Mainstream media staple USA Today has published a piece that has drawn outrage on social media. In the piece, staff writer Erik Brady posits that embattled SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh “should stay off basketball courts for now when kids are around.”
The nominee publicly stated, when his nomination to the nation’s highest court was announced, how much he enjoys coaching his daughters (Kavanaugh is pictured above with the president, along with his wife, Ashley, and daughters, Liza, 10, and Margaret,13, after the announcement).
“I tried to create bonds with my daughters like my dad created with me,” said the newly minted nominee. “For the last seven years, I coached my daughters’ basketball teams. The girls on the teams call me Coach K,” revealed Kavanaugh, smiling.
The USA Today article, “presented as a news story rather than an opinion article,” as Fox News pointed out, focused on Kavanaugh’s Thursday’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I love coaching more than anything I’ve ever done in my whole life,” Kavanaugh said in his opening statement. “But thanks to what some of you on this side of the committee have unleashed, I may never be able to coach again.”
USA Today makes no bones about its view on the nominee, stating glibly, “He just might be right. Oh, not the part about blaming Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee — that’s just to avoid placing blame on his wholly sympathetic accuser — but the may-never-coach-again part. The nation is newly vigilant on who coaches and trains its children given recent scandals in gymnastics and other sports.”
Can Brett Kavanaugh still coach girls' basketball? https://t.co/MJ9ZIZExGI
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 29, 2018
A former boys’ soccer and baseball coach in Reading, Massachusetts, weighed in on the USA Today article.
“Of everything the media can say to smear this good man, this may hurt him the worst, personally — that he shouldn’t be around children,” he told LifeZette. “I have no faith that that is not exactly what they set out to do — smear a man who has worked his whole life to give back to society because they may not agree with him politically. This is just more evidence of the ‘no holds barred’ attitude from the media and the Left that really makes average people wonder if some really are truly evil.”
The USA Today story does concede that Kavanaugh is welcome to coach in the Catholic Youth Organization and his daughters’ private school in Washington, D.C., because he passed all background checks.
Edward McFadden, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., told USA Today that “adult volunteers with extensive contact with children” undergo extensive background checks; any coach would have to be convicted of a crime before he gets banned from coaching children (what a concept).
The article further opines that “credibly accused sex offenders should not coach youth basketball, girls or boys, without deeper investigation.”
Related: ‘No Reason’ to Think FBI Will ‘Uncover Anything’ New on Kavanaugh
Social media was quick to bite back at the publication.
“I canceled my subscription to @usatodaysports @USATODAY. I encourage everyone to do the same. This is disgraceful. Let the process play out,” tweeted one.
I canceled my subscription to @usatodaysports .@USATODAY . I encourage everyone to do the same.This is disgraceful.Let the process play out.
— Charlie Liott (@charlie_liott) September 29, 2018
Another tweeted, “This is just disgraceful. The editor who approved this c**p needs to be immediately fire[d]. This only proves Kavanaugh was right and shows that USA Today has been taken over by the Corporate Liberal Media. They’re no different from CNN now in my book. Pathetic.”
This is just disgraceful. The editor who approved this crap needs to be immediately fire. This is only proves Kavanagh was right and shows that USA Today has been taken over by the Corporate Liberal Media. They're no different from CNN now in my book. Pathetic.
— RLSchultheiss (@RLSchultheiss) September 29, 2018
“This is a truly evil piece,” tweeted Charles Cooke, editor of the conservative National Review.
This is a truly evil piece.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 29, 2018
Laura Ingraham, host of Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” tweeted, “Despicable from @usatodaysports!”
Despicable from @usatodaysports! https://t.co/FTkiUE7X64
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) September 29, 2018
Former Undersecretary of Homeland Security Michael Brown tweeted, “Let me get this straight @USATODAY… you believe uncorroborated allegations from 30+ years ago allow in essence to call someone a pedophile? Kavanaugh claims the media will continue to attack him and you just proved his point. Despicable.”
Let me get this straight @USATODAY…you believe uncorroborated allegations from 30+ years ago allow in essence to call someone a pedophile? #Kavanaugh claims the media will continue to attack him and you just proved his point. Despicable. https://t.co/r22iTIqBfS
— Michael Brown (@MichaelBrownUSA) September 29, 2018
The youth coach from Massachusetts told LifeZette, “If this type of witch hunt continues, good men will not only stay away from politics, but from coaching kids, too — and what an incalculable loss for kids around the country that would be.”
See political commentator Dan Bongino’s opinion on the USA Today article in the video below.
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