SOCIAL, political and racial commentators and activists for years have told us that justice in this country unjustly favors wealthy white Americans, those who can buy their way out of serious problems. And I’ve never doubted that.
And so I was kind of thinking and hoping that late last week, when that kind of justice shifted to favor a black American, that some significant, albeit perverse, progress had been made — and, fair being fair, those same voices would make a lot of media-delivered noise in response.
Fat chance.
Early on the morning of March 14 of this year, Donte Stallworth, two weeks after signing a $35 million free-agent deal to play wide receiver for the Browns, was driving his Bentley in Miami Beach when he struck and killed Mario Reyes, 59. Stallworth, previously entered in the NFL’s substance abuse program, was charged with DUI and manslaughter.
Stallworth pleaded guilty, reached a financial settlement with Reyes’ family and was sentenced to 30 days in a Miami jail. On Friday, he was released after serving 24 days. Not bad, huh? Some minor skin rashes last longer.
But neither those political, social and racial commentators and activists nor their cooperative, obedient enablers in the media seemed interested in this story.
But just imagine . . .
Imagine if Stallworth had been a white pro athlete, his dead victim black, and Stallworth had escaped with a cash settlement and 24 days of three hots and a cot in the local lockup.
Imagine the outraged noise the Rev. Al Sharpton would have made — and he’d have been right — about perverted justice. Imagine the noise the media, from CNN to ESPN, would have made. There would have been televised town meetings, protest rallies and demands to remove the district attorney.
So here was an opportunity to clearly and loudly note that significant progress has been made: In America, people of privilege, black and white, now can get away with manslaughter.
But nothing. Opportunity lost. Maybe, because the story didn’t meet with activists’ preordained agendas, it was ignored. And maybe, because the media just don’t have the stomachs for reporting impolitic truths, it made small news. But, geez, if it’s equality under the law we demand, well, progress is progress.
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Although Fox is MLB’s All-Star Game network, it has a rotten sense of the game’s history.
Two Saturdays ago, Tim McCarver was knocked out to note that Stan Musial was selected to 24 All-Star teams. He made no mention that in four years, 1959-62, two All-Star Games were played, which would explain why Musial could be selected 24 times in a 22-year career.
Saturday, during Yanks-Angels, the quiz answer identified Mickey Mantle as the Yankee selected to the most All-Star teams, 20. Dick Stockton gave it the, “Wow!” while Eric Karros tried to add some context: “I wonder how many of those was when they had two games in a year.”
Why wonder? Fox had an entire week to research and provide that context and answer. Mantle and Musial were selected to both All-Star teams in all four of those two-game years.
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Golf Channel, 9:00 tonight, documents the Jack Nicklaus vs. Tom Watson epic at the 1977 British Open at Turnberry, site of this week’s Open. . . . ABC/TNT’s British Open coverage will in most part be taken from the international feed, thus those tuning in to watch only Tiger Woods play will be disappointed. The British Open will not be seen in the States in HD.
MLB Network over the weekend presented NBC’s telecast of the 1981 All-Star Game, the first game played at the conclusion of that year’s strike. As several readers noted, when Pete Rose led off the game, Tony Kubek said: “If baseball’s on trial, there’s no better character witness to lead off than Pete Rose.”
Just after Jerry Manuel finished his post-game briefing on SNY, Friday — the Reds beat the Mets, 3-0 — an SNY graphics crawl noted that the Reds were beating the Mets, 3-0, top of the ninth.
The drastic reductions of news staffs at local TV stations could create an unintended benefit for sports fans. There are only two local sports anchors who consistently hit the bricks to pursue stories and interact with those they cover: Channel 4’s Bruce Beck and Channel 9’s and 5’s Russ Salzberg.
With Channel 9’s late newscasts, as of tonight, switching to an 11 o’clock start, and Channel 5’s remaining at 10, you get two shots at Salzberg.
Chris Rose has carried his Fox Sports Net indiscriminate wise guy ‘tude to Fox’s MLB telecasts. Saturday’s open included footage of Jonathan Sanchez‘s no-hitter, the night before, followed by a clip of Sanchez being hugged by his father. Rose cheapened a nice scene by referring to the elder Sanchez as Jonathan’s “old man.”