Gregg Easterbrook

Inevitably, these sorts of things are going to come back to blow up in people's faces. ”

Even though Rush is not me and the situations were very different, I think, in the Rush Limbaugh thing, ESPN was criticized for not acting, and you remember that after a couple days of controversy over Rush. ”

Stereotypes involving Christian identity, Christian persecution is so far back in history now that no one fears it being revived, unless you live in China, I guess. ”

Jewish persecution is a historical memory of the present generation and people fear it in the present day, and that's why those references are so much more powerful. I just understand that better now. ”

I think the thing that I most appreciate now is that stereotypes involving Jewish identity activate fears of persecution that exist in the present day. ”

For what I wrote that started this whole controversy, I deserved to be criticized, and I felt bad about writing it. I felt bad mainly as a writer and a thinker. ”

And then ESPN fired me. I did not think that was a fitting punishment. ”

But by showing us live coverage of every bad thing happening everywhere in the world, cable news makes life seem like it's just an endless string of disasters - when, for most people in most places today, life is fairly good. ”

I don't think there are many larger lessons to be found in sports. ”

I think professional sports, football, to use it as an example, it's fundamentally a form of entertainment. ”