The National Football League is — as long as it flows from left to right, as Ed Morrissey notes at Hot Air. Hank Williams was dropped — we don’t know yet if it’s just for yesterday’s edition of Monday Night Football or permanently — by ESPN for comparing the president to Hitler. But for this year’s Super Bowl halftime entertainer, such comparisons are just another day at the office. Or at least they were until January of 2009:
I don’t think Williams was misunderstood at all; he was pretty blunt about it, and claiming that people didn’t catch some alleged nuance is just laughable. But should that mean that anyone who makes Hitler comparisons to contemporary political leaders should be barred from NFL performances? If so, then the NFL might need to reconsider its latest entertainment decision:
Will Madonna take the field at halftime during the Super Bowl come February?
Madge is reportedly in talks to headline the 2012 halftime show at Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, which would mark her debut on the massively watched pro football telecast — that according to a sports blog citing a source “close to the event.” …
Recent halftime performers have included the Black Eyed Peas, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. Madonna would in theory have a blank canvas to showcase her catalog of work, from the “Like a Virgin” days to her most recent, electric-hop record, “Hard Candy.”
Yeah, that’s just what the Super Bowl needs — another middle-aged pop star well past her prime giving us a “Sweating to the Oldies” set. But Jammie Wearing Fool recalls when Madonna was positively LaRouchian herself, in 2008:
Madonna kicked off her Sticky & Sweet Tour in the U.K. Saturday, and stirred up a beehive of controversy by comparing Republican presidential nominee John McCain to Adolf Hitler in a video montage during the show.
During the song “Get Stupid,” Madonna flashed images of McCain alongside photos of Hitler and brutal Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, as well as images of destruction and global warming, according to British paper The Times.
By contrast, in the next segment of the performance, she used the image of Democratic nominee Barack Obama alongside pictures of John Lennon, Mahatma Ghandi and Al Gore.
Frankly, I’d watch football if both of these two performed, or if neither of them did. I really couldn’t care less if Williams performs before every Monday Night Football game or if Madonna breaks out the bustier for a halftime gig at the Super Bowl. I’ll be getting the veggie tray and drinks during halftime anyway. What I do care about is a double standard when it comes to political expression by entertainers that penalizes conservatives while giving progressives a pass.
As I said to my wife last night, we need to pay particular attention to the food we serve at halftime during our Super Bowl party, since everyone will be in kitchen while Madge is on.
For a look back at an era where the NFL (mostly) kept politics out of the game we watched on TV, click here.
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