Our media apparatus remains completely unprepared to deal with the challenges it faces, lest calling it what it is – telling the truth – will be too controversial and cause a backlash.
It is cowardice. That’s all it is. This is how we end up with titles like…
- Chicago Grandstand: “Josh Donaldson’s comment to Tim Anderson leads to benches eliminated in Chicago White Sox loss to New York Yankees”
It had to be some kind of commentary!
- New York Post: “White Sox accuse Yankees’ Josh Donaldson of racial comment on ‘Jackie'”
A racist comment? Many of the comments about Jackie Robinson – we can safely and correctly assume that this is Jackie Robinson – are racial. Robinson was Major League Baseball’s first black player. He is a central figure in the racial history of the United States. It’s really weird to “blame” someone.
It’s also weird to accuse someone of doing something they freely admit to doing.
- ESPN: “New York Yankees’ Josh Donaldson comment to Chicago White Sox star Tim Anderson called ‘racist'”
Unfortunately, a double passive voice doesn’t negate the shitty aspect of writing this title in such a tasteless way.
Surprisingly best so far, if lacking in context, and absolutely written as such because it was Donaldson’s longtime irritant, because he’s now on the Yankees, and because it’s happened against the White Sox, leading to the White Sox Dave play. Also, perfectly devoid of race in the title because Barstool, you know.
- Kick : “Tim Anderson, Tony La Russa Say Josh Donaldson Made ‘Racist Comment'”
This? Who understood? And summarized correctly?
Donaldson admitted he called Anderson “Jackie”, in the first run, in reference to a 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated where Anderson described himself as feeling like “the Jackie Robinson of today”. Donaldson apologized for the comment and said he meant no disrespect. Anderson, who is black, said he took offense to the comment.
Donaldson claiming he thought he and Anderson had an inside joke about it… wasn’t much of an excuse, but that’s beside the point. No matter how he thought it was racist – he took Anderson’s proud connection to Robinson and his place in the game as a black superstar, and made a punchline out of it – and Anderson was rightly pissed at this subject.
The one outlet’s readership that got it right on Saturday probably doesn’t agree with that assessment, but at least they framed the incident for what it was, instead of how everyone else danced around what happened in the Bronx.