OT - You are (no longer) looking live at B1G

Kevin Nealon lampooned him on Saturday Night Live after CBS fired both Jimmy and Musberger in the 1980s (I think Al Franken played Jimmy the Greek). It was one of the most brilliant sketches they've ever done.

Is it the demographic on this Board?  I think it is disgraceful, to allow anybody to get away with blandly calling Musberger "racist" and leaving it as though it were an accepted fact.  Naturally, at a left-wing site like The Nation, playing that race card against Musberger and in favor of  a couple of 60's race-protest icons like Carlos and Smith goes over pretty easy.  It was The Nation's leftist sprotswriter Dave Zirin who dug up the 40 year-old column by a young Brent Musberger, writing for the Chicago American.  Zirin co-wrote a book with the subject of the story, American Sprinter John Carlos, and it is clear where Zirin's sympathies lie.  Nothing wrong with that of course; Zirin can take whatever viewpoint he likes.  And he most certainly has.

The big thing was to pick on Musberger's phrase, "black-skinned stormtroopers" in one line of a much longer column.  The pretty obvious reason for that description was the self-styled "salute" that Carlos and Smith chose, with black-gloved fists raised high with heads bowed, reminiscent of salutes to der fuhrer during the days of the Third Reich.  (Just think; we are farther in time now removed from 1968, than they were removed from the liberation of the death camps, in 1968.)

The reason for the right and left raised fists is that the two sprinters only had one pair of gloves and so they each took one.  

Anyway, that's pretty much where any criticism of Musberger, circa '68, ends.  The rest of his column for the American was well-written and remarkably correct.  Correct, that is, for anybody who doesn't work for The Nation and who is devoted to the social protests of the 1960's.

I give The Nation and Dave Zirin credit for precisely one thing; they reprinted the entire 1968 column by Musberger.  (The Chicago American no longer being around to claim any copyright, I suppose.)  Here are some of the relevant bits that I commend to anybody really interested in the inflammatory charge that Musberger wrote a "racist" column about Carlos and Smith.  Here are the opening paragraphs:

Bizarre Protest by Smith, Carlos Tarnishes Medals

 

by Brent Musburger

 

mexico city—Tommie Smith and John Carlos must be labeled unimaginative blokes if they can’t come up with a stronger and more effective protest than the one they staged her last night during the Olympic medal ceremony honoring their accomplishments in the 200-meter run.

Smith and Carlos looked like a couple of black-skinned storm troopers, holding aloft their black-globed hands during the playing of the National Anthem. They sprinkled their symbolism with black track shoes and black scarfs and black power medals. It’s destined to go down as the most unsubtle demonstration in the history of protest.

But you’ve got to give Smith and Carlos credit for one thing. They knew how to deliver whatever it was they were trying to deliver on international television, thus insuring maximum embarrassment for the country that is picking up the tab for their room and board here in Mexico City. One gets a little tired of having the United States run down by athletes who are enjoying themselves at the expense of their country.

Protesting and working constructively against racism in the United States is one thing, but airing one’s dirty clothing before the entire world during a fun and games tournament was no more than a juvenile gesture by a couple of athletes who should have known better. 

If Smith and Carlos were convinced that the ends justified their black power demonstration during the National Anthem, they should have avoided the award ceremony altogether. If it’s true, as hayes Jones says, that an athlete competes for himself but walks to the stand for his country, then a more courageous protest would have been for Smith and Carlos simply to stay away and not pick up their medals.

...

 

I gather from the dateline (Mexico City) as well as the next part of the column, that Musberger was there in Mexico City and was an eyewitness to some of what happened.  Because the column goes on like so:

...

An Ignoble Performance

Their ignoble performance on the victory stand completely overshadowed a magnificent performance by two black athletes. It’s a shame. Smith will not now be remembered as that splendid runner who so thoroughly demolished the world’s record that he ran the last 10 yards with both arms held high in triumph over his head as he crashed through the finish line in the fantastic time of 19.8.

He will instead be remembered as the militant black who shook a black glove and black track shoe during the playing of the National Anthem. It hardly seems on the level with his first accomplishment, and it did absolutely nothing to relax racial tensions any place.

Another sorry performance developed on the bus ride back to the Olympic village after the ceremony. Smith and Carlos, along with their wives, boarded a bus with a group of tourists who were headed in the same direction.

Upon spotting the two winners, an indignant California tourist declared: "I was ashamed of both of you. That was a disgraceful performance." This ignited a loud public debate between the two Olympic medal winners and the irate tourist, as ears around the world sucked up the ugly words.

A Canadian journalist, Dick Beddoes of Toronto, finally broke up the argument. Then he, too, wound up debating Carlos, who wasted all of the post-race interview time last night lecturing the assembled journalists on what they should think and write...

Then came what I think was the best line of the column.  Maybe this is the line that pissed off Dave Zirin the most (although Zirin seemed content to go as Godwin as Musberger did, and pick on the "black stormtroopers" trope):

Perhaps it’s time that 20-year-old athletes quit passing themselves off as social philosophers.

 

So have at it, MGoBoard!  You find the most racist part of the 1968 Brent  Musberger column.  I call bullshit on the "Brent Musberger = "racist" smear.