Aww: isn't he sweet? Good boy!
On Monday's CNN This Morning, CNN's Dana Bash and Kasie Hunt gave Republican Lance Trover a pat on the head for being "evolved" about the supposedly disparate press treatment of male and female sports coaches.
The matter arose in the context of a long Washington Post profile of LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey. After noting that the article "details her kind of pugnacious coaching personality," Hunt skeptically wondered:
"Would we talk about that with a male coach? I don't know."
Republican strategist Lance Trover, who recently toiled for Doug Burgum for President, replied:
"I completely agree with you . . . I read it and I thought, man, would a man have gotten the same treatment, right?"
That warmed the feminist cockles of Bash's heart. But first, she had to double-check Trover's truthfulness:
"Did you really read that and think to yourself, would this be written about a man?"
When Trover confirmed that he actually did, "absolutely," think that, Bash responded:
"That is very 2024. The fact that you did that. I mean, I want to be hopeful to think that other men are as evolved as you are. But the fact that you did is pretty cool."
Hunt pitched in: "Yeah, for sure: props for that."
So Hunt and Bash are skeptical that articles profiling the pugnacious style of male coaches would be written? Hello?
For starters, for every such Mulkey article, there have surely been many more ripping the late Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight for his pugnacious/combative style. Even upon his death last year, prominent sports columnist Mitch Albom wrote that the normal rule of not speaking ill about the dead should be waived!
Indeed, trashing the allegedly unpleasant personalities of male coaches has become a sport in itself, the subject of many listicle articles, as in: 20 Most Despicable Coaches, The 20 Angriest Coaches in Sports, and The 10 angriest coaches in college basketball. And every single coach mentioned in those articles was of the XY chromosome ilk.
To offer some examples, would the names of these oft-reviled coaches ring a bell with Hunt and Bash: Bill Belichick, Lane Kiffin, Nick Saban, Billy Martin, Woody Hayes, Earl Weaver?
The patronizing condescension of the CNN pair was off the charts. Imagine the feminist outrage if a couple of male sportswriters had similarly condescendingly congratulated a female political operative on her understanding of, say, the intricacies of the infield fly rule?
Note: Bash even managed to somehow work in a shot at Donald Trump, saying that Mulkey's approach of preemptively criticizing the WaPo article before its publication represented the "Trumpization" of dealing with such situations.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
4/1/24
6:54 am EDTKASIE HUNT: Mulkey has been out there, Lance, basically pushing back ahead of a story that came out over the weekend which was in the Washington Post, was a long profile of her and looking at her personality in away that clearly Mulkey thought, she ahead of time called it a hit piece, attacks the journalist in the Washington Post.
I think if you read the story, I'm not sure that the things that she said might be in there ended up being in the story. It was kind of a portrait of how Mulkey came to be. But, you know, I kind of go back and forth, because on the one hand, it details her kind of pugnacious coaching personality. Would we talk about that with a male coach? I don't know.
On the other hand, we are getting a massive profile in a national publication of a women's basketball coach. And I actually think that's pretty good.
LANCE TROVER: I completely agree with you on both counts. I sometimes, I read it and I thought, man, would a man have gotten the same treatment, right?
But at the same time, it's bringing attention to it. I also think this is a lesson, PR 101 in 2024. Get in front of a story that's coming that you think is bad, and if you don't like what's in it, get out there and talk about it. Look what happened. She got a [inaudible.]
DANA BASH: I mean, it is the Trumpization of the way to approach--and I'm sure you think about this in your line of work all the time. But the way to approach something that's coming is just to get out there and own it, and, frankly, appropriate it and, or to try to quash it in this case.
I just want to co-sign, as the kids say, what you said about the fact that we're talking about women's basketball and women's sports in general. I mean this is really great.
HUNT: I freaking love it.
BASH: It really great. It's the Caitlin Clark of it all. It's --
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: They're making money. They have fans. They have controversies [laughter].
HUNT: It's happening, it's happening. Guess what? It's just like men's, but again, I mean, look Lance, I'm sorry, you're the you're the man at this table for
TROVER: I'm all in!
BASH: What Lance said, what Lance said: that you actually. Did you really read that and think to yourself, would this be written about a man?
TROVER: Yes, I did. Yeah, absolutely.
BASH: First of all, that is very 2024. The fact that you did that. I mean, I want to be hopeful to think that other men are as evolved as you are. But the fact that you did is pretty cool.
HUNT: Yeah, no, for sure. Props for that.
