Now I’m in one hell of a pickle of a quandry!
One of my favorite things about the football season is my weekly reading of a column called “Tuesday Morning Quarterback.” It was first hosted at Salon.com, then this year it was purchased and hosted by ESPN.com. The writer is Gregg Easterbrook, a senior editor at The New Republic and a Brookings Institution fellow — ah, heck, let’s just say he’s real real smart. In fact, most of the time he is writing about really serious subjects like philosophy, politics, economics, physics, but each week he also writes TMQ.
The TMQ column is the best column on pro football I’ve ever read. Easterbrook turns his hyper-educated mind and ultra-analytical power toward the trends, action, and culture of pro football like no one I’ve ever read. He is very well-versed in the intracacies of the game, and notices things that no other analyst notices. But even as an incredible intellectual, he still manages to inject wit, humor, Star Trek physics analysis, and the trademark gawking-at-cheerbabes into his football column. It is the only thing on the Net that I make an appointment (my Tuesday lunch hour) to read.
Some of my other favorite things are martial arts, Hong Kong cinema, and Quentin Tarantino. So, of course, when Kill Bill Volume I debuted this last week, I eagerly attended the premiere screening. I loved it. It was a gore-fest, granted, but you knew that going in (“Kill Bill” – what did you expect?) and he accurately captured a lot about the look-and-feel of those old Hong Kong movies.
Where does this fit in with Easterbrook? Well, Easterbrook is among other things, a very religious Presbyterian, and has written books on theology and the nature of God. I guess he and I would have some disagreement there, but he explains his positions in such a rational, un-dogmatic manner that he’s one of the few religious types I can bear to read. He also has been on a personal crusade against the glorification of violence found in so much Hollywood product these days.
So naturally, I could imagine that Easterbrook would not share my enjoyment of Kill Bill. But, hey, how does that affect me? He hates Kill Bill, I like it, so what?
Well, the “so what” is the fact that I go to the ESPN.com site today during my Tuesday lunch hour and I’m confronted with the message “To our readers: Tuesday Morning Quarterback will no longer be available on ESPN.com.”
Say what?!?
After some research, I discovered the problem. Easterbrook is also an editor at The New Republic (www.tnr.com) and writes a blog there. I included the main link at the top of this post. Basically, he came out hard against Tarantino for promoting gory violence in his films, and in doing so, took an unwise and poorly-thought-out swipe at Disney and Miramax. The quote is below:
Disney’s CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice.
Uh-oh. It seems that the blogosphere went nuts about this anti-Semitic remark. I too was taken aback, because I’ve never read Easterbrook as anything but a right-minded, non-prejudicial person, and far from anti-Semitic. He has apologized, and tried to explain that he made an error in judgement (but not content; he still thinks Disney and Miramax should be discouraged from promoting violence in movies).
Unfortunately, ESPN is owned by Disney, and you can bet that Michael Eisner was none too happy. Also, after forcing the resignation of Rush Limbaugh for his allegedly racist comments meant there was no room for Easterbrook to wiggle free from his allegedly anti-Semitic comments.
All I know is I miss my favorite football column.
____________________________________________________________________
|
_ | "RADICAL" RUSS BELVILLE | Read More at http://radicalruss.net/blog/
| Portland, Oregon U.S.A. | Permission is granted for reprint of this
| © 2003 by Russ Belville | post, as long as this footer is included.
