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Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie today accused ESPN of "institutional racism" for its decision to hire Rush Limbaugh and for the portrayal of NFL players in the fictional series "Playmakers."
ESPN had tarnished its image of being one of the most respected media outlets for NFL coverage for the sake of ratings, Lurie said. The hiring of Limbaugh and the show are examples of "racist potshots" toward the league, he said.
"Some of the events of this week are built with institutional racism," Lurie said. "It exists. Let's not hide it. Let's not make us believe the problem is a single person. It's far from that."
A telephone message seeking comment from ESPN today was not immediately returned.
The guardians of our national discourse (and yes, I mean YOU Howard Kurtz. And NBC. And Espn.) have for too long ignored the amount of explicit and implicit bigotry which oozes from Limbaugh's every utterance. ESPN knew that when they were hiring someone "controversial," that what controversial meant was "bigot."