Adrian Wojnarowski absolutely deserved to be suspended. There is no question that, in the world of journalism, if you show the absence of professionalism that he showed in emailing profanity to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, you should be suspended.
While sports journalism as a whole has drifted as far left as many mainstream journalism outlets have, ESPN has been wise enough (at times) to correct the course when things go too far. They have made adjustments and even eliminated shows that otherwise proved to be ratings drains in an effort to continue to appeal to their market and maintain some integrity.
The suspension of Wojnarowski should not be a surprise to anyone, because acting that way to anyone shows that your bias is insurmountable, and you need to be reminded that your job is not to be adversarial but honest and open. It is not that he violated the laws of journalism by attacking Hawley, but he showed he cannot honestly cover the NBA and its relationship with China if his response to Hawley is profanity.
For ESPN to recognize that is a good thing for the world of journalism. Compare that, however, to the cowards at CNN.
At the network news outlet, they have routinely cast themselves as adversaries of the Trump administration and all Republicans, blatantly contradicting themselves at times in order to maintain their status as “fighters for truth and justice” against Trump. They have, along with others, messed up so many stories and had so many ethical violations that one has to wonder if they are even trying to be straight news anymore.
I kid, of course. It seems pretty clear that the editorial direction of CNN is not straight news, but anti-Trump news.
In administrations past, if anyone had shown the level of animosity that Jim Acosta shows the Trump administration on a daily basis, he’d have been told to sit down, shut up, and do his job or go home so someone else can. Now, he is practically cast as a hero on their network, becoming the news story as many times as he’s reporting a news story. It’s insane.
Then, of course, you have the absolute ethical lapse that is the entire existence of Chris Cuomo, who has practically been out there with a skirt and pompoms any time his brother comes on his show. It’s unreal that this kind of stuff keeps happening, but it’s clear that CNN doesn’t care what ethical journalism actually is anymore.
ESPN at least had the courage to step up and say “This looks bad, and it’s not how someone should act.” CNN won’t do that. They have planted their flag and said to hell with the ethics. Shame on them.
