Mondays with Murray: Rothbard on Sports Writers

It seems like nowadays one can't even sit back, relax, and watch your favorite professional sports teams play a game without being inundated with political posturing from sports broadcasters and writers. Whether it's an isolated incident such as Bob Costas hijacking a national game to launch into an anti-gun tirade, or a larger national media event such as the Trayvon Martin shooting which nearly the entire sports media felt the need to chime in on, it seems that many sports writers often find it difficult to stick to their area of expertise. And now, with the Donald Sterling fiasco taking the National Basketball League by storm, we once again see sports writers commenting on everything from race to private property rights to the first amendment.Murray Rothbard made some interesting observations about sports writers. Here's an excerpt from The Irrepressible Rothbard : The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard:

Of all areas of life, sports should be the arena least touched by politics. For the glory of being a sports fan is precisely that we are engaging in fun and play, that we are permitted to be "irrational"; that is, to be Yankee or Mets fans, to love our team and to hate the enemy, without having to ground these passions in systematic, moral or metaphysical theory. So it is particularity obnoxious when the gaggle of left Puritans invades and takes over the field of sports. Which they have done, of course, with a vengeance.The Hate Thought squad has run rampant in sports for years. Veteran and respected sports figures, such as Al Campaneris and Jimmy the Greek, have seen their careers destroyed because they gave one politically improper answer to an interviewer's question. No one dares even explore whether or not the answers were correct; their very expression is a hate-thought-crime; unlike other, seemingly graver, crimes, from their punishment there is no reprieve.I like to think that sports writers are above politics' that sports and only sports fill their minds. But now, they too have succumbed, and are, in fact, viciously leftist whenever politics is deemed relevant to sports.

There is of course nothing wrong with sports writers having opinions on current events, but it would be nice to be able to enjoy sports - which many see as an "escape" from the real world  - without hearing the same irrational, leftist dogma that I hear in just about every other area of life (especially living here in Southern California!).As we've seen with the slanted rantings of Costas and those who immediately jumped to the defense of Trayvon Martin before examining any of the relevant facts, sports writers of today still seem to parrot "viciously leftist" positions whenever given the opportunity. I have no desire to come to the defense of Donal Sterling, but it seems that he is simply another example of the latest career destroyed by a "hate-thought-crime."Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!