Final Thoughts on Hank Williams, Jr: Had He Alluded to Mussolini Playing Golf With Churchill, He'd Still Be on ESPN

What is it with these Williams boys? First Juan Williams gets fired by NPR for saying on the Bill O'Reilly show that "....when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb, and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Then Hank Williams, Jr. gets fired by ESPN for suggesting that Barack Obama (whom he referred to as the "enemy") playing golf with Republican House Speaker John Boehner was tantamount to Hitler playing golf with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Clearly, Hank wasn't accusing Obama of practicing eugenics or mass extermination, but rather was pointing out the odd juxtaposition of two opposites playing golf together.

Not only should neither Williams have been fired, but Juan should have been applauded for admitting to something (simple-minded, depressing, and painfully naïve as it may have been) which many, if not most, Americans wouldn't have the courage to admit, and Hank should've been given credit for actually knowing who Netanyahu was.

Personally, I was way more offended by Williams being hired in the first place than by his Hitler analogy. When he opened the show, in 1991, my first thought was: Why did Monday Night Football need a costumed hillbilly singing, "Are you ready for some football??" when they already had Dixie locked up? Everyone knows that football is wildly popular in the American South. Did they honestly think the NASCAR and Grand Ol' Opry crowd wouldn't tune in to a football game unless a country-western singer was shilling for it?

If ABC (the network that originally broadcast Monday Night Football) truly wanted to expand its viewing audience, they should have applied a little creativity. They should have hired Zubin Mehta or Susan Sontag to do the opening promo. They should've gotten Noam Chomsky to do it. Or, if they were dead-set on a singer, they should've gone after a Leonard Cohen or Patti Smith or (if it was the youth market they were trying to tap into) an Eminem.

Although people are already comparing the firing of Hank Williams, Jr. to ABC's firing of Bill Maher from his Politically Incorrect TV show, it's an imperfect analogy because Maher wasn't technically "fired." The Sinclair Broadcasting Group didn't drop the show from its ABC affiliates until many months later, in June of 2002, after key advertisers (e.g., Sears Roebuck, FedEx) had withdrawn their accounts in protest of what they considered Maher's unpatriotic and controversial remarks.

But Maher's remarks weren't far off the mark. Responding to President George W. Bush's portrayal of the terrorists who flattened the Twin Towers as "cowards," Maher took the gravest possible exception. He said on the air, "We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. Say what you want about it. Not cowardly."

We don't know what Hank's public comment would've been in response to Maher's observation back in 2002, but, bless his heart, we can be sure it would've been primitive and ugly. Still, if ESPN saw fit to use Williams in the first place, they had no good reason to stop using him. All ESPN did was raise the "gutlessness" bar to another level.

David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright and author ("It's Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor"), was a former labor union rep. He can be reached at [e-mail]

 

Comments

[BlueFloyd]

09:12 AM on 10/14/2011

You wonder why espn hired him in the first place, but not because of his past (one of his previous songs was "If the South Had Won", or something similar; but because they are an established sports show which does not need a musical intro.

So....where do you draw the line? How egregious does one's speech have to be before someone is fired from his/her job? How far would you allow an employee to go? If you had a multi-national organization, would you not care what your representatives were saying out there, under your banner?

[Mr Muckle]

05:19 PM on 10/13/2011

Netanyahu? I'm certain the Hank knows all the yahoos.

[Intelligenti Pauca]

10:28 AM on 10/13/2011

Later in the show, after Hank made his comment about Hitler, Gretchen Carlson said to him, "You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president.­"

Hank Williams replied, "Well, that is true. But I'm telling you like it is."

This is the part that 99% of the people keep ignoring. Hank was given every opportunit­y to walk back his comment. But he chose to stand by his words, as the above quote shows.

Hank comes right out & admits that he was comparing Obama to Hitler, but as soon as the backlash started he, along with the majority of his supporters­, tried to make this a First Amendment issue when it clearly wasn't.

Everybody keeps focusing on Hank's actual quote about Hitler, and pointing to that & saying that he never made a comparison­. The proof that he was indeed making a comparison is shown in the comment from later in the show, as I have demonstrat­ed. But in the rush to focus on the Hitler comment, this proof has been largely overlooked.

[David Macaray]

12:33 PM on 10/13/2011

All I'm really saying is that I would have been more impressed with ESPN if they'd made a statement highly critical of Williams' boneheaded opinions, and simply left it at that. Frankly, when it comes to outrageous remarks, hearing political "pundits" (rather than some country singer) refer to Obama as a Socialist is way more offensive....and dangerous.

[MikeMenza]

07:19 PM on 10/12/2011

What a smuck. Do you remember the original song ? Likely Hank Juniors biggest hit, from the days
of crossover country..

[Dave in Northridge]

06:32 PM on 10/12/2011

I can tell you've never looked at the demographics of any given TV program (I used to work in advertising media, thanks). Could it be that the demographic ESPN is missing is affluent and urban? Either way, people like Hank Williams, Jr. a) don't do stuff like the MNF intro for the money and b) don't need the money from the gig anyway, and ESPN can hire or fire anyone it wants within guidelines -- guidelines, incidentally, that don't forbid firing Williams. If you actually care about this, I expect your next post to be a full-throated endorsement of ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prevent people like me from being fired from any job, anywhere, without cause.

[David Macaray]

08:23 PM on 10/12/2011

Actually, as I noted, I was curious why MNF used Williams in the first place. After all, by 1991, the year they began using him, they'd already been on the air for more than 20 years. Because I'm still a fairly serious sports fan, I honestly wonder why a sporting event can't stand on its own merits, w/o resorting to gimmicks. Remember when MNF hired Dennis Miller, a professional comedian, to join in the commentary? You're right, I don't know the specific demo ESPN is courting. But I'm not sure Dennis Miller and Hank Williams Jr. appeal to the same audience.

[Dave in Northridge]

02:30 PM on 10/13/2011

This makes me realize that the hiring decision that brought Hank Willams, Jr. to MNF was made by people by ABC, as was the one that produced Dennis Miller and the one that produced Rush Limbaugh. ESPN inherited Williams, and since ESPN increasingly provides ABC with sports programming instead of vice versa, it doesn't seem to be lockstep any more. No, Miller and Williams don't appeal to the same demographic, necessarily, but if we look at "audience" as a political spectrum issue, there we are.

[gneep]

11:11 AM on 10/12/2011

Just wondering, what does Mr. Williams think of the last pres?

[David Macaray]

05:31 PM on 10/12/2011

It's a broad generalization, but aren't most C&W singers Republicans? After all, they call them "Red States" for a reason. Therefore, I'd be stunned if Mr. Williams turned out to be a secret admirer of George McGovern. That said, I still maintain that ESPN shouldn't have dumped him.

[From the Raft]

11:25 PM on 10/11/2011

for a new career move maybe Jr. can make on of those "I am a Mormon" ads.

[PatA]

10:16 PM on 10/11/2011

You could have titled your piece "Last Words on ESPN". Chill.

[David Macaray]

12:34 AM on 10/12/2011

I give country music fans a lot of credit for their loyalty. Country performers have extraordinary longevity. Roy Acuff, Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, Earl Scruggs, Eddie Arnold, et al.....these folks remain relatively popular until the day they're laid to rest. Hank Williams, Jr's career won't suffer so much as a hiccup. In fact, he'll likely gain fans.

[gneep]

11:10 AM on 10/12/2011

gee, can you name anyone OLDER? (love them all)

[PatA]

09:24 AM on 10/13/2011

I'm not sure that I understand how your reply relates to my post.

I am old enough to have seen everyone, except Eddie Arnold, that you named. Musicians who lived their public lives with grace and class...and talent.

I don't believe that HWJR will gain any fans from his 'interviews' on television.
Bubba may come out of his basement room, at mama's house, and pop another top and resolve to buy that 'new rekord' when his check comes in. But Bubba went to school with Hank, Jr. If Hank, Jr. went to school.

Juan Williams? I don't get scared when I see Muslims. And I take exception to his calling Muslim clothing 'garb'. I doubt he would call Amish clothing the same. Justified firing? All I know is what you posted. I have no opinion.