By Kevin Foley
The National Anthem is a nice tradition to start a ballgame. It reminds us to appreciate our liberty and our way of life, but is the seventh-inning stretch rendition of God Bless America by a soldier, sailor or airman really necessary?
What about the flyovers by U.S. military aircraft? How about the gigantic flags on the field? What's the real message behind all of this?
Patriotism is a deeply personal emotion. So why does Fox Sports cheapen what we feel in our hearts about homeland by repeatedly jumping the shark with all this patriotic exhibitionism during its broadcasts of baseball games?
Try as I might, I cannot find the link between patriotism and baseball, a game played by grown men who are paid a lot of money, few if any of whom ever volunteered to serve in a military uniform. Yet, there they are, players joining the swells behind home plate singing lustily along with the Star Spangled Banner before looking on in awe as a flight of F-16s roars by overhead.
When you consider that Fox Sports and Fox News share the same DNA, you begin to understand what could really be happening here. It harkens back to where we were immediately after 9/11, when sports in general and the World Series in particular helped us get through our national mourning.
We were all united behind President Bush. We were ready to flex our muscle, and we were determined not to give in to the terrorists. The National Anthem, the giant flags, the flyovers, and the singing of God Bless America all seemed completely appropriate and even necessary.
But that was then and this is now. Eight years later, we know Bush abused his power. He invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11; he opened Gitmo and secret prisons where suspects were tortured; he mishandled the war in Afghanistan; and he stretched the military to the breaking point, all while Fox News did the cheerleading.
Since taking power ten months ago, President Obama and the Democrats in congress have been routinely lambasted by Fox News and its cadre of right wing pundits for promoting their progressive agenda. So it stands to reason that Fox Sports would help amplify and even intensify the anti-administration drum beat.
The over-the-top displays seem to underscore Fox News' unrelenting and baseless attacks on the patriotism of those with whom it disagrees, including the president, the speaker of the house and the senate majority leader. The suggestion seems to be that, whether you watch the World Series or Sean Hannity, you know where the real patriots can be found on your TV. And it doesn't end with baseball.
On Sunday, the hosts of Fox NFL Sunday breathlessly announced they would be doing their show from Afghanistan this week. The troops will no doubt enjoy hobnobbing with Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, Terry Bradshaw and the rest of the gang.
It's a nice gesture until you consider that Obama is under enormous pressure right now to devise a strategy for Afghanistan that will guarantee America's security and protect the lives of our troops there. Then it begins to look like what it might really be: Fox shining a great big spotlight on a perceived Obama leadership failure.
I can't wait to see who Curt Menefee's special studio guests will be but I'm pretty sure they'll all, in one way or another, be critical of the administration's "dithering on Afghanistan," to use Dick Cheney's phrase.
It seems professional sports broadcasts have joined patriotism as the last refuge of scoundrels.
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Kevin
Foley is president of KEF
Media Associates, an Atlanta-based producer and distributor
of sponsored news content to television and radio media.
He wrote about the Obama's administration's "sick" PR operation last month. |