ESPN Town Hall Meeting: A Sad, Colossal Waste of Time

The wife and I sat down last night to watch ESPN's town hall meeting on the Mike Vick story. In case you missed it, panelists included former Atlanta Falcons Terrence Mathis and Chuck Smith, AJC columnist Terence Moore, Neal Boortz and NY Times columnist Selena Roberts. I didn’t have high hopes going into the program, and I was not pleasantly surprised. It was a tremendous waste of ninety minutes, and was an especially embarrassing time for the Vick supporters (I’ll call them the Vicksters) in the crowd. I’m not sure how the crowd was selected, but I understand it was invitation-only.

From the beginning, the majority of the crowd was seemingly pro-Vick. There were lots of t-shirts proclaiming “Free Mike Vick”, along with a large number of #7 Falcons jerseys. Asked if Vick was unfairly singled out in the dog fighting investigation, the Vicksters clapped and yelled that he was. The Vicksters yelled a lot during the program. They were repeatedly chided and asked to be calm by the program’s host.

The tone among the audience members who spoke: Vick was singled out and prosecuted because he’s black. When Chuck Smith or Terence Moore (both African-Americans) pointed out that Vick had pled guilty, or refused to play the race card, the Vicksters booed and hissed.

A comparison was made between Vick’s situation and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s punishment for his team’s spying on other teams. Someone in the crowd asked why the punishment was so much stronger for Vick. I believe it was Chuck Smith who replied, “Vick pled guilty to federal charges. What Belichick did wasn’t a federal offense.” The Vicksters let him have it.

To me, the worst came as the program neared the end. Asked whether dog fighting should or should not be illegal, the Vicksters in the audience made it clear they thought it should not be a crime. Unbelievable.

I’m not sure what ESPN really hoped to accomplish with this town hall meeting. If their goal was to have a thought provoking, frank discussion of the case, they failed.

However, if their goal was to embarrass Atlanta and make Vick’s supporters look and sound like thugs and hoodlums who don’t care about or respect the law; who condone lying and abominable, reprehensible behavior; and who are willing to play the race card whenever and wherever, regardless of actual facts… then I guess they succeeded remarkably.