The video: Are you ready for some blowback? Hank Williams Jr., famous for bellowing, "Are you ready for some football?" each week as the singer of the Monday Night Football theme song, is facing a backlash over his rhetorically extreme criticism of the president. Appearing on Fox News' Fox and Friends on Monday to talk politics, Williams called Democrats the "enemy," and argued that President Obama's peacemaking golf game this summer with House Speaker John Boehner (R) was "like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu" — a statement that dumbfounded the Fox News hosts. (Watch the video below.) ESPN promptly pulled Williams' theme song from this week's Monday Night Football broadcast. The singer has since tried to clarify his "bizarre" comments, claiming that what he really meant was that "working class people are hurting — and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job — it makes a lot of us angry."
The reaction: When a trio of Fox News anchors "are so appalled at what you've said that their jaws drop and they all but beg you to reconsider," you've gone too far, says Jay Bookman at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That may be true, says James Poniwozik at TIME. But it's also true that Williams is just another "celebrity over his head in the wading pool of politics" — trying to make a point by invoking Hitler as some sort of shorthand for "somebody I really don't like." And while ESPN responded swiftly by booting Williams' theme song, says Dana Loesch at Big Journalism, it's worth noting that the network did nothing when Mike Tyson made graphic comments about Sarah Palin on an ESPN affiliate. Double standard? Judge for yourself:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Help! Do we really need four Beatles biopics?Talking Point The cast of Sam Mendes' Beatles biopics has been announced
-
Test driving the Rolls-Royce Spectre Black BadgeThe Week Recommends We take the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever built for a spin in Barcelona
-
Tuberculosis is seeing a resurgence, and it's only going to get worseUnder the radar The spread of the deadly infection is buoyed by global unrest
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are the billionaires backing?The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
-
US election: where things stand with one week to goThe Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
-
Is Trump okay?Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
-
The life and times of Kamala HarrisThe Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
