Watch: Fox News Hosts Meltdown Over Super Bowl Protests That Haven’t Happened Yet

(ANTIMEDIA Op-ed) — Fox News snowflakes are melting in anticipation of the Super Bowl, where they fear NFL players may take a knee in ongoing protests against police brutality and institutional racism.

On the Outnumbered morning show, the panel expressed their dismay and fragility over the possibility that the apparent disrespect would be televised.

“Just days after President Trump stood for the national anthem at the college football championship,” host Katie Pavlich began, clearly framing the narrative that was to come, “the producers of the upcoming Super Bowl say they’ll show [it] if NFL players take a knee.”

“So didn’t half of their viewers just turn off their dial for Super Bowl weekend [and] find something else to do?” she remarked.

Guest Dan Bongino, a former secret service agent, smugly chimed in.

“Yeah, we’re covering a live event, too, it’s been ongoing for two years now, which is the destruction of the NFL brand,” he said. As the female hosts laughed, he added, “I promise you this will be taught in business schools from this point on as an episode of what not to do to keep your goodwill and brand equity. I mean, this is a disgrace, an absolute total embarrassment.”

Asked if he wanted cameras turned away in the event of kneeling, he responded:

“No, I want them to tell the people ‘Get off your damn knees and stand up for the American anthem that people died for in this country. You wanna protest? Go out there and do it on your own time. These are our fields, this is our brand. You are gonna stand and put your hand on your heart or that million dollar salary’s getting flushed down the toilet bowl. Have a nice day.’”

Despite right-wingers’ ongoing boycott of the NFL, host Melissa Francis advised viewers to keep watching but record the games and fast forward through the ‘offensive’ material (even though doing so arguably cancels out the effect of boycotting).

“[I]t’s interesting,” she said. “I think more and more people are watching it on delay. In my household, we wait until the game is already started, and then we turn it on.”

Host Sandra Smith attempted to play devil’s advocate, but not before making it abundantly clear that she disapproves of NBC’s choice to air potential footage of players kneeling.

“I don’t know what obligation the television networks have, but I think that their point is — I’m not defending it — their point is ‘We’ve got our cameras on a game, this is part of the game, we’re going to show every bit of it.”

Bongino still had more to say, waxing melodramatic over his decision to boycott the NFL

“If they don’t fix this problem, I can almost guarantee you in four or five years that the NFL is going to be the field hockey or modern sports,” he said, eventually adding:

“I was a Raiders and Ravens fan, and I’m telling you, it destroyed my soul to not watch the Super Bowl last year. NFL and me, we are absolutely completely divorced.”

And there we have it: a right-wing snowflake suffering from the destruction of his sacred soul because he couldn’t watch a football game — all because he couldn’t handle American citizens exercising their right to free speech and a private company supporting their right to allegedly not respect “an anthem.”

Bongino has repeatedly decried the NFL protests since 2016.

Op-ed / Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

6-Year-Old Boy Reprimanded for Taking Knee at School During Pledge—He Didn’t Have a Permit

Wesley Chapel, FL — Patriotism, in the ostensible land of the free, is no longer measured by how much freedom you fight for or corruption you expose, it is now measured by how hard you praise the state and how much loyalty you show to your rulers. Those who challenge the state and stand up for their rights are now cast out as un-American and treasonous. Now, the argument over when these personal choices of expression should and shouldn’t take place has spread to children.

The mother of a six-year-old boy in Florida is furious after she says her son was admonished for silently and respectfully taking a knee during the morning pledge of allegiance at Wiregrass Elementary School in Wesley Chapel.

Eugenia McDowell said she had no idea her son was going to kneel for the pledge and that she only learned about it when the school sent her a text message Monday evening explaining how out of line his actions were.

The message read: “I knew where he had seen it [going down on one knee], but I did tell him that in the classroom, we are learning what it means to be a good citizen, we’re learning about respecting the United States of America and our country symbols and showing loyalty and patriotism and that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.”

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As ABC reports, McDowell said her son was publicly admonished for his gesture of silent protest, a move she said stifles his voice and freedom of speech. But according to Pasco County School District Spokesperson Linda Cobbe, the boy’s teacher does not believe any other students saw her admonishment. Cobbe said the teacher mouthed the words, “We stand for the pledge” in response to the boy’s decision to take a knee.

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Whether or not the other students saw the teacher reprimand a six-year-old for peacefully choosing to abstain from pledging his allegiance to a flag is irrelevant. The fact that a six-year-old boy was reprimanded at all for this decision is the issue.

“What he did was have a difference of opinion. He was not being disrespectful. He was silently protesting and exercising his constitutional right,” McDowell said. “My concern is she infringed upon his constitutional right to express himself, to protest peacefully, and she also made him feel like his decision to come up with his own opinion about things was the wrong thing to do.”

Being brave and going against the status quo to challenge what you perceive as an injustice is the very fabric of a free society. Mandated worship of symbolism and pledges of loyalty are what empires do on the way to despotism and eventually their fall.

But fret not, the school says they respect everyone’s free speech and there would have been no problem with the boy’s choice to kneel—had he simply filled out a permission slip to practice his free speech.

“Our policy — and state law, for that matter — requires that a parent submit a request in writing that their student be exempted from participating in the pledge,” Cobbe told ABC News.

“If he had that exemption, nothing would have been said. Students could stand, students could kneel, they don’t have to put their hand on their heart. They just have to be respectful of the students who are participating,” Cobbe said.

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In the land of the free, one must first obtain written permission to express views that differ from the status quo. Seems legit.

“We are no longer going be silenced, our voices will be heard and our little black boys that sit in classrooms today, not just my son but every other child that looks like him, they are not going to be silenced,” McDowell said.

Whether or not you agree with people kneeling or standing for the pledge, the anthem or any other form of practiced loyalty to the state is not the issue as it is your right and duty to peacefully express your views. However, when children are reprimanded for not getting a permission slip or exemption form for practicing their free speech, it is high time to put America in check.

A free society is not fostered by forcing state loyalty.

Do you think August Landmesser, who became famous after an image surfaced of him refusing to be caught up in the nationalistic Nazi fervor, as he stands with his arms crossed, stone-faced, as the rest of the crowd engages in the mandatory “Seig heil” salute—obtained a permission slip to do so?

This instance should serve as a warning to all Americans that those who refuse to remember history will be doomed to repeat it.

Please share this article with your friends and family to let others know that regardless of how you feel about millionaire football players alienating their fanbase by kneeling during the anthem—this little boy’s story is a warning sign that America is going down the wrong path.

A Veteran Asks, ‘What’s Worse, a Kneeling Millionaire or 300,000 Vets Neglected to Death?’

Naturally, Americans are up in arms because a bunch of folks who get paid millions of dollars to throw around a leather ball decided to kneel during the national anthem. I find this ironic for several reasons.

First off, I’d like to clarify that choosing to not watch football because someone did something you disagree with is entirely your choice and your choice alone. Just like NFL players can make the decision to kneel during the anthem, you can make the decision to change the channel. It’s called freedom, it is awesome, and I highly recommend it.

That being said, I’d like to draw attention to two points, one being the idea of a country whose leader shames others and calls for the termination of their employment for practicing their right to disagree with the government, and two, why are people so upset over a bunch of kneeling millionaires?

Donald Trump was well within his right to say whatever he wants about the NFL players, up to and including calling for the NFL to fire them. It’s called freedom, and you don’t have to like it to participate in it. But, if Trump really wanted the players to start standing up for the anthem, calling for them to be fired is not only on the verge of tyrannical, but it’s nowhere close to a solution.

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Respect is earned. It is not mandated through threats or abuse of power or forced through the barrel of a gun. If there was one thing I learned in the Marine Corps it’s that good leaders are ones that lead by example. Those leaders who demanded respect without first earning it were the reason for me turning down a 5-figure tax-free reenlistment bonus to stay in.

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Leaders, and I use that term loosely, who want something from you and don’t have the common decency or fortitude to first apply themselves and find a peaceful and mutually beneficial way to get it are not leading by example and deserve no respect. Sadly, in America, leaders haven’t done these things in a long time. In America, through propaganda and fear, our leaders are demanding and mandating respect—without earning it. This is the definition of tyranny.

If Donald Trump really wanted the football players to start standing during the national anthem, then he should ask them what it is they want. If the dozens of millionaires taking knees can’t articulate a rational and well thought out list of requests, then they are merely publicity hounds buying into the divide. Colin Kaepernick could do this, and he’s has taken action to try to resolve his grievances.

I’m not quite sure all these other NFL players would be such good leaders—like Kaepernick—if asked what it is they want.

If it’s police brutality they are protesting, where were most of these folks when Obama was in office? It’s not like police brutality and racist policing practices suddenly became an issue once Trump took over in 2017. Where were all these NFL players when Obama was filling prisons with black people for possessing a plant? Where were all these NFL players when Obama continued to wage the drug war which is proven to lay far more waste to the rights of those with darker skin than to those with lighter skin? Outside of just a few of them, they were nowhere to be found, that’s where.

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That brings me to my second point—the folks that are angry at these football players taking knees—because it disrespects our country, our troops and our veterans. Again, these folks have every right to voice their opinion, be angry, and boycott the NFL. It’s called freedom, and it’s awesome, and I highly recommend it.

That being said, if a person taking a knee during a song is disrespectful to our troops and veterans, what, exactly, is it considered when 307,000 of those veterans die waiting for care they were promised by this country? If a person taking a knee during a song is disrespectful to those who fought for our country, what is it considered when that country looks the other way when there over 40,000 of those veterans living on the streets with no home? If taking a knee at a football game is disrespectful, what then, is it considered when Americans remain silent as a veteran kills himself or herself every 65 minutes, every single day, every single month, of every single year?

If this song and flag represent the land of the free and people kneeling down makes others angry because it is an insult to that freedom, then how does one view the NSA surveillance grid? Is a person taking a knee worse than the United States of America creating the largest spying network the world has ever seen—one that the Stasi would’ve killed for—and using it on innocent Americans?

Is a person kneeling more offensive than the TSA groping babies, cancer patients, the elderly, and the disabled, despite never stopping a terror attack? Is a knee more offensive to freedom than the United States creating, maintaining, and financing the largest prison population the world has ever seen through the enforcement of victimless crimes?

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Is a rich football player kneeling really that much more offensive than the Commander in Chief making one of the largest weapons deals in the history of the US with the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, Saudi Arabia? Is a knee more offensive than calling Saudi Arabia our ally after they were exposed for financing the horrific attacks on 9/11?

Where is the outrage? Call me a traitor, call me unpatriotic, call me whatever you want, tell me to move to Somalia and eat shit and die, because—freedom baby. However, I’ll always stand against tyranny, even if that means pissing people off for telling the truth. In an empire of lies, telling the truth is a revolutionary and often hated act.

If we can agree on one thing in this sea of vitriol and disagreement, let us remember that this country was born through protest. Slavery ended because of protest. The Declaration of Independence was a protest. It was not order-following and blind compliance that created America—it was disobedience.