COMEDY, SPORTS, FOOLS
Michelle Wolf was the best comedian in years to headline the White House Correspondents Dinner. (Photo credit: Craig Blankenhorn HBO)
Another potpourri of opines full of vigor.
Time for another potpourri of opines as the past week has been a crazy!
White House Correspondents Dinner
By now everyone surely knows the White House Correspondents Association Dinner was held last Saturday at the Washington, D.C. Hilton Hotel. It is not hyperbole to say the 2018 edition of the annual shindig was one for the ages.
The WHCD has become well-known for comedians roasting the president, his administration, politicians and journalists. Often the president, as did George W. Bush and Barrack Obama, holds his own with a stand-up act that is more than commendable.
Since Donald Trump took office, he refuses to take part, apparently still bruised from 2011 when Obama and Seth Meyers took him apart for, among other things, his outsized role in the juvenile and delinquent birther movement.
Last Saturday, sans Trump, comedian Michelle Wolf took the president, his administration and journalists to the woodshed. She destroyed Kellyanne Conway and, most memorably, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Wolf delivered a brilliant routine that took the Trump gang to task for their daily deep-throated lying. She laid it on the media for enabling and exploiting Trump in the name of higher ratings. Wolf rightly nailed some in the media for sacrificing honor to protect their own access to the White House.
Wolf got down and dirty and it was hilarious!
Following her performance, many in the media climbed on their sacrosanct high horses and blasted her for being a mean-spirited bully. Isn’t that what sells in America these days?
The man at the top (Trump) got elected by being a mean-spirited bully. Remember when he mocked the disabled journalist? Remember how many times he’s made fun of Rosie O’Donnell’s appearance? Remember how he characterized the wife of the Muslim Gold Star family?
The Make America Great Again hat-wearing folks who swear by Trump’s (fake) bravado couldn’t handle it when Wolf displayed authentic bravado.
And it was pathetic to hear media folks, like MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, disparage Wolf’s performance. Mitchell even used Twitter to spread falsehoods about what Wolf said about Sanders, which in turn plays into Trump’s complaints about fake news. C’mon Andrea, you’ve got to be better than that.
To her credit, Michelle Wolf is not backing down and says she wouldn’t change a single word of her comedy routine, nor should she. Considering the times we live in, Wolf’s was arguably the best-ever comedic performance at the WHCD. It was certainly the most on-point.
NCAA Commission on College Basketball
In response to the FBI’s revelation last fall that some universities colluded with apparel giant Adidas to pay basketball recruits, a commission was formed to find a path forward for big-time college hoops.
As part of the FBI investigation into corruption, ten people, including some assistant coaches and an Adidas executive, have been charged in a bribery and kick-back scheme.
Chaired by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Commission on College Basketball held a press conference last week to unveil their findings and recommendations. To put it mildly, the commission fell flat.
Key recommendations by the commission include calling for reforms to reduce the number of players who leave college for the NBA after their freshman season, allow players to return to school if they are not drafted by an NBA team and a lifetime ban from the sport for coaches caught cheating.
One of the biggest challenges facing the commission is the NBA would have to cooperate. The NBA players union has little incentive to cooperate. Allowing players to jump from high school directly to the NBA (which is what LeBron James did before the rule was changed) would put at risk players already in the NBA. The union’s job is to protect current NBA players.
The commission did acknowledge NCAA enforcement has been lax. And it called into question the legitimacy of the AAU summer circuit, which has become a cesspool filled with some unsavory characters out for a quick buck.
The commission failed to address the elephant in the room which is paying college players. The NCAA and the schools make a ton of money on the backs of these players, from ticket sales and sponsorship sales to merchandise sales. The players deserve a piece of this pie.
Until the players are paid, shoe companies and coaches (AAU and college) will continue to seek ways to beat the system. And some players, and their parents, will willingly participate in the pay-for-play schemes that taint college basketball.
The Mighty NFL
Despite Trump’s efforts to marginalize the NFL, one thing is clear; ratings and attendance may have been down last year, but the NFL is still overwhelmingly America’s sport. Last week’s NFL draft averaged 5.5 million viewers.
On the first night of the draft 11.1 million viewers tuned in. For perspective, Sunday’s Game 7 of the NBA playoff series between Cleveland and Indiana had a 5.4 rating. The first round of the NBA draft earned a 7.0 rating. And NFL playoff games last year had ratings as high as 17.5 with as many as 31.2 million viewers.
Nice try #NFLboycott.
Sleazy Yeezy
He’s been mentioned in prior editions of The Weekly Opine. Let the record show Kanye West is a crazy, ignorant fool. Proof can be found in his fealty for Trump and his bizarre comments about slavery being a choice.
Feel free to reread “Blacks Who Support Trump. Why?” to see that Kanye’s not the only black fool. The article can be found at theweeklyopine.com under Blog Posts/Politics.
The Weekly Opine, walking at 6 months
Six months ago, The Weekly Opine launched with a mantra that continues today; to comment on politics, sports and current events (not left, not right, just real).
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Today, begins the next six months. Fresh content founded by (hopefully) unique opinions will continue. Reader acquisition efforts will be bolstered, to grow the audience. There will be more active and visible participation as a member of the media. All of these will help build a better brand platform for The Weekly Opine.
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© 2018 Douglas Freeland / The Weekly Opine