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Trump and NFL boycott

ponderingturtle said:
Any guess on when these will stop being anti american protests and instead be the kind of truly american heroes that transcend race like Muhammad Ali?
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It was a good while before Ali made that leap from the former to the latter, though. He was all but blacklisted for a long time for his refusal to fight for his country.
 
Isn't it a legal / constitutional issue when the President of the United States issues statements [= Government action] calling for suppression of Article 1 for specific individuals?
 
The Greater Fool said:
Isn't it a legal / constitutional issue when the President of the United States issues statements [= Government action] calling for suppression of Article 1 for specific individuals?
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Yes, you would think so.

But today we're all about the outrage. We're about pissing and moaning about them protesting, and not really giving 2 ***** about why.
 
NoahFence said:
Yes, you would think so.

But today we're all about the outrage. We're about pissing and moaning about them protesting, and not really giving 2 ***** about why.
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Admittedly no one liked agitators like King at the time they were protesting either.
 
applecorped said:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...OTT-NFL-teams-players-won-t-stand-Anthem.html
President Donald Trump has ratcheted up the national controversy over black National Football League players who refuse to stand while the U.S. National Anthem is played before games.
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Is there some way to explain to conservatives that standing up for the anthem is (1) an act of symbolic speech and (2) consummately politically correct? Then hopefully they will come to understand that what they are really asking the NFL to do is create safe spaces free from offensive political incorrectness.
 
d4m10n said:
Is there some way to explain to conservatives that standing up for the anthem is (1) an act of symbolic speech and (2) consummately politically correct? Then hopefully they will come to understand that what they are really asking the NFL to do is create safe spaces free from offensive political incorrectness.
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While most of the Pittsburgh Steelers stayed in the locker room during the national anthem yesterday, one guy went out for it.

He is being praised today for having the courage to stand alone.

Colin Kaepernick, OTOH, was a punk when he was the only one not standing.
 
In the "There's a Tweet for that" category:

From 2013
President should not be telling the Washington Redskins to change their name-our country has far bigger problems! FOCUS on them,not nonsense
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Now, he tells the NFL to fire anyone who protests during the National Anthem.

But it's not inconsistent, no. Ed Brayton sums it up nicely

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2017/09/25/trumps-third-law-motion/
He was on the side of racism then and he’s on the side of racism now.
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Brainster said:
Not much of a con law scholar, are you?
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More than some, less than others.

The President calling for sanctions on USA businesses because of how they handle first amendment issues seems problematic to me.

I just wonder why it's not problematic to #MAGA folks. Wasn't the first amendment one of the things that #MAGB (Made America Great Before)?
 
The Greater Fool said:
More than some, less than others.

The President calling for sanctions on USA businesses because of how they handle first amendment issues seems problematic to me.

I just wonder why it's not problematic to #MAGA folks. Wasn't the first amendment one of the things that #MAGB (Made America Great Before)?
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It is only for white christians though.
 
The Greater Fool said:
More than some, less than others.

The President calling for sanctions on USA businesses because of how they handle first amendment issues seems problematic to me.

I just wonder why it's not problematic to #MAGA folks. Wasn't the first amendment one of the things that #MAGB (Made America Great Before)?
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You referred to the First Amendment as Article I. Article I of the constitution establishes the legislative branch of the federal government.
 
The Greater Fool said:
More than some, less than others.

The President calling for sanctions on USA businesses because of how they handle first amendment issues seems problematic to me.

I just wonder why it's not problematic to #MAGA folks. Wasn't the first amendment one of the things that #MAGB (Made America Great Before)?
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Brainster was showing off. You said Article 1, meaning Amendment 1 or "The First Amendment".
 
A well known figure, greatly admired by Trump, tweeted that the president has more important things to focus on than the NFL.

This tweet came from Trump himself years ago during the whole Washington Redskins issue.

Another one for Trump Criticizes Trump
 
Here's a hilarious "Truth-O-Meter" column on Trump and the NFL, where they come to the conclusion that Trump's claim that the NFL's ratings are way down is Mostly False.

If you want to know why these columns have lost all credibility, this is a good example. The writer acknowledges that ratings were down 8% last year and could be headed for a similar decline in 2017:

According to ESPN, NFL game broadcasters saw an average year-on-year drop in television viewership last season of 8 percent. Fox saw the lowest ratings since 2008 and ESPN since 2005.

Advertising Age media reporter Anthony Crupi told us he estimated a decline of around 9 percent in ratings since last year, although the only window to face a significant decline was the 1 p.m. regional games.
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He acknowledges that surveys indicate that the protests are a big part of the declining ratings:

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung pointed to a Seton Hall Sports Poll that found that 56 percent of 841 respondents cited players not standing for the national anthem as a reason for last year’s ratings drop.
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But get this:

Various pundits criticized the survey results as negligible, pointing out that for every one person turned off by protests, 10 NFL fans tuned in.
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If you lost 1 fan out of 11, how much of a decline is that? A little over 9%.

So how does he conclude that the NFL ratings are not way down? A big part of his argument is laughable:

It’s still a modest decline, according to Paulsen, because the NFL’s ratings are usually so strong — the NFL is the most popular televised sports event in the United States.
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See? Because the ratings are usually so strong, even though they're not as strong now, that's not really a decline, because they're still strong compared to other sports:

NASCAR ratings are in the cellar right now. The NBA had some of its lowest rated games ever on network television last year … It’s an industry-wide phenomenon and the NFL isn’t immune to it anymore."
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If you lose 8% of your audience one year, and the next year you lose a further 9%, that's a pretty serious and steep decline. Advertisers pay for eyeballs, and if you have 83.72% of the eyeballs you used to have you are going to receive 83.72% of the advertising revenue you used to get.

You can argue that there are other factors involved, sure, and I would not dismiss that entirely. But it seems silly to claim, as Politifact does, that Trump's claim that NFL ratings are way down is mostly false, when it is so transparently true.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see how things go over the next few weeks; I suspect there will be more protests and lower ratings. And more media people pretending there is no link between the two.
 
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