Yom Kippur Confession: The Shmooze Was Wrong About Hank Williams, Jr.
Image by Getty Images
Hours before Yom Kippur seems like an appropriate time for the Shmooze to admit it got something wrong.
Image by Getty Images
On Tuesday, we predicted that ESPN would drop Hank Williams, Jr.’s “Monday Night Football” theme song for just one week after the singer compared President Obama to Hitler on Fox News. (In the same interview, Williams likened House Speaker John Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.)
Well, our powers of prediction turned out to be wrong: ESPN announced Thursday that the football anthem will no longer be part of its Monday night programming. “We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams Jr.,” the network said in a statement. “We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of ‘Monday Night Football’ has always been about the games and that will continue.”
On his website, Williams claimed he had been the one to make the decision, arguing unconvincingly that ESPN had deprived him of his right to free speech. (Because apparently sports channels are constitutionally required to play music by singers who compare President Obama to Nazis.)
“After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” he wrote. “By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
