Fox's Howard Kurtz says there's a crusade against the NFL, the fans and of course, Commissioner Roger Goodell. Nothing revs up the Fox's base like a reference to a Christianity and the battle of good versus evil. Mediate columnist Joe Concha echos Fox's opinion as he wrote NFL bashing is part of the media's faux outrage industry. No matter what "tipping point" we've reached, viewership of the NFL is at an all-time high, so the scrutiny leveled upon Goodell is inconsequential and superficial.
Unlike Kurtz and Concha, the Hollywood Reporter's Marisa Guthrie welcomes the coverage of important subjects by encouraging the debates about child abuse and domestic violence. Guthrie feels that during the Goodell press conference, he "deflected and obfuscated," rather than owning up to his deliberate dismissal of evidence. He created "more questions than he answered." But Kurtz and Concha see it differently.
Since there's a female player with a pending domestic abuse case who is still playing professional soccer, the credibility of the liberal critics of Goodell should be questioned. Names like Rice, Dwyer and Peterson are not the only ones who should be called out. Hope Solo of the Seattle Reign FC was arrested on domestic violence charges. The case will be heard in November.
Washington Post reporter Cindy Boren asks,
"Why is the notion of awaiting due process so inconsistently applied? And why aren’t more people talking about the fact that domestic violence isn’t simply an issue of men against women?"
Perhaps a woman verbally abusing an adult/almost legal adult isn't as appalling as a much larger man pushing a woman down a flight of steps, head -butting or cold-cocking her in the face? It doesn't compare to disciplining a child by drawing blood.
We can agree with Boren, yes, U.S. Soccer doesn’t have the same high profile as the NFL, (but) how do the cases differ? Aren’t women’s soccer players just as much role models as male football players? That is a valid point.
Domestic violence is wrong, but this particular case is not a fait accompli. Where there was an admission of guilt by the NFL's offenders, Solo has pleaded not guilty to two counts of misdemeanor domestic violence in an alleged assault of her half-sister and 17-year-old nephew. U.S. Soccer acknowledges that these charges are Hope's first offense. But Joe Concha wants to hear the same outrage from ESPN and MSNBC anchors about Solo as her male counterparts. He equated the Goodell presser with the interrogation of Chris Christie in January, over Bridgegate. Concha felt that was excessively tough on the poor, persecuted Governor of N.J. and Kurtz sees it as another "crusade" against a good Christian like Christie.
Mediate's Concha thinks we care more about character than we actually do, so the outrage at the man who represents all the billionaire owners is misdirected. If some of the players on the gridiron have been less than respectable off the field, Concha and Kurtz believe that should put the kibosh on the entire NFL for viewers. Not so, apologists. The lady in this segment kept things in perspective: we can address problems with athletes without boycotting the entire sport. At Fox News, matters are either black or white. There's no in-between when it comes to Ailes and Murdoch.
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