"You tell me the bigger weasel: GOP or ESPN?" Glenn asked this morning.
While Pat went with the GOP , Stu and Jeff voted ESPN. Here's why:
Monday night, during the BCS National Championship football game between Alabama and Notre Dame, ESPN announcer Brent Musburger made a few comments over the good looks of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron's beauty queen girlfriend.
While McCarron's comments were neither vulgar or offensive, ESPN felt the need to apologize on his behalf. Even after McCarron's girlfriend [Katherine Webb] said she was flattered by the statements and an apology was not necessary.
TheBlaze reported on the comments following the football game:
Considering that Monday night’s college national championship game between Alabama and Notre Dame was dominated by Alabama, there weren’t many competitive highlights (‘Bama won 42-14). So easily the talk of the night has become the way ESPN announcers Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit fawned over the stunning girlfriend of Alabama’s quarterback AJ McCarron.“You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women,” Musburger said, directing the comment at Herbstreit who is a former quarterback himself. “What a beautiful woman.”
That's offensive? Apparently if you're ESPN they are, who made a statement earlier this week that the comments with "too far."
What exactly did ESPN expect to happen during a game that was 28 to 0 at the half with Miss Alabama in the stands? You can only talk about Notre Dame's pathetic attempts to slow Alabama down for so long.
"ESPN is a guy channel," Glenn said. "I mean, has everyone at ESPN been castrated?"
Astonished by ESPN's ability to throw someone under the bus for absolutely nothing, Glenn continued: "I mean, who at ESPN is offended by what Brent Musburger said? I'm not into sports. I'm the biggest girl among men you've ever met. I'm not offended by this. I don't know how ‑‑ I don't know how you could be offended by this."
Obviously, had Katherine Webb been offended and taken issue with the comments, it would be at least understandable. But that's not what happened here. Webb said an apology wasn't necessary. She was flattered by the comments made about her.
"The game was over at halftime," Pat pointed out.
When that happens it's up to the announcers to find something to talk about that keeps people interested in the players and the game.
"You're talking about grade point averages of the athletes involved. You're going into all that kind of stuff. You got nothing at that point because ‑‑ and you've got to keep your viewers. So they find A. J. McCarron, if you're not sure what we're talking about, it's the BCS championship game on Monday night, Alabama/Notre Dame and so they find AJ McCarron, quarterback of Alabama's girlfriend in the stadium."
These are Musbuger's comments:
MUSBERGER: When you're a quarterback at Alabama, you see that lovely lady there? She does go to Auburn, I'll bit that, Miss Alabama and that's A.J. McCarron's girlfriend and right there on the right is D.D. Bonner. That's A.J.'s ‑‑ boy, I tell you, you quarterbacks, you get all the good‑looking women. That's ‑‑ what a beautiful woman.VOICE: Wow. A. J.'s doing some things right down in Alabama.
MUSBERGER: So if you're a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throwing it around the backyard with pop.
What's offensive about calling a beauty queen, someone in the limelight because of their good looks, beautiful? Much less, saying that A.J. must being doing something right in his life in order to get a girl like that to go out with him.
"Is there anything wrong with saying that you've got to do something right to marry a beautiful woman?" Glenn asked.
Glenn also pointed out the Musburger encouraged kids to out throw the football with their dad's so they can be a star quarterback like A.J. is one day, and have a shot with a beautiful girl.
"Boy, so I guess what you learn here, if you're watching and you're from Alabama, if you'd like to marry or date a beautiful woman, I guess what the lesson to learn here is go out and throw the football with your dad," Glenn said.
"What a horrible thing to promote! Father‑and‑son relationships in the backyard, that is horrifying!" Pat joked.
Is ESPN ever going to really cross the line with their fans? It's hard to imagine that they will given they hold the rights to Monday Night Football and the BCS bowl games. But this attitude the have of rolling over every time one far out organization doesn't like something on their network it getting ridiculous.
Glenn, who has run into issues with another company under Disney, ABC, explained that the real issue is with 'the mouse'. He noted how even when Walt was still alive, they were constantly apologizing for his politics — everybody just wanted to be "neutral".
"The mouse does not care about news. The mouse is a global institution," Glenn explained. "And if the mouse is hurt, then everything else crumbles and so they fold and bow to the mouse every single time."