So what exactly is Deadspin?
Here’s how they describe themselves on Twitter:
“Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion.”
Okay, cool. This jives nicely with how I always viewed them. But then I saw this story that Deadspin ran on Monday. The title might give you some hint as to why it caught my eye:
“Fuck off, Lindsey Graham”
This seems nice. Let’s delve into the piece and inquire as to the source of the angst:
“Lindsey Graham announced the end of his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination this morning. Don’t worry! He wants you to know that he still believes in his plan to wage needless war on a distant millenarian death cult whose lifeblood is the Western antagonism that certifies its righteousness, and he promises to continue flogging it until all the world’s seas crash pink and chunky on shores of radioactive glass.”
The article includes Lindsey Graham’s video farewell message:
The piece wraps up thusly:
“If this reads like a kind of praise for Lindsey Graham, it isn’t. He’s a lying weasel, and his lie is the same lie Trump and Cruz and Clinton and Bush are telling, the same lie Reagan and for that matter Kennedy told. The lie is his life’s work. Telling it calmly in that genteel Carolina drawl with his own real hair parted neatly over the top doesn’t make him a good guy, and getting shoved aside for a carnival freak show who peddles the same shit more entertainingly doesn’t make him a martyr. It just makes him what Trump would call him, if he could be bothered to mention Lindsey Graham at all: a loser.
Fuck off, Lindsey Graham. Make war on the bottom of a mine shaft.”
Nice that Deadspin describes ISIS as a “distant” death cult less than a month after a killer who swore allegiance to ISIS helped kill 14 people in San Bernardino, and someone recruiting for ISIS was arrested in the United States as recently as this week. But whatevs.
There’s a bigger, better question here:
What the hell does any of this have to do with sports? And if Deadspin is a site that provides “sports news,” yet has no problem turning out scathing, four-letter hit pieces on Republican candidates, then truly what is Deadspin?
Now, does MRC/Newsbusters turn out sports articles that are critical of a liberal worldview? Of course. Exposing liberal media bias wherever it rears its head is the founding principle of Newsbusters.
In fact, here’s how we self-describe on Twitter:
“Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias 24/7.”
So we also openly market ourselves that way. We’re not claiming to be something we’re not.
For the record, I’m not starting the same old tired “stick to sports” mantra. I don’t “stick to sports.” Deadspin can write about whatever they want. But shouldn’t they be honest? Doesn’t a site that implies the death of spin have an obligation to be upfront and real about who they are and what they’re trying to do?
I’ll sit back and wait for my four-letter response from Deadspin now.
