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.
-
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
-
US election: who the billionaires are backingThe Explainer More have endorsed Kamala Harris than Donald Trump, but among the 'ultra-rich' the split is more even
-
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
-
1 of 6 'Trump Train' drivers liable in Biden bus blockadeSpeed Read Only one of the accused was found liable in the case concerning the deliberate slowing of a 2020 Biden campaign bus
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
