Sportscaster Bob Costas’s tendency to wax poetic in a gratuitous manner is so well known, it has become a meme. During a Monday speech at Syracuse University’s Mirror Awards, Costas was at it again, invoking Thomas Jefferson to compare supporting President Donald Trump to disbelieving in a round earth and telling anyone who objects to such insults that he doesn’t care what you think and, in fact, considers your criticism to be a “badge of honor.”
In cellphone video captured by liberal writer Rachel Sklar, Costas declared, “Thomas Jefferson once said, if I should be able, I’m paraphrasing here, if I should be able to retain only one of the amendments of the Constitution, it’s the first one, the right to a free press, because that’s the safeguard of democracy, and which does not mean we are without fault. It does not mean that the legacy or mainstream media doesn’t screw up from time to time or have blind spots or misplaced narratives, but if the answer to that is MAGA media, if the answer to that is Donald Trump’s view of the world, which is only through a prism of what benefits him, there are no higher ideals, there are no principles at work other than what benefits him. I’ll stay with where we are without correction if the correction is what Donald Trump represents.”
Not only does Costas not like Trump, but he also does not like that people who disagree with him are allowed to be on TV, “And what has also happened here is that because he is the president, to a certain extent, who he is and what he does, and what is done in his name has been normalized so that responsible journalists have to pretend there’s always two sides of this. There really isn’t two sides to much of what Donald Trump represents. If someone says, and the idea that you have to find, you have to find somebody who will not just defend Donald Trump, but valorize it, even on CNN or wherever else just in the name of being balanced.”
According to Costas, “If someone is contending that the earth is flat. In order to appear objective, you are not required to say, 'Well, maybe it might be oblong.' No it’s not. Certain things are just true, and regrettably, something that’s true in America right now is that the president of the United States has absolutely no regard, and in fact, has contempt for basic American principles and basic common decency.”
This is why it was hard to take Costas’s claims that the media is not above criticism seriously. The media, which has low trust ratings to begin with, takes half of the voters in this country and lumps them in with round earth deniers and then wonders why nobody trusts them.
As for Costas, he continued, “And if, and I’ve heard this on occasion, ‘I used to love Bob Costas, but then when he turned political,’ and of course when I did that. every good thing I did for 40 years was washed away. Now, I suck, you know what. If that’s what you think and that’s how you think, and you think it in defense of that guy, I wear that as a badge of honor.
Of course, Costas’s degeneration into a political commentator predates Trump, most notably in his deranged takes on Second Amendment defenders, but pointing that out ruins Costas’s phony tough guy act.
Here is a transcript for the June 9 speech:
2025 Mirror Awards
6/9/2025
BOB COSTAS: Thomas Jefferson once said, if I should be able, I’m paraphrasing here, if I should be able to retain only one of the amendments of the Constitution, it’s the first one, the right to a free press, because that’s the safeguard of democracy, and which does not mean we are without fault. It does not mean that the legacy or mainstream media doesn’t screw up from time to time or have blind spots or misplaced narratives, but if the answer to that is MAGA media, if the answer to that is Donald Trump’s view of the world, which is only through a prism of what benefits him, there are no higher ideals, there are no principles at work other than what benefits him. I’ll stay with where we are without correction if the correction is what Donald Trump represents.
And what has also happened here is that because he is the president, to a certain extent, who he is and what he does, and what is done in his name has been normalized so that responsible journalists have to pretend there’s always two sides of this. There really isn’t two sides to much of what Donald Trump represents. If someone says, and the idea that you have to find, you have to find somebody who will not just defend Donald Trump, but valorize it, even on CNN or wherever else just in the name of being balanced. Look, if someone is contending that the earth is flat. In order to appear objective, you are not required to say, “Well, maybe it might be oblong.” No it’s not. Certain things are just, true and regrettably, something that’s true in America right now is that the president of the United States has absolutely no regard, and in fact, has contempt for basic American principles and basic common decency.
And if, and I’ve heard this on occasion, “I used to love Bob Costas, but then when he turned political” and of course when I did that, every good thing I did for 40 years was washed away. Now, I suck, you know what. If that’s what you think, and that’s how you think and you think it in defense of that guy, I wear that as a badge of honor.
