Hawley and Woj

A US Senator sent a letter to the NBA commissioner about the statements players will be allowed to have on their jerseys.



Woj responded to the press release like this:



Woj and ESPN apologized.

I don't know what in the world Woj was thinking.

That said, I don't respect Hawley's sharing the email on Twitter.

That said, this is what happens today on Twitter. Calling people out. Cancelling. Fun stuff.

The NBA can allow or not allow what it likes on jerseys. That's the NBA's call. Anyone is free to criticize the NBA's weird friendliness toward China, too.

 

Whoever Hawley is trying to make a name for himself off the back of the NBA.

 

While I strongly disagree with what Hawley, especially his airing of his dirty laundry on Twitter, that does not excuse Woj's response.

If 99 percent of employees with the Mouse did what Woj did, gone. No questions. No hesitation.

Let's see how this plays out.

 

This is how we got into this fucking mess. Bad actors with zero interest in actually making America great again push and push and push until they get a reaction they can exploit to their idiot base of cultists in an attempt to gain power. Woj's f-bomb should have less of an impact on the decline of western civilization than Hillary accurately calling Trump voters deplorables. But this clown from Missouri--a state w/o an NBA team, last I checked--decides it's more important to bitch about NBA uniforms and atrocities going on in China instead of asking Trump about the dozens or hundreds of atrocities he's overseeing right now. Woj should have ignored him, and we should all ignore Trumpies on social media (and elsewhere) with the hopes that they'll scurry back to their holes in November. But good for Woj for telling him to fuck off.

 

Good for him.

A fascinating take on the Trump era.

Ugh. This nation really needs him to lose. A victory may put every journalistic standard we ever had on ice. Woj's two words turn Hawley into some kind of martyr.

 

I didn't say he should have, or that he's a martyr. But it's a human reaction to the shallow exploitive assholery that we've been forced to endure every day for four years now.

 

Aaaand I misread Alma's reply regarding the martyrdom. I agree with that part. My apologies.

 

Professionally speaking, should Woj have done that? No. As BYH says, ignore them all. There's no winning

He also not the one in the exchange who's a sitting U.S. senator and could actually do something about China.

Hawley would've found another thing to make himself a martyr and to tag Clay Travis about, then they could both complain about how it's the other side that cares too much about identity politics when that's all they ever talk about.

Is the NBA too deferential to China because of money? Of course. So is every other American business that does business in China (including several of the president's and his family's), but only one example helps the culture war.

 

firing offense. if it had been a blowhard commentator? borderline. but woj's job is to report, not comment. and this really puts ESPN bosses -- and their recent, sports/not politics stance -- in a vise.

unfortunately, those cheering woj on don't care about the difference between the old-line journalistic divide between a reporter and a hot-take artist; his brand will only get bigger, and if he gets fired MSNBC will hire him in a week.

 

Me neither.

Terrible judgment.

Fire him? I'm not sure.

But they'll have to suspend him without pay for a couple months.

 

Wouldn't bug me if they whacked him. They won't. The reason they won't, I suspect, is not that he may be a libruhl; it's that he's valuable.
A clash of capitalism and professionalism.

 

His apology rings hollow. He texted what he did and he meant it, and still does. The apology was just for show, as was ESPN's.