“There’s someone lurking in the shadows of the dugout, someone so ugly, so vindictive, so polarizing that with every word he utters he is bastardizing whatever sanctity remains of the game,” warns the New York Daily News’ S.E. Cupp. Could she be referring to Joe Buck? Steve Lyons? Ken Harrelson? Nah, how about MSNBC’s Non-Metallic K.O., whom Cupp (seriously) refers to as “a hate speech merchant”.
Last week, From the Right Radio, a small, grass-roots broadcast outfit based in Indiana, launched a Web site called RespectTheGreatGame.com to bring attention to the fact that Olbermann (pictured above), one of MSNBC’s most controversial commentators, is blogging for MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball.
How is it that someone like Olbermann gets paid to partner up with Major League Baseball – and the National Football League, while he’s at it, as a member of NBC’s “Football Night in America” team – but a controversial conservative commentator like Rush Limbaugh can’t even buy his way into the NFL?
Is Olbermann’s baseball knowledge that unique, in a country full of nerds? Is it really that Limbaugh is “worser,” as Olbermann would say? Or is it that there’s a jarring double standard in sports and the media when it comes to political correctness?
Whether or not Olbermann’s baseball knowledge is unique is a matter of opinion, but surely Cupp is aware he’s got a genuine curriculum vitae when it comes to sports commentary that far exceeds Limbaugh’s presumed expertise at the time of the pill-popper’s brief “Sunday Countdown” employment. It’s also a far bet that if Olbermann used his MLB or NFL vehicles to advance a theory nearly as controversial as Limbaugh’s remarks concerning Donovan McNabb, no petition drive would be required to silence him.