Should Hank Williams Jr. Remain the Voice of Monday Night Football?

[Royd]

What I find humorous about the whole thing is that the interview was done on Fox and the rest of the MSM picked it up and ran with it.
When it's real news, like Fast and Furious or Solyndra, there is total silience, until they are backed into a corner and are threatened to have their teeth pulled with a set of pliers.

 

[gmendoza]

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im with you there brudddah!

 

[easttxchick]

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That depends on who you are and what you're saying...at least that's the way it appears to me anymore.
If you speak out against certain individuals, you WILL be silenced. Scares the daylights outta me....

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Uh, yeah. Except I don't think the real issue here is what Hank said. Hank is free to say what he likes. Just as ESPN is also free to disagree with him.

Hank can say anything he likes about anybody and some news program will dutifully report it. But the flip side of that is that the company he works for is ALSO free. They don't have the right to shut him up but they DO have the right to can him if they don't like what he says, since what he says can affect their bottom line. If sponsors are threatening to pull their advertising, ESPN would be stupid not to listen to their advertisers. They are, after all, in the business of selling advertising and NOT in the business of politics.

What Hank forgot is that freedom isn't free. Sometimes you pay a price for having an opinion. What Hank didn't stop to think about was whether or not this particular opinion was worth loosing his job over. Apparently it isn't or he would not be posting apologies all over the place. If he did feel it was worth the cost and was standing by his guns, I could respect that! But the back-pedaling kinda proves he was just shooting off his mouth, always a dumb move when corporate America is involved.

Give it a couple of weeks for things to die down and I'm betting ol Hank will be right back at it singing the opening to the games precisely because this really is nonsensical. John Q Public really does respect freedom of speech--even when performers use it to say dumb things.

JMO


Rusty

 

[Goose and Fig]

Ahhh- wasn't Keith Olberman fired by ESPN for appearing on the Daily Show?
When you have a contract like that it comes with expectations of representing your "employer" in a positive light. Going off a a tangent that , maybe some people here might agree with him, but to the rest of educated America he sounds like a whack job.

Allowing Monday Night Football to become a venue for more political partisanship is pathetic. Maybe its time for a new song.

 

[JD4570]

As gmendoza wrote" we are republic not a democracy". Democracy means rule of the masses or mob rule. When you have mob rule nobody has rights

 

[AquaEyes]

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He gets several million per year. If that's not enough, well......

When you are getting paid for being a spokesperson, you are representing a company or product. He's free to have his opinion, and he's free to say whatever pops into his head whenever a camera and microphone are in front of him. Likewise, if the company for which he is a spokesperson feels that his actions or words are too polarizing or in any way undesirable, they also have the right to discontinue employing him.

A bit off-topic, but the ease with which people toss around comparisons to Hitler is disturbing to me. But I did find one person (Lewis Black) who was able to make some comedy out of it. The clip is a tiny bit old, but it's still pretty funny.

 

[Royd]

I see this thing as a two way street, or is that a double edged sword? ESPN may very well be cutting their nose off, to spite their face.... HWjr. is an icon of Monday Night Football. He's rough and ready, and has the ability to come up with a new version of the song, each week....That's a talent, which can't be bought, so to speak. They could end up with a public boycott.

Somehow, I don't think the thinskins who worry about a single word, are the kind of people who actually enjoy watching 250lb. men slamming into each other for four hours...Just a hunch.

 

[AquaEyes]

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And another hunch -- not everyone who watches football agrees with what Hank said. Spokespeople are hired for mass-appeal of a target audience, in this case football fans. Once that spokesperson says or does something which splits the target audience into those who agree and those who disagree, he no longer has the mass-appeal of the target audience. Thus he no longer functions in the original capacity for which he was hired, and his employers decided to terminate the agreement.

 

[country lady]

I don't have an opinion about whether the song should be played, but Hank, Jr. certainly doesn't need the money. He is a multi-millionaire from his Daddy's royalties and in his own right.

I do think there is selective indignation, though. President Bush was called Hitler by the Left, along with other really nasty comments. That didn't seem to offend this present offended critics. The Huffington Press and Moveon.org had a field day during his presidency. James Hoffa got away with his remarks about the Tea Party. President Obama and the White House didn't appear offended at that. This group of politicians has a very thin skin. HOWEVER, I don't like anyone being called Hitler.

We see all the time how far celebrities can go, even with a morality clause in their contracts. Look at Charlie Sheen. Remember Paula Abdul was accused of messing around with a contestant on American Idol, which smacks of conflict of interest. So Hank Williams, Jr. may pay the price for his public opinions.