NYT Mag: It’s Trump’s Fault Sports Writers Can’t Just Write Sports
16th February 2017
Kang’s opening volley – Should Athletes Stick to Sports? – is a rhetorical question. He agrees with sports media critic Bryan Curtis that it’s a moot point now. “Trump’s presidency, with its daily explosions, has made it impossible to cover pro sports, even in the simplest box-score ways, without detouring onto the White House lawn. This comes, in part, from the way basic sports coverage works. Reporters ask questions before and after every game, and when the only thing anyone wants to talk about is Trump, some of those questions will be about the president.”
But the cart’s leading the horse here! Biased media are baiting athletes with loaded questions, then claiming “the only thing anyone wants to talk about is Trump.” Later the confused Kang admits the media endlessly badgered Tom Brady about his “Make America Great Again” hat. That’s right, and Kang’s copout notwithstanding, it’s the media driving the trend, not the other way around. Sports journalist are liberal, and liberals are constantly shrinking the spaces that have traditionally been politics-free. It’s what they do.