Raymond Arroyo posted on X: “This was a travesty that ESPN skipped one of the most moving and nationally significant moments of the Sugar Bowl. The anthem and moment of silence at the Dome was beautiful.”
It’s not beautiful to a whole, poisoned, anti-American segment of the population, which expressly rejects American pride and exceptionalism. Disney, which under the leadership of its founder once saw its role as a herald of the best of Western culture, now seeks to reject it. Patrick Magee, sports editor at The Times-Picayune and The New Orleans Advocate, tweeted: “ESPN not showing the national anthem before the Sugar Bowl is a bit surprising.”
It is not surprising at all. Where once showing the anthem before broadcast games was the norm and virtually automatic, it is the exception now. The public can turn back the clock on this elimination of a unifying tradition if it wants to: all we have to do is make certain that whatever company whose commercial takes the place of the National Anthem loses sales as a result. Problem solved. President Trump could probably make it happen with a simple line in the State of the Union.
And he should.
Ethics Alarms 
This is ESPN adjacent since Disney owns ABC.
Disclaimer – I don’t watch broadcast or cable TV generally since 99% is complete garbage. However, I did start watching the ABC show The Rookie on Hulu only because I’m a fan of Nathan Fillion’s work. As a side note; Jack, I don’t know if you’ve ever watched this show but every episode contains at least one or more ethical dilemmas that you may enjoy.
While I’m only into the second season, hoping that it gets better, I’ve noticed some not-so-subtle biases or outright propaganda items. These include:
1. The police are super-super-super people, always caring deeply for the citizens and always acting in altruistic ways.
2. The really bad characters/villains are white.
3. The bad guys very often have automatic weapons, aka assault rifles, while the police typically only have their duty pistols. If the number of crimes committed in real life with automatic weapons were anywhere near what occurs on this show, I’d think we were living in the middle East. And the gun fight scenes are almost comical in that bullets don’t penetrate car doors, interior walls, and similar items that in the real world, offer no protection at all.
Maybe I’ve been subjected to so much DEI over the years that I’m actually seeing these as micro-aggressions (sarcasm alert) instead of a TV show trying to accurately show life in L.A.
I too am a fan of The Rookie (and of Nathan Fillion ever since Firefly) and I’m going to disagree a bit, at least on the details. I’ve watched the entire series so far since it first aired, and I don’t think it’s as bad as you say.
The police are portrayed as good people, but that should stand to reason since they are the protagonists of the show and we are meant to like them and identify with them. Even then, there are instances of vulnerability and of course the ethical dilemmas you mention. Plus there’s Smitty. (For those who don’t know, he’s a sort of “token” lazy cop who isn’t dishonest but tries to do as little actual work as he can get away with.)
There’s also an ongoing story line in a later season about a racist cop. I honestly didn’t think it was all that good since the cop was more of a caricature of a racist cop than someone who felt like a real person (though it was interesting to see Brandon Routh NOT play a squeaky-clean character for once). I chalk it up to the fact that it’s a cop show and some hand-waving to George Floyd had to be done. Also, behind the scenes, one of the black actors left the show after that season because, as the story goes, he wanted to do a LOT more stories about racism and the producers did not. Make of that what you will.
The worst villains that span multiple episodes do include hispanics and two very notable women.
I have seen the police break out heavier weaponry in situations where it’s a known fire-fight in progress, and a few instances where one character will use a sniper rifle. That said, it makes sense to me that the police would only carry normal pistols in day-to-day situations, and that it would be all they have on hand when shooting breaks out unexpectedly.
Having said all that, I do NOT disagree with you on principle. It’s ABC/Disney, it’s made in Hollywood and even takes place in downtown Los Angeles, and it’s a police drama–not a forensics procedural–where the cops are the “good guys”. I’m sure there’s a LOT of pressure to “woke” it up whenever they can (e.g. the first season police captain is a woman and thereafter is a black man).
Despite that, I think the show walks a fine line without going too far, excepting the bit I mentioned above with Brandon Routh. Keep watching it.
–Dwayne
Thanks for the insight (and spoilers!). I’ll keep watching.
Jack, after starting the henceforth intro to Curmie’s Conjectures, I thought I might cheer you up by commenting here.
I can’t speak for others, but my reaction was a figurative shrug. ABC/Disney may have deliberately avoided the chants of “USA! USA! USA!” from the fans, the National Anthem, & the Moment of Silence for those killed & maimed in a terrorist attack just 48 hours prior in the same city as the Sugar Bowl…but I think the Julie Principle applies here.
The attacks weren’t (yet) deemed to have been carried out in furtherance of “white supremacy” so ABC/Disney didn’t know how to cover it. The AUC had already assigned blame to the pickup truck, making the fans’ conduct during the pregame show incidental and unrelated to the attack; no need to cover whatever extraneous behavior exhibited by the crowd.
If president-elect Trump had been in New Orleans at the time of the attack and a gender-fluid person was injured, ABC/Disney would have likely talked over the Moment of Silence, the Star-Spangled Banner, & the chants rather than cut to commercial.