Clay Travis on ESPN Downplaying Genocide In China

Clay: Your reaction when you hear that… By the way, so you know, we wrote about this at OutKick. As soon as one of my guys saw it, he said, “Oh, my God. Clay, you have to see this.” One of the top commentators at ESPN specifically said, “Hey, I’m not gonna talk about Chinese human rights abuses and genocide effectively because of police issues in America,” which we talked about, “and voting rights bills that are discriminatory against minorities in the United States.”

Now, let’s pretend, Buck, that even if those things were going on. We rightly point out, Derek Chauvin’s in prison, and we try to hold police accountable if and when they break the law. The voting rights bill thing is a total sham. But to argue that those are in any way the equivalent of Chinese genocide is actually direct Chinese propaganda. We asked ESPN for a comment on this on Friday when that aired. Buck, they refused to condemn it, they refused to comment on it in any way at all, and this is the kind of conversation that is taking place on a daily basis.

Buck: J. A. Adande. Let’s assume Mr. Adande is establishing a principle here. Then we would have to assume that his belief would also be that we’re in no position to criticize the multigenerational concentration camps of North Korea where people are born in and die in concentration camps because of the political crimes of their parents or even their grandparents under the communist regime out of Pyongyang, out of North Korea.

You have to wonder, where does the line actually get drawn here? You can’t criticize genocide in China because of…? Also, think about the error in trying to equate these things. The actual state-sponsored policy of concentration camps, of mass sterilization, of torture and political repression of millions of people — and voting rights issues?

I don’t know. I guess it is not possible to be so stupid in the sports media world that people will stop listening to you, because I will say — and would he deal with a lot of dumb things here. We play clips from The View on this show sometimes! That may be the dumbest thing I have heard this year so far, which is saying a lot.

Clay: Buck, zero pushback on the show itself. Nobody else came on and said, “Well, you know, you’re comparing voting rights issues with genocide.” And the voting rights bill, by the way, is a total BS storyline, but think about this. Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star Game out of Atlanta over the Georgia voting bill. And all of these companies came out and said, “Oh, this is so brave!”

Remember we also asked Coke for a response because remember Coke came out — because they’re a based in Atlanta — and said, “Hey, yeah, we agree with the decision to hold Georgia accountable over this voting rights bill.” And so we reached out at OutKick, Buck, and we said, “Hey, Coke, you’re one of the primary sponsors of those games that are going on right now in Beijing. Just wondering, have you condemned genocide in China?

“Because you said Major League Baseball was right to pull the All-Star Game away from the Braves, but yet with your giving all of this money to the Beijing Olympics and you aren’t saying a word about China. So explain to me how you can be supportive of the All-Star Game being pulled out of Atlanta, but you’re not simultaneously also holding China accountable for genocide.” And this is emblematic, Buck, of the propaganda, and I wonder on some level, “Hey, is this coming from Disney?” That they’re so stupid that they would even make that argument and nobody would push back against it.

Buck: There are two very big components of all this that, I think, — when everyone — when all of our people right now listening with us across the country keep in mind, it all adds up, right? I mean, yeah, it’s unprincipled, it’s ridiculous, it shows what a bunch of phonies they are. But you have to remember, the whole point of so much of the corporate virtue signaling that went on, let’s say, with Black Lives Matter as a movement was built around two things: virtue signaling and fear, right? You get points for this among your peers in America. People think if you’re the executive who’s running a company and you put out a statement… Remember some of the companies? I can’t even… I feel like Tide makes the detergent and they were saying, “We stand with Black Lives Matter!”

UPDATE: OutKick's @burackbobby_ asked @ESPN if it had a comment on JA Adande spreading CCP talking points on-air and downplaying genocide, rape and torture.

ESPN texted back, "no." https://t.co/CGVMhyMIzM

— OutKick (@Outkick) February 5, 2022

ESPN told OutKick that it will not comment on Adande’s remarks. The video is still posted on ESPN’s Twitter page, as well.

For more thoughts on Adande’s sick commentary, here’s Will Cain, Rachel Campos-Duffy and Joe Concha.

[Transcript via ClayandBuck.com]