By Ghost of John Brown

Recently "Bocephus" (a.k.a. Hank Williams, Jr.) made a controversial comment on Fox and Friends regarding the President and John Boehner - click here to see.  ESPN summarily dismissed Hank, even though he's been singing the opening for Monday Night Football since before most of the ESPN executives were playing t-ball.  I thought it was unfortunate for ESPN to do this, but I somewhat (note - somewhat) understand.  That was until I read how ESPN is trying to spin this.  They fired him because he violated the "policy" of political advocacy.  REALLY??  You sure about that?  Let's take a little walk down memory lane, shall we?

Here are some of the "stories" that ESPN has put up lately.

• It was "news" that Barack Obama decided to honor the 1985 Chicago Bears.  No, nothing political about trying to tie himself to perhaps the most beloved team in Chicago history some 25 years late.
• Michelle made Sportcenter's "Top Ten Plays" by kicking around a soccer ball.
• Of course the had to give long, extended coverage to the President when he filled out his NCAA bracket picks, even though it was done while Japan was reeling from the earthquakes and we were bombing Libya.
• Michelle landed a feature on ESPN talking about eating well and playing sports.  Of course that's kind of funny considering the First Lady really likes some fried food.
• ESPN tried to silence Paul Azinger for commenting about how much Barack Obama plays golf.  Of course they were silent when Kenny Maynes joked about ramming a car with a Palin bumper sticker.

Look, ESPN is a private company.  They can do what they want to as far as I'm concerned.  I, on the other hand, will take just as much liberty in criticizing their hypocrisy.  If they want to fire Hank Williams, Jr. - fine.  Go ahead.  But to wrap this in a holier than though statement of "we have this nice little policy here", insults my intelligence.  ESPN is owned by Disney, which isn't exactly conservative friendly.  If you want to promote liberal ideology and smash anyone that even hints at being conservative - fine, just be honest about it.  Just tell everyone up front that you are a liberal rag instead of trying to pretend you're impartial.

Until then, let Hank entertain you.

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