"Liberal" -- a person who demands the presumption of innocence for jihadists planning mass murder, but not to professional athletes accused of domestic abuse.
The duplicitous "war on women" meme pushed by the left this decade has a new front -- the National Football League -- and nowhere is this more evident than MSNBC. Anyone watching "The Ed Show" yesterday saw a textbook example of the dynamics of a lynch mob at work.
Schultz's guests, "Ring of Fire" radio show co-host Mike Papantonio (yeah, that guy who brands himself "America's Lawyer" -- unless, of course, you're an NFL player facing charges) and sports columnist Terence Moore were not to be outdone in their overweening indignation.
The discussion centered around a second allegation of child abuse against Minnesota Viking player Adrian Peterson, who has been indicted in Texas on a count of reckless injury to a child, and major advertisers Anheuser-Busch and Radisson pressuring the NFL to put its house in order. (Since "The Ed Show" aired late Tuesday afternoon, the Vikings suspended Peterson indefinitely) --
SCHULTZ: Mike, looking at the legalities of all of this, I mean, there are pictures which of course make this a heck of a lot different than hearsay or even a deposition of sorts. There is evidence here and there is the arena of public opinion and then there is the legal arena. Which is worse for the NFL?
PAPANTONIO: Well, this is a schizophrenic message by both the Vikings' owner (Zygi and Mark Wilf) and (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell. If we make a comparison, if Ray Rice, for example, would have simply beaten his wife with a tree branch instead of his fist, I guess everything would have been OK with the NFL leadership. That's how schizophrenic this is. It gets worse.
In 2001 the Vikings cornerback Chris Cook was forced inactive for 10 games for a domestic assault charge where he was acquitted. Then the Vikings immediately released both running backs Caleb King and A.J. Jefferson within hours of simply being accused of domestic assault. So, there was no due process there. Back then there was none of this fantasy, cop-out babble talk about letting the judicial process come to a final decision like we're hearing in the Peterson case. The Vikings didn't feel like they needed King, they didn't need Jefferson to win a football game back then, but now they know they need Peterson to stay alive against the Saints or they're going to get clobbered by, you know, like they got clobbered by the New England Patriots.
It's all about money here, Ed, putting fans in seats. Both Goodell and the Vikings' owner are having to hold their nose and overlook the facts. The facts are very, very clear in this case.
Let me see if I have this straight -- the Vikings suspended Chris Cook for 10 games in 2011 (not 2001 as Papantonio claimed) and Cook was eventually acquitted, followed by the team releasing two more players, King and Jefferson (in 2012) after "simply being accused" of domestic assault. Sounds like a hair-trigger standard -- and since then the team has apparently decided that more in the way of proof is warranted before hurting or destroying a player's livelihood, and the team's prospects for the season.
Moore upped the ante, invoking what's become a kneejerk analogy on MSNBC, that of slavery, states' rights and the Confederacy --
MOORE: One of the most disgusting things that's going on here is to have the NFL and these teams throwing around this term 'due process.' I mean, this harkens back to the old days of the South when they said 'states rights,' oh it's nothing about slavery, it's about states rights. This is a code and the code is, as your guest just pointed out, is they want their star players to play. ...
SCHULTZ: So it's all about the money (while Schultz and both guests have clearly taken vows of poverty) and it's all about the wins and the losses (and MSNBC's ratings) at this point. You think the Vikings are making a football calculation here that, you know, we'll get through this, he's going to play.
MOORE: Yeah, and this is why the NFL has got to take over and decide these things. It's not gonna happen. They're going to act like they're going to do it, but the NFL has got to make the decision because teams always are going to go on the side of, we want our guy out there.
Right -- that's why there's called "teams," groups of like-minded people -- "teammates" -- sharing a common goal.
It's not just "teams" so inclined; employers also often adhere toward this archaic principle known as loyalty. If Moore faced an unsubstantiated allegation of a heinous crime, for example, his employer might want the case adjudicated before taking any action against him, if any. Principled people are like that.
You'd never know it from MSNBC's coverage but professional football players are unionized and represented by the NFL Players Association. Anyone familiar with MSNBC is keenly aware that its pundits always side with unions and their members. Not this time, though, because union rights have been trumped by feminism and the persistent efforts of its adherents to reshape football into something more closely resembling badminton.
