Why the US Congress Should Revoke ESPN's License to Broadcast

I have just about had it with ESPN. 

On one hand, I can imagine that ESPN employs respectable people, yet the big picture of ESPN is that ESPN is nothing more than propaganda that only serves to divide people in many ways, including racial lines.

ESPN is nothing more than yellow journalism and not in a harmless or entertaining way.

On one hand, you'll get hacks that laugh at distraught fans (see, College GameDay); on the other hand you'll get more hacks that washed out from some school yet somehow insinuate themselves into places that they don't belong (see, cast of Around The Horn ).

Ooh, but we should feel badly about ourselves because we aren't puppets that, "get to" be on the flickering idiot box, believing that the job is inherently a higher plane of intelligence.

It seems fitting that the former host of SportsCenter would be Keith Olbermann, whom is one of the most divisive names in the mainstream media.  Olbermann even called ESPN a "Godforsaken place," and later backed down from his criticism and shouldered the blame in an article called, "Mea Culpa."

I wonder how many pellets they had to feed to Olbermann for him to cave.  But don't get me wrong, Bill O'Reilly has been just as bad, but Olbermann relates to ESPN.

ESPN has stooped to a new low.  One of the few shows on ESPN that may have had a scintilla of integrity, Outside the Lines, has now engaged in a hit piece against Raiders coach Tom Cable, in which his ex-wife and former girlfriend accuse Cable of repeated abuse.

This hit piece by ESPN is transparent.  The sports media has already allowed for Randy Hanson to defame Coach Cable with bunk accusations of assault. 

Now, with egg on their face, because you know, they aren't journalists, columnists, or even sufficient critics, they have decided that it would be prudent to report this junk about Cable after ESPN refused to report the civil charges of rape against Ben Roethlisberger.

For years, ESPN refused to investigate the problem of steroids in baseball, only to allow their job to be dumped on the US Congress.

ESPN refused to investigate Spygate.  ESPN refused to investigate the veracity of accusations against Pacman Jones and thus allowed Commissioner Goodell to in effect end the career of the troubled player for unsubstantiated accusations against him.

And yet, ESPN will report this nonsense that was never reported to law enforcement or any other agency.

Why?  Because the one incident against Cable was 20 years ago.  Cable admittedly slapped his wife on the face in anger, because he learned that she had been adulterous.  Cable openly regrets what happened and has stated that he has regretted ever since.

Yet, ESPN in their malice has decided that they need to cover their rears after giving a forum to Randy Hanson and picking on that story like vultures.

ESPN has shown over the course of the years to engage in malicious attacks against the Raiders organization, including Bill Plaschke of Around the Horn and Jay Mariotti of the same show.

In August, the Pittsburgh native, Mariotti would even refer to the legendary organization as a "God-awful franchise," and that Cable should be suspended and that Al Davis should "vanish."

While Plaschke openly used his time on ATH to call for the suspension of Cable even after the Napa County DA announced that there would be no charges against Cable for assault, and that Hanson had broken his jaw after falling backwards in his chair, because he had his feet on the table.

Even Tony Kornheiser of Pardon the Interruption asserted that the witnesses "may have" been intimidated, which is a ridiculous assertion and effectively questions the integrity of the Napa County DA. 

Had the Napa County DA believed that intimidation was occurring, the DA surely would have investigated.

Kornheiser has also admitted to his "East Coast bias" when talking about how much he loves the match-up between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies.

It is clear to me that ESPN is trying to get Cable suspended with their horrid accusations that have no credibility, because ESPN did not confront Cable about the story before it aired.  And that ESPN is doing so, because of malicious intent against the Raiders.

Why do I think that?  Because they exposed their own hypocrisy.

Perhaps then, this is not about the Raiders per se, but about an "East coast bias" that tries to undermine the efforts of teams not on the East coast or the Eastern time zone.

In a memo to ESPN employees, ESPN’s senior vice president and director of news, Vince Doria, confirmed that he issued a memo that ordered ESPN employees to not report the charges of rape made by the Nevada woman on that grounds that it would damage the reputation of Ben Roethlisberger.

Said Doria, “Those are the things that I think are damaging to reputations, and I think you need to know more about them before you report them.  As it stands right now, today, we don’t think it meets our standard of reporting.’’

Yet, ESPN will report unsubstantiated claims of abuse by Tom Cable?  How does that meet their "standards of reporting?"

Clearly, ESPN is not a news organization.  It is yellow journalism that merely seeks to divide people, even if along racial lines. 

ESPN more than any other network, I believe, is responsible for the fact that this country is still divided racially.  People still can't emphasize with people of another race. 

Why?  Because networks like ESPN propagate the idea that everyone should want to do what they do, or to be in sports.  And when they fail to reach their dream, they blame someone else ... usually someone of a different race.

Thus, I would like to see the US Congress and FCC investigate whether they should remove ESPN's license to broadcast. 

ESPN clearly does not belong on the air.

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