You truly don\u2019t despise the establishment media enough.<\/p>\n
That holds especially true when you\u2019re dealing with a shamelessly liberal rag<\/a> like USA Today.<\/p>\n The latest reminder about the stark decline of American journalism came on Sept. 13, when USA Today\u2019s Nancy Armour penned one of the most inane, pathetic and infantilizing articles imaginable \u2014 the kind you actually have to read to believe<\/a>.<\/p>\n The opening line alone deserves a hearty guffaw.<\/p>\n \u201cNot every athlete can be LeBron James<\/a> or Megan Rapinoe<\/a>,\u201d Armour wrote.<\/p>\n (And thank God for that. Those two are insufferable enough on their own.)<\/p>\n Armour then took a jab at NBA legend Michael Jordan, who infamously stayed away from politics, even to the chagrin<\/a> of fellow prominent Chicagoan Barack Obama.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember Michael Jordan\u2019s comment about Republicans buying shoes?\u201d Amrour continued. \u201cThere\u2019s a long history of athletes putting as much space as possible between themselves and controversy, and what Caitlin Clark and Patrick Mahomes did this week was no different.\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, brother.<\/p>\n For the blissfully unaware, in the week leading up to Armour\u2019s hit piece, Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes both declined to offer any sort of statement on who people should vote for in the forthcoming election.<\/p>\n Clark was dragged into this conversation when she liked a social media post<\/a> from pop czarina Taylor Swift (Clark is a noted fan) touting her support for Vice President Kamala Harris, the topper of the Democratic presidential ticket. Clark has since declined<\/a> to actually endorse a candidate.<\/p>\n Similarly, Mahomes was dragged into this cultural handwringing by virtue of his wife, Brittany Mahomes<\/a>. She, not unlike Clark, liked a social media post, but in this case, it was a post in support of former President Donald Trump, the top of the Republican presidential ticket. When pressed on the backlash to that, Mahomes \u2014 just like Clark \u2014 effectively said he doesn\u2019t care about a person\u2019s politics, just how they treat other people<\/a>.<\/p>\n These mature, thoughtful responses from Clark and Mahomes, however, don\u2019t quite cut the mustard for Armour, who went seeking validation from David Niven, an associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who teaches a course on sports and politics.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s more than nothing, but it doesn\u2019t put them on the front lines of the discussion,\u201d Niven said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at all this by the LeBron James standard, somebody who could not have been more outspoken \u2026 this looks like a little bit of a retreat,\u201d Niven explained. \u201cIf you look at it by Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan\u2019s standards, you\u2019d say there\u2019s still an awful lot of political activism out there.\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s exactly where political activism should stay in sports, \u201cout there,\u201d because by definition, partisan politics will divide, or \u201cpart,\u201d which is literally in the word.<\/p>\n Why is USA Today trying to encourage pro athletes to drive division?<\/p>\n Oh right, USA Today hates Trump and everything he stands for. Armour is trying so desperately to shame people for maybe-or-maybe-not supporting Trump, it\u2019s actually somewhat embarrassing for her.<\/p>\n (And if there\u2019s any question about where Armour\u2019s politics stand, she dedicated entire paragraphs excoriating Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance in her asinine piece.)<\/p>\n \u201cElite athletes are born with unique physical gifts and singular dedication,\u201d Armour wrote at the end of her idiotic thesis. \u201cMoral courage is something they have to find for themselves, and this week was a reminder that not many do.\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, bugger off, Nancy. If Clark and Mahomes are missing \u201cmoral courage,\u201d you\u2019re missing \u201cmoral intellect\u201d for jeering athletes who want nothing to do with divisive politics.<\/p>\n As the great Charles Barkley once said, \u201cI am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models.\u201d<\/p>\n As long as Clark and Mahomes keep playing the way they do, that\u2019s what matters most.<\/p>\n Leave the ideological and political equivocations out of sports. It\u2019s really that simple, no matter how USA Today screeches about it.<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post USA Today Attacks Caitlin Clark and Patrick Mahomes for Not Being Political, Jabs MJ for Good Measure<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You truly don\u2019t despise the establishment media enough. That holds especially true when you\u2019re dealing with a shamelessly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n