Hank Williams, Jr. Vs. Mike Tyson

by John Hawkins | October 6, 2011 4:49 am

So, Hank Williams Jr. made some thoughtless comments about Barack Obama[1].

In an interview Monday morning on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Williams, unprompted, said of Obama’s outing on the links with House Speaker John Boehner: “It’d be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.”

Asked to clarify, Williams said, “They’re the enemy,” adding that by “they” he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Anchor Gretchen Carlson later said to him, “You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president.” Williams replied, “Well, that is true. But I’m telling you like it is.”

“While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to ‘Monday Night Football,’ ” the network said in a statement. “We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

Should Williams have said that? No. If they were smart, celebrities and athletes wouldn’t say anything publicly about politics to avoid offending half their audiences and, yes, Williams did compare Obama to Hitler. He shouldn’t have. If he was determined to go down that road, he should have gone with Mao, Lenin, or my personal favorite, Khrushchev.

However, isn’t it fascinating that ESPN immediately moved to punish Williams for his comments, even though those comments weren’t made on ESPN?

Yet, when Mike Tyson made much more offensive comments about Sarah Palin[2], on ESPN radio, he wasn’t punished at all.

Glen Rice is a wonderful man. He’s a wonderful guy. You want her to be with somebody like [Dennis] Rodman getting up … in there. Pushing her guts up in the back of her head! …Glen Rice is a nice, mellow, docile man, non-threatening guy. You want someone like Rodman – yeah baby! Let’s get that donkey in here now. [laughter] Just imagine Palin with a big old black stallion ripping. Yeehaw! [I]n life in general you know … everybody got to get that out of their system when they get out of college. If you’re a black man, every white girl, every uppity middle class … everybody got to get their share of love. She could always get boned out by a black person, a vote to bang her. Other than a vote to run office, the only thing she can do … she’s not a bad person because she likes black people at least in her. Sarah Palin … she met the ‘wombshifter.’

This is what galls conservatives — it’s the double standard. If Hank Williams, Jr. had made EXACTLY the same comments, but Boehner was being compared to Hitler, ESPN wouldn’t have punished him. If Mike Tyson had made the same comments about Michelle Obama that he made about Sarah Palin, he’d have been banned for life.

Even when it comes to a sports network like ESPN, conservatives can’t get an even break.