Not "Fired" -- "Sacked"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. ESPN, which publicly supported Rush Limbaugh's blatant racism until his co-anchors forced the issue, has swiftly and sneakily fired Gregg Easterbrook for getting over-excited about bad movies. Ok, ok -- it was more than that. But as an actual, bar mitzvahed member of the international banking conspiracy, I would like to say that Easterbrook's original column was no more offensive than anything Joe Lieberman has had to say about violence in the movies. It was dumb and remarkably tone deaf, but it was not anti-semitic. Anyway, I don't think it was his generic swipe at money-hungry Jewish producers that got him in trouble. Why did they really fire him? Matthew Yglesias nails it, like a Ticonderoga-class lineman breezing in untouched to sack Chris Chandler into retirement (an event Bears fans have at least a 60% chance of witnessing this weekend):

ESPN is owned by Disney which also owns Miramax, both of which were slammed in the controversial Easterblogg post.

And indeed, Easterbrook calls out Michael Eisner, his boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss, by name, in the offending column.

My only quibble is with Matt’s post title. I mean, come on. The guy was—and I hope, will be again—a football columnist. How can you blow an opportunity like that? If the ball hits you in the hands, you have to catch it.

Filed under: culture/sports