Like many patriotic football fans, I’m troubled by ESPN’s decision not to air the National Anthem during NFL games. This is not only a cowardly move, but one that makes no sense. It all has to do with how a television broadcast works.
You’ve probably seen photos of a television control room. A bunch of people sitting in front of several monitors offering different video. The director is the person who tells those running cameras which shots to get and then decides which shots actually hit the air.
Basically, there’s no rule a director has to air video of players kneeling or raising fists. Some network executives have contended that “this is news” but they fail to remember that NFL games are entertainment.
So before the National Anthem, all a director has to say is, “Camera one, get me a shot of the singer. Camera two, an old veteran in the crowd. Camera three, a player actually singing.”
You have seventy thousand people in a crowd and ninety active players on the sidelines. There is absolutely no reason or journalistic requirement to show a protest. It is not news. If someone falls out of the upper deck, that’s news. A player dies on the field? News. A protest by one player doesn’t qualify. And if one player kneels, he represents a little more than one percent of the players active for the game. Why focus on him and not the eighty-nine showing respect for the flag and the brave men and women of the military?
So here are the obvious shot choices for a director of an NFL game:
-The singer
-American Flag waving in the breeze
-Old veteran
-Young current member of the military
-Player with hand over heart
-Player singing
-Child in crowd with hand over heart
-Military fly-by at the end of the song
The problem with ESPN is that the players’ protest fits their agenda. (They’re owned by Disney, which also owns ABC.) By not airing the National Anthem, they’re giving power to the one percent of players protesting it.
Talk about the tail wagging the dog. And the irony of a sports network needing to grow a pair is pretty funny.
Donald Trump has already started a petition to get ESPN to air the National Anthem.
A better solution would be to turn off ESPN. Which, in case you didn’t know, stands for Elite Snowflake Protest Network.
–Nick Harlow worked in television news for thirty years as an affiliate reporter and network producer. He is the author of several political thrillers and the recent Deplorables’ Guide to Fake News.
Follow Nick on twitter: @NicholasHarlow
Find his books on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071KYPBLB
Read the full story from Blunt Force Truth
Want more BFT? Leave us a voicemail on our page or follow us on Twitter @BFT_Podcast and Facebook @BluntForceTruthPodcast. We want to hear from you! There’s no better place to get the #BluntForceTruth.
