You've got the internet, conservative talk radio and Fox News as alternatives for fake news on the COVID-19 pandemic, right? Yes, and who else do you trust to provide straight, unbiased reporting on the coronavirus? You naturally gravitate to ... sports writers ... for the latest news, too, right? Nah, not so much! Deadspin's cadre of caustic, progressive cynics will give you everything you don't need/can't trust.
Jesse Spector is one of Deadspin's would-be "White House correspondents." This week he lashed out at President Donald Trump as a "complete idiot" for merely saying he wants to see the return of sports in America.
Spector accused President Trump of urging a premature return of sports and of watching sports re-runs just to see himself on television, writing:
"Being a complete idiot who has no regard for anyone but himself, it makes perfect sense that Donald Trump would join other politicians in publicly moaning for sports to return, even though doing so is a horrendous idea that shouldn’t happen for several months."
This attack stems from the president's Tuesday news briefing on the coronavirus, when he said: “We have to get our sports back." President Trump also announced the United States would stop contributing funds to the World Health Organization and said, ''I’m tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old.”
Well, who isn't turned off by excessive media coverage of e-sports, Joe Blow's opinion of who would have won the NCAA Tournament and replays of old games? Isn't everyone looking forward to actual live sports competition again -- at the proper time and under safe conditions? The president did not say he wants sports to rush back into it and put lives at risk, but that seems to be what Spector is implying.
When someone retweeted Trump's sentiment, Spector jumped all over him with his own Twitter response:
Then, in a second Tweet, Spector posted a photo of a 2006 re-run claiming that Trump had not only recently watched, but actually appears in the broadcast. It was a National League playoff game from 2006:
Back to his Deadspin story, Spector went off on Trump again, accusing him of watching an old game just to see himself on TV -- during the pandemic:
"Is it really possible that the President of the United States, amid a deadly pandemic that is hitting his country harder than any other on the planet, would watch a baseball game from a decade and a half ago… to see if he might be able to catch a glimpse of himself in his own great seats?"
In Spector's not-so-humble opinion, the president of the United States is "a complete idiot who has no regard for anyone but himself ... ."
It’s not just possible, but it very likely explains why he made such a specific complaint about the sports programming that is currently available, Spector claims.
