Listening to an interview with San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean the other day I was a bit alarmed at his beginning the interview with a few glowing minutes about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because he was addressing the US Congress. Really?!? Maybe the Giants do not see that type of talk as divisive because Pac Bell Park was built for people of the elite, the winners. My ire was a bit raised. My mind raced. Why did they treat Panda, basically one of the few ‘black’ guys on the team like dirt? Then when I heard Aubrey Huff, who did hit 28 bombs in 2010 for the Giants but who went awol the next year as a headcase, savaging his former teammate Pablo Sandoval on the radio, the whole thing reeks of good old boys and their narrow opinions. Kinda pissin me off here. Then of course when listening to sports talk radio I tune in Murph & Mac on KNBR 680am from 5 to 9 am weekdays. All these guys were savaging the Panda too, in kind off a safe kiss ass but nonetheless racist tone. I am reading in to the racism and that is exactly what I am doing.
The Murph & Mac show is a terrible radio show. Literally a common theme on todays show March 16, 2015 was “love it or leave it”. The students at UC Irvine have recently proposed some limitations on the display of the US flag on campus and raised questions about the connection of the flag to violence, colonialism and war. All legitimate questions. My opinion is that I would entertain the query but go with Abe Lincoln on this one and say that he raised the flag and did so on behalf of every person of every race trying to get a fair shake in this country. So let it represent the good things and we can educate to be more aware of the bad things.
What irked me is the juvenile responses of these guys to any such social issues. Their response is basically I am a dopey entitled white guy who can’t fathom any restriction on my right to say whatever stupid shit I want to (over the airwaves) and that’s about the extent of it. These guys are avowedly for the use of the team name Redskins for the NFL football team of our national capitol in Washington DC!?! So basically the response all show was “Love It Or Leave It Man”. Asinine. I will now say that the Murph & Mac show is a terrible radio show. They regularly repeat the lie on this show that American Veterans returning from Vietnam were spat upon.
Aside from the second in command Paul McCafrey, an idiot in his own right, they have added a third, the little weasel Patrick Conner who drops crypto-conservative neocon opinions like little rabbit turds all over the airwaves, adding his shitty opinion at random parts of the show. He gets in a particular tizzy when anyone takes a dislike to cigarette smoking, challenges racism or the use of the term Redskins, or does anything he could remotely classify as politically correct. How about instead of the charged term politically correct we use something like “common decency” or “reading the room” especially for people who broadcast over 50,000 watts. I challenge Patrick Conner to face up an Apache Brave and tell him face to face how Redskin is an appropriate term for the NFL football team from Washington and how dare he challenge or take little Patrick Conners right to use it. Last year in a weekend SF Giants pre game he ranted for hours about some guy in Iran who had not taken a shower in 40 years. The insinuation was that Iranians and Arabs (these morons cannot differentiate) are ALL stinky people who don’t bathe, and should therefore be annihilated. This guy blathers on constantly about being a proud ex marine and all this crap. I finally emailed him and said get on with the friggin baseball talk already, and consider that any honorable soldier honors even his enemy and does not dehumanize him. I am embarassed that these three guys are Irish-American, but like George Carlin said its not like they had to work for it or anything.
In the SF Bay Area which many call the socially progressive capital of the United States the extent of the progressive persona offered by these lug nuts on the Murph & Mac show on KNBR 680am is admiration for the Grateful Dead, Bill Walton oddities, smoking pot (covertly), and a token lesbian lady as a fourth voice who lets her sexual orientation be known in every other commercial segment (which by the way run 39 minutes out of every hour) and at least 16 times during the broadcast. I guess that’s the bogus badge that KNBR uses in order to get away with the rest of the tripe they peddle. Equal rights and justice for all the rich pretty people, right? They are constantly mentioning and lauding, aye, lionizing Reagan, GW Bush, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. in glowing terms. These guys represent the worst aspects of the American idiot male sports persona. Its like a group of emasculated little boys. Interestingly enough the conservative commentary is so
reaching and grandiose but the personal talk is always pathetic insecure small man talk.
What’s the solution? Well a little bird told me that Dave Zirin, the great radical sports writer, might be getting a show on alternative public radio. Sounds good. Let all the constituents of public radio who believe that we need a radical commentary on aspects of popular American culture such as sports come forward with our requests now.
Nathan Collins can be reached at sherifyasu@yahoo.com.
