The Subtle Assumptions Of Bias

I won’t be watching the NFL this year. I will miss it. I really enjoy football and up until last year had an online subscription to The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Massachusetts so that I could play Beat Fearless with their sports reporter. Beat Fearless was a contest in which you matched your football picks against the sports reporter’s picks. I have t-shirts, coolers, and other items that I won by beating ‘fearless.’ I miss football, but I can’t deal with the lack of respect for the national anthem. I understand that the players have a right to protest, I just don’t think that is the place to do it. I understand that we sometimes have racial problems in this country, but disrespecting the flag does not solve those problems.

The New York Daily News posted an article today about Jim Brown. Jim Brown was a running back for the Cleveland Browns (He also showed up in the movie Mars Attacks! and did a wonderful job.) The title of the article is “Jim Brown, once a hero, maybe never should have been one.”

So what is responsible for Jim Brown’s fall from grace? Possibly the fact that he is a patriot with some common sense (and recognizes how hostile the press has been to President Trump).

The article reminds us that he is not a perfect person:

In 1965, Brown was arrested for assault and battery against an 18-year-old girl before being acquitted.

In 1968, he was charged with assault with intent to commit murder against a model – the charge was later dismissed.

In 1969, assault and battery charges were brought against him from a road rage incident, though he was found not guilty.

In 1985, he was charged with raping a woman, though the charges were dismissed.

In 1986, he was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend, but charges were later dropped.

In 1999, Brown was arrested and charged with making terrorist threats toward his wife. He was found guilty of vandalism later that year for smashing up his wife’s car with a shovel.

I would like to remind The Daily News that we currently have players in football proven guilty of some of these same charges. Some of them are probably the ones kneeling, but they are not being called out because their kneeling is politically correct, their political views are in line with the mainstream media, and their football skills make a lot of money for a lot of people.

One paragraph in the article is particularly notable:

Earlier this month, Brown proved to us that he has no idea what the peaceful protests that are taking place in the NFL are actually about, and has fallen victim to the thinking that this is about disrespecting the flag and not about bringing awareness to racism, inequalities, and police brutality.

What authority has declared that is what the ‘peaceful protests that are taking place in the NFL are actually about’? Is this the same authority that criticized Tim Tebow for praying on the field? Is this the same NFL that would not allow the Dallas Cowboys to wear pro-police decals on their helmets?

Whatever the players believe they are protesting, they are dishonoring the flag, the national anthem, and the many soldiers who have given their lives for this country. They are also dishonoring the team unity they are supposed to represent.  I would be much more sympathetic to their protest if I saw them doing something to remedy some of the problems in areas where they believe people are being mistreated.

This paragraph is one of many examples of bias in the press. It is very subtle, and I suspect many people read the paragraph and simply took it as fact. It is not fact–it is propaganda.

Meanwhile, Jim Brown is still one of the greatest football players ever.