NFL Pulls Ref From Game Over ‘Open Rooting,’ Will Media?

September 19, 2012 | Filed under 2012 Presidential Race,Barack Obama,Big government,Liberals,Media,Media Whores | Posted by

The National Football League seems to have done it right. For last Sunday’s Saints vs Panthers game, the NFL pulled a referee from the game because they were alerted to his Facebook page that showed he was a big fan of the Saints. One wonders if the Old Media establishment should do the same thing with its political coverage?

NFL side judge Brian Stropolo was pulled from the game and replaced by alternate Tim Keese after the league found out that Stropolo had posted photos of himself in Saints gear on his Facebook page.

The League felt it was a clear conflict of interest and decided that the ref could not be a fair judge of a game featuring his favorite team.

One would hope that the Old Media would take a lesson from the NFL. Shouldn’t the media bench anyone that is blatantly rooting for Obama and the Democrats?

How can we believe the “news” when it is so well known that the largest number of journalists are liberals and are in the tank for the left? Even the public at large thinks that reporters are leftists. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of respondents felt that reporters were more liberal than the poll takers were.

Of course, if the Old Media were to bench every biased, left-wing journalist because of his obvious lean to the left, there may not be may of them left to do the reporting!

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Posted by on September 19, 2012.
Filed under 2012 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Big government, Liberals, Media, Media Whores.
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, RightPundits.com, StoptheACLU.com, Human Events Magazine, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events.He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture" which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions, EMAIL Warner Todd Huston: igcolonel .at. hotmail.com"The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it." --Samuel Johnson

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  • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

    Do you really expect the journalistic arm of the Democratic Party to change its ways? LOL I agree with Warner on this issue.

    • warnertoddhuston

      I guess not.

    • retired.military

      “Do you really expect the journalistic arm of the Democratic Party”

      Here let me fix that for you.

      “Do you really expect the cheerleading arm of the Democratic Party ”

      There. Much more accurate

  • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

    Do you really expect the journalistic arm of the Democratic Party to change its ways? LOL I agree with Warner on this issue.

  • Sky__Captain

    If this were actually done, I fear there would be no one active in the Old Media.

    This would be considered a feature, not a bug…

  • Carl

    Shouldn’t the media bench anyone that is blatantly rooting for Obama and the Democrats?

    Only if Fox News did the same. But that will never happen – FNC would have to sign off the air – they’d have no on-air people left.

    • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

      Gee, I didn’t know that everyone at Fox News was rooting for Obama.

      • Carl

        Hahaha, nice avoidance.

        Everyone at Fox is rooting for the plastic hair guy who hates half of America.

        And Fox would never bench their “cheerleaders” would they?

        • jim_m

          Exactly how many complaints have you heard about Bret Baier having a lack of objectivity? Every time I hear people whine about FOX it is about their commentary and not their news coverage. While FOX has very conservative commentary shows their news is pretty fair, unlike the radically leftist media on other networks. One need only go as far as Andrea Mitchell or Dan Rather to see how objective the MSM is with their news coverage.

          • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

            Right on, Jim!

        • LiberalNightmare

          Would anyone even notice if CNN and MSNBC benched their own team?

          • retired.military

            Their 3 watchers would be drooling at the TV set saying “go cash the welfare check babe and get me some malt liquor. Looks like the news guys are taking a long bathroom break”

        • Sky__Captain

          And how do you view MSNBC, whose on-air “talent” openly kisses the posterior of the SCOAMF who hates what America represents?

          Or will you avoid that issue altogether?

          • jim_m

            That was his posterior they were kissing?

        • retired.military

          Actually I think they are more like me. I am not rooting for ROmney I am voting ABO. Anyone But Obama. That just happens to be Romney this year.

        • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

          Obviously, you don’t watch the Fox New Channel very much. If you did, then you would know that Fox News personalities Bob Beckel, Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, Susan Estrich and Santita Jackson favor President Obama.

          Also, the claim that Governor Romney hates half of America is a false claim. During a campaign fund-raiser, Governor Romney stated that 47% of Americans would not vote for him no matter what he said or did. Thus, as a candidate, he did not have to worry about getting their votes.

    • retired.military

      Well Carl if the media did and FNC did that means that 4 conservatives would be out of work and about 400000 liberals. I will take that deal anyday.

  • jim_m

    The League felt it was a clear conflict of interest

    Advocacy Journalism is the standard of practice today. It is not about conveying information it is about producing propaganda to advance an agenda. The only people still thinking that the media is objective is the deluded left.

    • herddog505

      It appears that their numbers are shrinking:

      According to a new Washington Post poll, the mainstream media’s political pundits are somehow even less popular than the mainstream media itself. Only 21% of adults look upon American talking heads favorably, while a whopping 59% see them unfavorably. Among registered voters, the favorability number only increases to 23%.

      http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/09/19/Poll-Pundits-Approval-Rating-21-percent

      I am starting to understand how it felt to live in the USSR: the Russian people KNEW that they were being fed a steady diet of horsesh*t, but Pravda, Izvestia and TASS were the only games in town. How can you help believing that something is true when you never hear anything that contradicts it?

  • JWH

    No, the NFL has not “done it right.” If the NFL had “done it right,” it would have shoved as much money up the regular refs’ bums as they wanted.

    Officiating at this past weekends’ games was a joke.

    • jim_m

      Unlike the media, whose advocacy is causing them to lose market share and loads of money, the sloppy officiating is not costing the NFL a nickel. Also, the crap officiating doesn’t look like it’s going to have any negative effect on earnings so the NFL has no compelling reason to give in. Not until it hits them in the pocketbook will the NFL budge.

      The NFL can be excused for putting out crap when they know we will continue to buy it. The media has no excuse when it is obvious that people are not buying their product. Of course, there is the possibility that the customer the media really wants to sell is the government. If they can get the government to take them over and subsidize their BS they will have it made.

    • retired.military

      Oh the old appease the Referee union. Just like the teachers unions in Chicago. Performance doesnt matter. Just the money.

      • JWH

        RM.

        I’m a fan of my hometown team. The replacement refs sucked.

  • Commander_Chico_Cognoscente

    Another “I do not understand the First Amendment” post from Warner.

    • http://opinion.ak4mc.us/ Scribe of Slog (McGehee)

      Another completely-missing-the-point comment from Chico.

      • Commander_Chico_Cognoscente

        I know what his point is meant to be, but there’s not enough cheese in the world to go with that whine.

        The press is allowed to be biased, therefore much of it will be.

        • UOG

          Chico, you need to visit Cabot in VT before making a statement like that. Take the tour, you’ll find it interesting.

          • Commander_Chico_Cognoscente

            I would love to, along with the Otter Creek Brewery.

          • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

            There’s a brewery? Does it give out free samples?

    • http://www.wizbangblog.com David Robertson

      Chico, Warner isn’t addressing a First Amendment issue. The owner of a cable or broadcast network has the right to regulate the speech that takes place on that particular network, just as the publisher of a newspaper has the right to regulate what is published in that newspaper.

      Warner wants the owners of news programs to regulate the speech of the journalists appearing on those programs.

      As I see it, if you don’t like what is said on a news program, then change the channel.

      • Commander_Chico_Cognoscente

        I believe the owners are regulating content. Warner just doesn’t like it.

    • SCSIwuzzy

      A ref needs to be fair and impartial. If there is perception that he isn’t, his ruling won’t be trusted. The man was benched, not fired.
      This is the same reason judges excuse themselves from cases that they have a personal interest in.

      Reports, we know most of them have a strong bias, one way or the other. Some of them are mature and self aware enough to check their bias at the door. The others are outed in fairly short order. The only ones (lacking self control) I would want to step aside are the ones moderating debates.