As the World Cup starts, conservative media declare war on soccer

Written by Oliver Willis

Published

As the 2010 World Cup begins in South Africa, conservative media figures have seized the opportunity to attack the tournament and the sport of soccer. They have also used soccer as a proxy to attack President Obama and progressives.

Conservatives: “Obama's policies are the World Cup,” soccer is “a poor man or poor woman's sport”

Glenn Beck: “Barack Obama's policies are the World Cup.” In an extensive rant on the June 11 Glenn Beck Program, Beck purported to explain how President Obama's policies “are the World Cup” of “political thought.” Beck stated, “It doesn't matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn't matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn't matter how many bars open early, it doesn't matter how many beer commercials they run, we don't want the World Cup, we don't like the World Cup, we don't like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.” Beck stated that likewise, “the rest of the world likes Barack Obama's policies, we do not.”

Beck added “those who like the World Cup ... they're the most likely to riot,” commenting that by contrast, “I haven't seen the baseball riots.” He later said of soccer, “I hate it so much, probably because the rest of the world likes it so much, and they riot over it, and they continually try to jam it down our throat.”

G. Gordon Liddy: “Whatever happened to American exceptionalism?” Discussing soccer's popularity in the U.S. on his June 10 program, G. Gordon Liddy asked, “Whatever happened to American exceptionalism?” Liddy noted that “this game ... originated with the South American Indians and instead of a ball, they used to use the head, the decapitated head, of an enemy warrior.”

MRC's Dan Gainor: “Soccer is designed as a poor man or poor woman's sport,” “the left is pushing [soccer] in schools across the country.” Also on the June 10 G. Gordon Liddy Show, Media Research Center's Dan Gainor said, “the problem here is, soccer is designed as a poor man or poor woman's sport” and that “the left is pushing it in schools across the country.” He added: “generally football games in this country don't devolve into riots or wars.” He later added that the sport of soccer “is being sold” as necessary due to the “browning of America.”

Mark Belling: “When you insult soccer you get the same reaction from soccer fans that you get when you insult an aging Democratic senator's hair.” On the June 11 edition of the Rush Limbaugh Show, guest host Mark Belling said, “What I really want to do is make fun of the World Cup, but I'm not going to make fun of the World Cup because when you insult soccer you get the same reaction from soccer fans that you get when you insult an aging Democratic senator's hair, they go nuts and blow it up all out of proportion.” Later in the program, Belling said “I haven't talked about the World Cup, I haven't talked about how they're force-feeding this down our throats.”