Sportscaster Brent Musburger has been on somewhat of a hot seat lately because he gushed over Miss Alabama and called her a "beautiful woman" while broadcasting the BCS National Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame on January 7.
Many, who believe his comments were condescending, lustful and sexist, have called on Musburger to apologize. So far, only his employer, ESPN, has made anything similar to a public apology for what Musburger said.
About the only thing offered up by Musberger himself was a reported diss of his employer. An item I saw on SI.Com said in part, "The legendary announcer confirmed that (he has no plans to apologize to Miss Alabama) yesterday and basically gave the finger to his employers when he flat out said his comments were not inappropriate."
But not to worry ESPN, you're not the only one your lead college football announcer is shooting the bird at. He's done that for nearly 45 years to former U.S. Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith because he disapproved of their protest against Apartheid and global racial discrimination by raising their gloved, clenched fists in a show of black defiance and solidarity during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
At the time, Musburger was a young columnist for a Chicago newspaper. Apparently, the sight of two black men engaged in protest on one of the world's biggest platforms was more than Musburger could take, enraging him to the point of comparing Smith and Carlos to Nazis. He hatefully and ignorantly calling them: "black-skinned stormtroopers."
Here's an excerpt from a recent article by Dave Zirn in The Nation (http://www.thenation.com/...) that sheds a bit more light:
In 1968 Musburger was a restless, ambitious young sports writer looking to make his name. He found his opportunity when Smith and Carlos made their stand. Musburger didn’t see a demonstration. He saw a target.
“One gets a little tired of having the United States run down by athletes who are enjoying themselves at the expense of their country,” he wrote. Musburger then infamously called Smith and Carlos “a pair of black-skinned stormtroopers.”
The above quote has been disseminated in books and articles for years but Musburger’s full column is a difficult find. With an assist from Professor Jules Boykoff and an old-school tool called microfilm, I found it, and if anything, it’s even uglier than the above quotes suggest. The headline is “Bizarre Protest By Smith, Carlos Tarnishes Medals.”
Despite seeing what they did as “bizarre,” Musburger doesn’t once address why Smith and Carlos did what they did or quote them directly. He does however find time to mock them repeatedly. He describes Smith and Carlos as “juvenile”, “ignoble,” and—this actually is bizarre—“unimaginative.” Musburger calls Tommie Smith “the militant black.”
In describing a scene of Carlos trying to defend their actions, Musburger writes, “Perhaps it’s time 20-year-old athletes quit passing themselves off as social philosophers.”
And then there are those words that still singe the eyes: “black-skinned stormtroopers.” You almost don’t believe it until you read it.
As for the actual stormtrooper-sympathizer, Musburger refers to Brundage as a kindly old grandfather and with great affection and addresses him as “Avery”. No mention of course that many of the athletes called him “Slavery Avery.”
To this day, mention Musburger’s name to John Carlos and he grits his teeth. This is particularly illustrative because Carlos is fond of saying that he has no hate in his heart toward anyone even after all the isolation and criticism he endured. But not Musburger.
“We are talking about someone who compared us to Nazis. Think about that. Here we are standing up to apartheid and to a man in Avery Brundage who delivered the Olympics to Hitler’s Germany. And here’s Musburger calling us Nazis. That got around. It followed us. It hurt us. It hurt my wife, my kids. I’ve never been able to confront him about why he did this. Every time I’ve been at a function or an event with Brent Musburger and I walk towards him, he heads the other way.”
Seems that the cowardly Musburger has a hard time facing up to his mistakes and apologizing for them.
Whether you think it's inappropriate for men to gush about women on TV is one thing. But I don't think anyone can argue the appropriateness of berating two young men who protested against racism by comparing them to Nazis. How ridiculously ironic is that? These days, the two are seen as brave heroes. As Zirn points out in his article:
In 2012, that frozen, dramatic moment of 1968 resistance is far more likely to be celebrated than criticized. Smith and Carlos are now routinely lauded for their bravery and daring. As ESPN proclaimed bluntly upon giving Smith and Carlos their Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2008, “They were right.”
What ESPN didn't say was that Musburger and those of his ilk were wrong. And when proven wrong, most prideful fools tend to dig their heels into their ignorance.
So, don't hold your breath Miss Alabama or ESPN. Musburger has owed Carlos and Smith an apology a lot longer than he's owed you one and for something I believe is a whole lot worse...and none appears forthcoming. Guess he's too busy focusing on college sports and pretty girls.