Offering no objectivity whatsoever, CBS Sports gave San Antonio Spurs' Coach Greg Popovich a completely open forum today to attack gun rights and brand President Donald Trump a coward. Popovich's remarks followed Saturday's March for Our Lives activities across the nation and preceded the Spurs' game at Milwaukee today.
CBS Sports' Jack Maloney offered a short introduction and then yielded to Popovich for an unchallenged, 450-word editorial criticizing the president and politicians who continue to protect the Second Amendment. "Popovich was asked specifically about what he thought the marches meant for the future of the country, but expounded further on the need for the country to reflect, and the lack of leadership from current politicians," Maloney wrote.
Popovich, who has labeled President Trump a "soulless coward" in the past, started out saying:
"I can tell you that I'm sure most everybody is going to be unbelievably proud and excited about those students and what they've done. Because our politicians have certainly sat on their thumbs and just hidden. To most, it's almost like a dereliction of duty to watch all these people get killed with guns -- in so many different ways, whether it's nightclubs, or schools, or cities. And it seems that the power and the money are more important than the lives. So to see these teenagers demand this, it takes you back."
Popovich said it was TV images of the blood and body bags that changed Americans' perception of the Vietnam War, then said: "And in this one, in this situation, these students are the same way. Images are important." Then he launched verbal howitzers at the president, politicians and the National Rifle Association:
"But if you just sit for a moment and imagine those bullets going through those bodies, and what those bodies might have looked like afterwards, how can the president of the country talk about all the things he's going to do, and then go have lunch with the NRA and change it? It's just cowardice. A real leader would have been in Washington D.C. this weekend, not at his penthouse at Mar-a-Lago. He would have had the decency to meet with a group, to see what's going on, and how important it is, and how important our children should be to us. So for all those politicians involved, it's just a dereliction of duty.
The idea that armed, honest citizens are safer people than those victims in gun free zones never entered into Popovich's comments or Maloney's one-sided report. No mention of mental illness came up either.
Popovich fired off one more salvo with this:
"You go back and investigate the Second Amendment. What does it really mean today? What are we willing to give up for the safety of our children? The people in power don't want to talk about that. The fact that our president left town, is a real indication of how much he really cares about anything other than feeding his insatiable ego."
Before attacking the politicians, Popovich ought to look inside the NBA (and other sports) where athletes are stepping up personal security with ... guns and bodyguards. Maloney could have done the same and mentioned it in his story to provide some semblance of fairness and objectivity.
