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Lawyers, Guns and Money: Patriotism (7/23/08) by Paul Campos
An interesting blog posting about the athletes who gave the black power salute at the '68 Olympics finds it "a surprising development" that Tommie Smith and John Carlos are now being honored by "the same cultural institutions that almost universally excoriated" them at the time. As the U.S. sprinters were just honored on an ESPN awards show, Campos recalls that
meanwhile, back in 1968, Brent Musberger, who today is one of ESPN/ABC's top announcers, called Smith and Carlos "black-skinned storm troopers." In 1999, Musberger granted that his comments at the time were "a bit harsh," but emphasized that he still objected to "using the Olympic awards stand to make a political statement"—a view we can be sure is enthusiastically shared by the Chinese government, which will be hosting the Olympics next month. (It never occurs to people like Musberger that the traditional Olympic awards ceremony itself is about as pure a political statement as can be imagined).
See the new issue of FAIR's magazine Extra!: Carrying a Torch for Anti-China Protests: When an Official Enemy Is Targeted, Media Take Notice (7-8/08) by Julie Hollar
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