When the NFL chose to transform Football Sunday into #TakeAKnee Sunday, the networks who pay all that money to air those games, chose to show footage of the performance of the national anthem, knowing viewers would want to see how the players responded. But as many viewers noticed during the various broadcasts, while the networks and the news agencies provided ample coverage of the over 200 players who refused to stand for the anthem, they somehow failed to provide much coverage, if at all, of the fans’ responses to the anthem kneelers. In fact, it seemed as if it might’ve been a deliberate choice. And, of course, it was.
One guy who noticed the lack of coverage of the fans — many of whom were utterly outraged at the rampant displays of anti-patriotism, as some of the audio and the strong backlash has revealed —was Sporting News‘ Michael McCarthy, who talked to some of those behind the scenes and learned that at least one crew was specifically instructed to avoid filming the crowd “to avoid crowd shots in case they showed fans counterprotesting the protests.”
.png)
.png)
