ESPN will continue promoting liberal agenda items on Wednesday at their annual ESPY Awards. Every year, they hand out the Arthur Ashe Courage Award to an individual or group whose accomplishments have “transcended” sports. This year’s recipient will be Bruce Jenner, who transcended reality and declared he’s a woman. Oh and he won that decathlon 40 years ago (as a man), so that’s why it’s related to sports.
That joining a fashionable and celebrated minority is more career move than “truth-to-power” moment (Jenner’s getting a reality show and a syndicated column out of his drag act), means little to ESPN, with its history of support for liberal “courage.” Here are four more transparently political Ashe Award picks:
2014 – Michael Sam: immediately before the 2014 NFL draft, Michael Sam, a smallish and slow defensive end from Missouri announced he was gay. In the highly staged, made-for-tears recording of his draft day (he was drafted in the final round by the St. Louis Rams), Sam kissed his boyfriend, something that would be shown repeatedly on ESPN for days afterward. Said Sam during his acceptance speech, “My responsibility at this moment in history is to stand up for everybody out there who wants nothing more than to be themselves openly,” while ESPN noted during a short documentary video, “It’s going to be normal someday.” But not yet. Sam never played a down in the NFL and is currently MIA from a Canadian football team.
2008 – Tommie Smith and John Carlos: were honored for giving the black power salute 40 years before at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, while on the podium receiving medals and representing their country. The description in ESPN’s documentary video, “It’s just amazing how … as soon as you take that stand and identify yourself as being proud of who you are, then you’re condemned.” Anything is appropriate so long as it’s ‘how you identify’ – sound familiar to a more recent battle cry? Don’t forget how much the media loves to analogize the LGBT cause to racial inequality in the 20th century.
1999 – Billie Jean King: King had come out as gay nearly two decades before this, and was an early and vocal LGBT activist, even helping President Obama to push the gay agenda on an international scale. Most recently, King has vocalized her support for Jenner, calling his selection for the award “appropriate.”
2009 – Nelson Mandela: Honored for his role in the integration of South Africa, Mandela’s connection to sports is pretty slight (though played up in a recent film). ESPN didn’t mention Mandela’s association with radical dictators like Fidel Castro, something even MSNBC admitted.
