The commentators who chastised Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James for political statements seem totally fine with players doing the ‘Trump dance’ Email not displaying correctly?
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** OPINION
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** Suddenly it’s OK to not stick to sports
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San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa, far right, leads his teammates in a dance to celebrate a sack in a game on Nov. 10. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit)

So have you seen the latest sports celebration?

It’s the Trump dance. You know, it’s that kinda awkward two-fisted thing that Donald Trump does. And it’s popped up a few times in NFL games with players celebrating touchdowns by imitating that goofy dance.

For starters, the NFL is OK with this — and I’m OK with that. NFL spokesperson ​​Brian McCarthy told Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy ([link removed]) (no relation), “There’s no issue” with players doing the dance.

Nor should there be.

ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio wrote ([link removed]) , “It’s a story given the political undertones of the dance. But the dance itself violates no league rules. Even if the players doing the dance are doing it to make a political statement, the rules allow it.”

Michael McCarthy reached out to me for his story, and I said, “I don’t see how the NFL could stop these Trump-dance celebrations. Like any celebration, as long as it’s not significantly disrupting the game, the NFL should allow it. If you were to stop this celebration, you would seemingly have to ban all celebrations. I’m sure the NFL isn’t crazy about celebrations with a political bent, but putting a ban on them would open up a whole other set of problems. My guess is it’s all just a fad that is going to fade pretty quickly anyway. The NFL is probably thinking that, too.”

The other question is whether networks should show the celebrations during their game broadcasts and highlights. McCarthy didn’t quote me in his piece, but I did tell him, “The networks should just continue to handle it like any other celebration. Networks typically show celebrations for a moment or two and then go to other shots: the crowd, the other team, and so forth. If I were directing a game, I would continue to handle it that way.”

I felt the exact same way about players kneeling for the national anthem. It’s not disrupting the game. I’ve always fully supported Colin Kaepernick ([link removed]) and other players ([link removed]) for making that political statement if they choose — and wrote about it often when I was a sports columnist for the Tampa Bay Times.

Now, a big difference is that NFL games almost never show the national anthems anyway, as opposed to touchdown celebrations.

Ultimately, however, one cannot say they are OK with national anthem protests and then tell players they shouldn’t do the Trump dance. But, it’s especially important to make this point: You can't argue that players can do the Trump celebration but don’t have the right to make other political statements, including kneeling for the anthem.

I bring this up because CNN brilliantly pointed out ([link removed]) the hypocrisy of many who appeared on Fox News in the past to say players should stick to sports. Fox News prime-time host Laura Ingraham infamously told NBA superstar LeBron James to “shut up and dribble.”

Yet now, some at Fox News and many on the right seem totally cool with athletes doing the Trump dance. And here’s the thing — as much as there are many on the right who want to believe liberals are upset about the Trump dance, the truth of the matter is few, if any, have a problem with it.

As CNN’s Abby Phillip said on air, “To be honest, I’m not sure people are losing their minds over players doing the Trump dance on the field. It’s fine. But they did lose their minds when NFL players like Colin Kaepernick did not take a political stance, but took a social justice stance, there’s a distinction between those two things. It is interesting that there’s been this big turnaround, it seems.”

Some call it a turnaround. I would call it being downright hypocritical.

In fact, Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov roasted some of her colleagues by saying, “I guess we’ve gotten to the portion of the Trump era where we have moved past ‘shut up and dribble’ and now it is fantastic for athletes to talk about their politics.”

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** Comcast’s big plans
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I mentioned this briefly in Wednesday’s newsletter, but it deserves more follow-up today.

Comcast has announced it will spin off most of its cable television networks into a separate publicly traded company. The new company will include some big cable names: MSNBC, USA Network, E!, CNBC, Oxygen, SYFY and the Golf Channel.

Comcast is expected to keep the NBC Universal properties of NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, the streaming service Peacock and the cable network Bravo.

The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin points out ([link removed]) , “Cable television, once a juggernaut that propelled the share prices of traditional media companies, has become a financial albatross. Though they remain enormously profitable, cable TV channels are in long-term decline as viewers replace subscriptions with streaming services like Netflix or YouTube TV.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Amol Sharma wrote ([link removed]) , “Comcast is betting that NBCUniversal’s remaining assets — including in broadcast TV, sports, movies and theme parks — will be better positioned for growth, and that its strong balance sheet can absorb the loss of still-healthy profits from cable networks. The new cable venture would likely need greater scale to thrive, media executives say. Comcast’s leadership sees the potential for it to consolidate other networks across the dial over time.”

So let’s dig a little deeper into how this could affect the news. Specifically, what does it mean for MSNBC and CNBC if they are split off from NBC?

As Variety’s Brian Steinberg smartly notes ([link removed]) , CNBC basically functions as its own standalone network. MSNBC, however, is a different story. MSNBC seems like an extension of NBC News — with many journalists appearing on both MSNBC and NBC News.

Steinberg writes, “Executives are likely to focus on this issue over the next year, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s possible to have certain commercial or licensing agreements put in place that might guarantee usage of NBC News reporting, contributors and talent on the two cable networks. At the same time, the spin off could force MSNBC to focus even more heavily on the progressive opinion programming that is its bread and butter. And it could free CNBC to go after its core audience without having to worry about NBC News, which has its own reporters who cover business and the economy.”

There’s also the possibility that MSNBC might have to change its name. In a separate story ([link removed]) , Steinberg wrote that Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group who will run this spin-off group, “told an audience that included Rachel Maddow, Chris Jansing and Katy Tur that he was not sure whether MSNBC would have to change its identity as part of the transaction, which will split the cable network and its business-news sibling CNBC from NBC News and NBCUniversal. If the two networks are no longer part of the NBC corporate entity, attendees wanted to know, will they still be able to carry marks that are part of their former home?”

Steinberg continued, “MSNBC’s newsgathering process may also be ripe for transformation in the coming transaction, with people familiar with the meeting indicating the executive did not have immediate answers about whether a unit for collecting and verifying news separate from that of NBC would have to ‘built from scratch.’”

For a good Q&A, here’s The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr, Laura Wagner and Samantha Chery with “What does the Comcast cable spin-off mean for TV viewers and streaming?” ([link removed])


** No holding back
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Pete Hegseth, shown here in 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Wall Street Journal editorial board, which tends to lean right, didn’t mince any words questioning President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination ([link removed]) of Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense.

Trump is reportedly standing behind Hegseth despite the claim that Hegseth paid a woman in 2020 to settle an allegation of sexual assault in 2017. Hegseth had denied any wrongdoing.

But, the Journal editorial board wrote, “Press reports say the accusation took Mr. Trump’s transition team by ‘surprise,’ which might be a lesson about picking unvetted cabinet secretaries on a whim.”

The board went on to write, “Whoever leads the Pentagon needs to have the President’s trust. If Mr. Trump wasn’t informed about this political liability before announcing the nomination, he might reasonably wonder what else Mr. Hegseth hasn’t told him.”

The editorial went through the various accounts of what might or might not have happened. But then the board wrote, “What happened in Monterey seven years ago might be impossible to prove or disprove, but even granting Mr. Hegseth the benefit of the doubt, it raises questions about judgment, including whether he warned the President-elect that this might come out. ‘Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed,’ Mr. Trump’s spokesman said. ‘We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense.’”

“Maybe so,” the board continued, “but the Senate will have further questions, and nominations impulsively made can also be withdrawn.”


** R-rated ‘Today’
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My goodness, what the heck is going on with the “Today” show? On back-to-back days, the show needed to come with an R-rating. (I’m actually amused, not offended, so please don’t take it that I’m upset. This is kind of funny.)

Hat tip to The Daily Beast’s Liam Archacki ([link removed]) for noting this, but on Wednesday’s show, actor Richard Gere actually shocked co-host Savannah Guthrie (and probably much of the audience) when he gave the middle finger during an interview.

He wasn’t being mean or even trying to be offensive. Here’s what happened: The show aired a clip of Gere’s latest project — a spy series called “The Agency.” “Today” cut off the clip just as Gere’s character on the show was about to use his middle finger. So Gere let Guthrie and the audience know what his character did by raising his middle finger and saying, “You didn’t show but that’s what I did in the piece. That’s what the clip was.” (Here’s the clip ([link removed]) — it happens in the first minute.)

A stunned Guthrie held her paper up in front of Gere’s hand and said, “You just did an obscene gesture on this family morning show.”

Gere seemed slightly embarrassed and apologized, and also said he didn’t realize he was on camera. To be fair, it was a fairly light moment between Guthrie and Gere. Guthrie then added, “You know, Cher was on here doing an F-bomb yesterday, so I don’t know what’s happening.”

That’s true. The day before, during an interview with “Today” co-host Hoda Kotb to promote her new memoir, Cher dropped the expletive. In her defense, Cher was repeating a story from her book. She was talking about what legendary comedic actress Lucille Ball told her following her split from Sonny Bono. (Here’s the clip ([link removed]) . Go to about six minutes in.)

Kotb asked Cher what Ball told her, and Cher said, “I can’t say it on TV.”

But then Kotb said it was OK because the show would bleep it. So Cher said Ball told her, “(Expletive) him. You’re the one with the talent.”

You could tell there was a commotion behind the camera and Kotb started laughing as she said, “We didn’t have the seven-second (delay), but we will get it for the next feed.”

Cher then laughing said, “Well, you said I could!”

Maybe an R-rated word every now and then on the morning show could be a ratings booster. I’m down with that.


** Being human
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The Atlantic is out with an ambitious new project that will focus on health. It’s called “Being Human” ([link removed]) and will include a new section and newsletter ([link removed]) .

Earlier this year, The Atlantic added five staff and contributing writers to prepare for this expanded coverage. In a statement, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said, “The Atlantic’s health team produces the smartest, most analytically acute, and best-written stories of any journalism outfit nationally, and with this new expansion, we’re going to be comprehensive in a way we haven’t been before. In an age of mass confusion –– not just about health, of course –– I think our team is perfectly positioned to bring clarity to this important coverage area.”


** Media tidbits
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* Interesting tweet ([link removed]) Wednesday from New York Times media correspondent Michael M. Grynbaum: “On Monday, 839,000 people tuned in for the first hour of 'Morning Joe,' where the hosts revealed a surprise meeting with Donald Trump. The show has not yet recovered that audience. Tuesday's average was down 11 percent.”
* And another interesting tweet ([link removed]) about the whole “Morning Joe” TV numbers drop from Axios media writer Sara Fischer: “Goes back to same comms principles that corporations have had to follow in this hyper-polarized era. When you speak out on issues that aren’t true to your brand, or when you do something that betrays your core values, you appear hypocritical and inauthentic. Consumers reject it.”
* The New York Post’s Ryan Glasspiegel reports ([link removed]) that ESPN plans to shut down its debate show “Around the Horn” next summer. The show has been on since 2002.
* The New York Times’ David Streitfeld with “How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment.” ([link removed])
* USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques talked with NewsNation (and former CNN) host Chris Cuomo ([link removed]) about Donald Trump's victory and Americans' low trust in the news media.
* For Nieman Lab, Andrew Deck with “What will a second Trump term mean for the Freedom of Information Act?” ([link removed])
* Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher with “‘It’s a MAN!’ Nancy Mace Unleashes Transphobic Attack When News Anchor Intervenes Over Pronouns.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* The New York Times’ Jason Zinoman with “Johnny Carson and the Fantasy of America.” ([link removed])


** More resources for journalists
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* Consider this dynamic, in-person, five-day workshop ([link removed]) for new newsroom managers.
* Reinvigoration ([link removed]) for the unsung heroes of the TV newsroom.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
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