#BoycottESPN for two weeks

That's what I'm doing, officially of last night, over Jemele Hill's two-week suspension by Great Red Satan for telling people they should consider boycotting Dallas Cowboys advertisers. (I'm not rich or even close to it, nor am I that capitalistic, but I'll for it, even though my personal boycott wouldn't make much difference.)

On the big picture, there's other issues involved.

Yes, Hill is not hired as an opiner or commenter. Nonetheless, the "richness" of Red Satan, the sports world equivalent of mainstream media, silencing its own staff is laughable.

And, it's over the NFL. In other words, ESPN doesn't want Hill to risk killing the goose laying its golden eggs. It's not the first time Red Satan's been accused of pulling punches regarding the No Fun League. Some, including this opiner, say that some of its early coverage of the NFL's problems with chronic traumatic encephalopathy were behind the curve. Related to that, this opiner says that ESPN could, if it wanted to, especially in the wake of Aaron Hernandez' suicide, look at CTE in major-college football, too, but that's another golden-egged goose.

Of course, the media in general, when at the big mainstream level, likes to shush its employees at times. Even at medium level, it does. I'll have a post related to that in other ways later this week.

That said, that problem goes beyond the media. Employees' rights to the First Amendment have become ever more folded, spindled and mutilated. And, while the GOP has led the charge to make this happen, the Democrats have generally sat passively by.

If I were a day trader at Goldman Sachs of Hillary Clinton speaking fame, and I Tweeted, even on a personal Twitter account, about boycotting Dallas Cowboys advertisers, I'd get a suspension of two weeks at minimum, if Goddam Sachs has ever done bond offerings or other capital raising for any said advertisers. I might get such a suspension even without it.

Beyond that, when Zack Lowe claims the Cavs are ahead of the Celtics in this year's NBA Eastern Conference, its actual sports coverage is going down hill. Lowe went so far as to hint the depth (? Isaiah Thomas is out how long? Derrick Rose WILL be out at some point and so will Dwyane Wade) the Cavs got in the Kyrie Irving trade could make it competitive in the NBA Finals against the Warriors. I know Woj can't do everything hoopswise there, but maybe more than that?

But "I want to watch my team," you say, and "they're on ESPN."

I don't have cable, and there are Internet workarounds. Figure the rest out for yourself.

And, as far as politicizing? Five Thirty Eight is often centrist dreck.