Former ESPN Host Dan Le Batard slammed the United States for “bowing” to China’s “human rights” violations over its participation in the Beijing Winter Olympics and said he won’t be watching them.
“We’re just gonna go on with the Olympics in China, and we’re just going to not try and apply any of our freedoms of protest, of speech?” Le Batard questioned during his “Le Batard and Friends” podcast. The comments were noted by Mediaite in a piece published Friday. It comes at the 12:22 minute mark.
The podcast host noted how American officials were boycotting the Olympics over human rights violations, but the athletes themselves are going. He said this was basically giving the country the “economy” of the spectacle. (RELATED: Enes Kanter Says LeBron James’ Former Teammates Told Him The Basketball Star Only Cares About His ‘PR’)
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“They’re [athletes] being warned right now about ‘be careful of what you say freely in that country,'” Le Batard explained as he noted how the Olympians were warned about supporting Uyghur Muslims. “I’m tired of America, with its business interests, bowing to things that don’t represent basic human right freedoms that we all agree upon!”
The former broadcaster called out NBA Golden State Warriors co-owner Chamath Palihapitiya who recently said “nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs.” He has since walked the comments back. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
“If you’re not gonna give me a full boycott,” the podcast host said. “I’m asking for sports to use all of its maximum power to apply the pressure and not just shrug its shoulders on our athletes can’t even speak about this while we’re there because this is China’s laws, we’re playing by China’s rules.”
Le Batard made it clear he wasn’t advocating for a “full boycott” of the Olympics but instead for sports fans and American networks, like NBC, to stand up over Olympians being told “not to talk” about the country “violating basic human rights.”
“Are you good with the packaging being commercial on all things China and the athletes not speaking freely on anything?” he added. “Are you good with supporting that? I’ll pose the question to the audience, are you gonna watch the Olympics? Because I sure as fuck am not.”