Newsweek's Dan Cancian is outraged that Oakland Raiders' radio voice Brent Musburger "mocked" Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a recent tweet related to the controversy about whether or not she is a descendant of Native Americans.
Cancian is not alone; NFL writer Mike Freeman called it "disgusting bigotry" and Yahoo's Jason Owens labels it "ugly politics."
On Saturday, Musburger (seen in file photo) posted a photo of President Donald Trump speaking at a rally with several men wearing Indian headdresses standing behind him, along with the words, "Elizabeth Warren’s “relatives” backing Trump in Montana!":
Musburger's tweet touched a raw nerve with incensed left-stream media.
Cancian wrote that "Brent Musburger has found himself at the center of controversy yet again, after mocking Elizabeth Warren’s heritage on Twitter." The Newsweek writer seems miffed that neither the NFL nor the Raiders have made a statement yet on Musburger's comment, "but the broadcaster's latest exploit has gone down like a lead balloon in some quarters."
In Sen. Warren's defense, Cancian wrote, "Last month, the 69-year-old opted to publicize the results of her DNA test, which proved she is indeed of Native American heritage."
Barely, if that. Those DNA test results prove that Sen. Warren's blood ties to the Cherokee Nation are practically microscopic—somewhere between 1/64th and 1/1,024th Native American. On Oct. 16, Newsbusters' Brent Bozell and Tim Graham said she is no woman of color, but the potential future presidential candidate is a "liar" and a "fraud" for passing herself off as a minority. The Cherokee Nation also took offense to Sen. Warren's razor thin claims.
Left-stream media believe Sen. Warren has proven her minority status, and they are angry that a well-known Democrat has been made the butt of Musburger's joke.
Freeman remarked, "Wonder if they (Raiders) think this kind of disgusting bigotry is appropriate. I’m old enough to remember when NFL teams wanted Kaepernick to stick to sports."
Tim Kawakami, of The Atlantic, tweeted:
"[Oakland Raiders owner] Mark Davis is free to hire and fire whoever he wants, but the fact that he fired Greg Papa for Musburger will not be a proud moment for this franchise."
Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports writes: "Brent Musburger is spending his semi-retirement saying whatever the hell he wants. ... Now he’s jumping into the fray of ugly politics—particularly the racist politics of President Donald Trump who uses xenophobia and fear of other cultures to stoke his base, a tactic being leaned upon heavily ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections." Owens said there will be no response from the NFL because the league is "terrified" by President Trump.
The Newsweek story sympathizes with the Massachusetts senator, who "has been (the) subject of a series of attacks from Trump, who has repeatedly fired barbs at her Native American heritage. The President has argued that Warren 'used the fact that she was Native American to advance her career' and how 'other people who work with her know it.' Trump has addressed the Democratic senator as 'fake Pocahontas,' an action she later deemed to be 'a disgusting low.'"
To further twist the verbal knife in Musburger's back, Newsweek went off-subject to dredge up a Musburger controversy from 2013. While he was broadcasting the national college football championship game, a television cameraman zeroed in a fan in the stadium, Katherine Webb, the glamorous fiancée of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron. Musburger fawned over her looks, and ESPN issued a statement that Musburger had “gone too far”. The Washington Post's Cindy Boren and others went here as well in efforts to belittle the detractors of Sen. Warren.
