Cynical Nation

The only thing that generated a buzz out of this year's Winter Olympics were Bryant Gumble's comments:

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them. In fact, I figure that when Thomas Paine said that “these are the times that try men’s souls,” he must’ve been talking about the start of another Winter Olympics. Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too.

Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing.

So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the winter games look like a GOP convention.

Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won.

And try to blot out all logic when announcers and sportswriters pretend to care about the luge, the skeleton, the biathlon and all those other events they don’t understand and totally ignore for all but three weeks every four years.

Face it — these Olympics are little more than a marketing plan to fill space and sell time during the dreary days of February. So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."

Hey, I liked Mannix...

Gumbel's idiotic and racial commentary was, of course, ignored by the MSM.

Was anybody surprised?

Earth to arrogant twit: the term 'greatest athletes' was used to describe those who compete in the events.

I would assume that Gumbel would also extend this description to Summer Olympic events such as Greco-Roman wrestling, kayaking, archery, crew and yacht racing, fencing, and numerous others where there are no African-American champions much less competitors.

Does it bother him that Norway, Switzerland and Austria do not have Olympic basketball teams?

Somehow, I would doubt it.

The only problem I have with announcers making such comments is the obvious and ridiculous double standard.

Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, Al Campanis and even Rush Limbaugh never should've been fired for what they said. In fact, only Limbaugh's critique of McNabb was factually wrong (calling him a mediocre talent - he's not, he's very good), though TO has recently said far worse about McNabb.

People have a right to be offended and to offend - that's the basis for free speech. Only offensive and unpopular speech NEEDS a First Amendment!

Ironically enough, the MSM actually endorses a QT kind of white supremacy with that double standard, as it implies, "Whites should know better, but we can't expect that much from blacks."

It's the subtle race bigotry that pervades virtually all of white Liberalism, that paternalistic faux fondness for that "handicapped child," called non-whites.

Good points, JMK.

Bush (!) actually spelled it out for what it is when he called it 'the soft bigotry of low expectations.'