Not only are media pearl-clutching as much over Djokovic as they did over Peng Shuai, this time they’re on the authoritarians’ side.
Two tennis stars have been players in rather high-profile events involving authoritarian governments lately. The fact that they’ve received roughly equivalent attention worldwide is both telling and alarming, considering the vast differences between their cases — and the fact that, while Western media criticize one government for its abuses, they’ve been lauding the other.
In November, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai disappeared after using social media to accuse a senior CCP official of sexual assault. After criticism from the Women’s Tennis Association and other global voices, China sent the WTA an email supposedly from Peng insisting “everything is fine.”
Shortly afterward, Chinese state media released footage of Peng, and had the CCP-friendly International Olympic Committee publish a still photo of what was supposedly a video conference with Peng. A month later, the tennis star denied ever making the allegations of sexual assault, raising more questions about her freedom to communicate to the world without CCP censorship.
“I have never spoken or written about anyone sexually assaulting me,” she said, adding that she has “always been free.”
Peng Shuai’s disappearance rightly prompted backlash around the globe, including the U.S. decision to stage a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics next month. Corporate media outlets participated in this outrage, to their credit.
But another tennis star “scandal” appears to have spurred just as much outrage from media chatterers in the West — and the fact that our corporate media treats it that way shows just how little they’re bothered by authoritarian tendencies at home.
This second saga started when no. 1 men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic arrived in Australia with a medical exemption from the Covid-19 shot because he had beaten Covid in December. After nine hours at the airport, the Serbian star’s travel visa was canceled and he was forced to quarantine at a hotel used to house...
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I was disgusted to read remarks from Nadal that in essence said he should have just got the vaxx and STFU. If these assholes had an ounce of integrity, they would have walked en masse out of the AO. They could have put a stop to this bullshit in 1 second.
ReplyDeleteI wondered how long it was going to be before REgressives fucked up professional tennis. I can stop wondering now as their tried & true tactic of division & divisiveness seems to always work when there are sugar plums at stake.
At least I can still play.