Tuesday Morning Quarterback is no more. I have occasionally linked to this (formerly) regular ESPN Page 2 feature because I find Gregg Easterbrook's mix of sports, political, and popular commentary frequently amusing as well as intelligent. But apparently Mr. Easterbrook has run afoul of SOMEBODY by making comments pertaining to "Jewish movie executives" who glorify violence on his New Republic blog. Whether he was fired from ESPN for making anti-Semitic statements or because he was going after a particular Jewish movie exec, Michael Eisner, who runs ESPN's parent company, Disney, is open to debate.

Personally, I think Easterbrook's comments were dumb and he should have known better. If he was going to get on Eisner ("Kill Bill" was apparently the movie which inspired the entry), he could have done it without dragging in one of the oldest stereotypes in American culture. That being said, the cowardly way in which ESPN handled the situation is certainly not commensurate with Easterbrook's "crime." No explanation is offered on the ESPN website other than a one sentence declaration that "TMQ will no longer be appearing on ESPN.com." All links to past TMQ articles have also been deleted. Considering the network's far more delicate handling of the recent Rush Limbaugh fiasco, this is odd, and certainly makes it look like a revenge action on the part of Eisner instead of a firing for controversial comments. I'm not a big fan of Disney the corporation anyway, but this incident has highlighted how much control one entity (and one man at the helm of said entity) has over what I read/see every day and it scares the hell out of me.

I had to resort to this message board[link disabled] on Norlos to find out what happened. Incidentally, even if you don't care one way or the other about the whole mess, it's an interesting read. Not being a fan of conflict, I found some of the exchanges uncomfortable, but on the whole it's surprising how well-reasoned and written the majority of the posts are, without too much of the cheap "you guys are idiots" attacks prone to such forums. It raises some interesting questions about free speech, political correctness, the responsibility an employee has to an employer, among other things. You do have to weed through some discussions on whether the other columnists on Page 2 are worth reading, though. But on a sad day with no TMQ, it will at least keep your interest.