Promoting his latest book Wednesday night on Newsmax TV, longtime sports writer and Washington Post columnist John Feinstein surprisingly went off the liberal reservation and told host Steve Malzberg that ESPN Radio 980 personality and Pardon the Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser “should probably have gotten” suspended for comparing conservative Republicans to ISIS back.
The statement was setup by Malzberg asking Feinstein if ESPN’s refusal to suspend Kornheiser for his diatribe on October 23 represented a double standard considering the fact that MLB analyst Curt Schilling received a lengthy suspension for a tweet slamming al-Qaeda.
Feinstein first prefaced his response by admitting “that there are double standards throughout the world and you’re right in some cases and you’re wrong in other cases” but Malzberg was correct in the case of Kornheiser as he “probably should probably have gotten the same treatment that Curt Schilling got, regardless of what side he was on while Curt Schilling got suspended by ESPN.”
Moments beforehand, Feinstein disagreed with Malzberg’s argument that sports personalities can publically espouse their political views if they’re liberal but are unable to if they’re in any way conservative.
He ruled that “I think you can do sports if you’re a liberal and I think you can do sports if you’re a conservative” and also tried to make the case that NBC’s Bob Costas would have met even less controversy and criticism over the years on gun control if his views were the opposite and instead heavily in favor of gun rights:
If Bob Costas was as good as he has been for all these years on television and if he had a conservative viewpoint on guns, two things would happen. A, he would be allowed to talk about his position on guns and B, a lot more people would probably agree with that position than would disagree with that position. Now, people objected when he talked about guns on a football game, but it was in light of a football player being involved in a run-related incident and that particular team was playing in the game that night, so I don’t it was wrong for Costas to bring up the issue.
The relevant portion of the transcript from Newsmax TV’s The Steve Malzberg Show on November 25 can be found below.
Newsmax TV’s The Steve Malzberg Show
November 25, 2015
7:18 p.m. EasternSTEVE MALZBERG: You can do sports if you’re a liberal. You can’t do sports if you’re a conservative. Would you agree?
JOHN FEINSTEIN: No, I wouldn’t agree. I think you can do sports if you’re a liberal and I think you can do sports if you’re a conservative. If Bob Costas was as good as he has been for all these eyars on television and if he had a conservative viewpoint on guns, two things would happen. A, he would be allowed to talk about his position on guns and B, a lot more people would probably agree with that position than would disagree with that position. Now, people objected when he talked about guns on a football game, but it was in light of a football player being involved in a run-related incident and that particular team was playing in the game that night, so I don’t it was wrong for Costas to bring up the issue.
MALZBERG: But what about Kornhesier calling the Republican conservatives aligning them with ISIS. He didn’t get suspended, but Curt Schilling got suspended for what he’s tweeted out. We got 15 seconds. Go ahead.
FEINSTEIN: Well, I think that there are double standards throughout the world and you’re right in some cases and you’re wrong in other cases and you’re right. Kornhesier probably should probably have gotten the same treatment that Curt Schilling got, regardless of what side he was on while Curt Schilling got suspended by ESPN.
MALZBERG: Great. We’ll agree to end on that.
