“I’m not by nature a mean-spirited or personally combative guy. But I am willing to take a stand and voice an opinion. And it’s always been my hope that people could make that distinction and that could say, ‘even if I don’t agree with him, he seems like a thoughtful guy who tries to put things in context and understands nuance.’ And in this particular case, I think I made an error in thinking I could get as much nuance as was necessary in, in that short period of time. And it’s such a volatile subject that I think some people came after me personally in a way I wasn’t used to. There were a lot of ad hominem attacks.” – Bob Costas in a CNN Press Room interview.

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47 COMMENTS

  1. Costas should have engaged his brain before shooting with his mouth. Now he says he wishes he had a semi selector instead of full auto only, for espousing his beliefs. He just can’t keep his mouth shut and leave bad enough alone. He should stick to sports and leave the 2nd Amendment alone. He too needs to learn what “shall not be infringed,” means.

  3. Ehf Costas and ehf the NFL for not putting the smack down on him. In Wisconsin we hunt, fish and watch the Packers. After Costas dumb remark and subsequent silence from the NFL I stopped watching football.

    Yes Mr. Commissioner; even the Packers take a back seat to the 2nd Amendment.

  4. Show of hands, everyone who thinks he spent more time Googling “ad hominem” than he did the facts of gun control?

  5. Maybe it is important to stop to think about what the caption on this image says…”The growing MEDIA debate after Newtown.”

    • What media debate? They have shown over and over again they are an extension of the democratic party.

      We should consider what Free Press means when the press is simply the extension of a political party. Nothing they say can be believe because everyone has an agenda. Reporting the facts has long died and media is just opinion and propaganda to a political cause.

      Local media just reports what is on the police scanner and there is no real investigative reporting anymore

  6. “There were a lot of ad hominem attacks”

    Translation: You’re a buncha dumb gun totin hicks and I’ll prove it by using the phrase “ad hominem”.

  7. Just stick to your job commentating on the NFL or whatever; dont try to bring gun politics in to a football game, dummy. By the way, I didnt even know who this idiot was until the whole gun debate thing. I still think he is an idiot.

  9. what a dumbass… instead of sticking to his nfl job he decided to speak against guns… well too bad for him its already done.

    • Give the man a BREAK! He felt an overriding, overreaching need to SUCK UP to his bosses.

      And boy howdy, DOES HE EVER looking like a SERIAL KILLER in that photo. Guess too much sucking up can do that to a man – I mean puppet.

  10. Had this been a right leaning commentator speaking out against abortion or gay marriage the backlash would have been far, far greater. Still…

    I can’t help but feel we as a whole could have done a better job of debunking the ridiculous things he said rather than attacking him for saying it. It was inappropriate, but right now the 2A movement relies far too much on Limbaugh style outrage rather than calculated, clinical and logical responses.

    • #1
      neither of those activities is notated as a God Given Right in the US Constitution and so your Opinion is specious
      #2
      If you beleive that Murdering the unborn is a God Given Right your a failed human being

  11. I pay American football as little attention as possible, but this fellow has dragged me into the subject. As far as I’m concerned, he’s free to say whatever he wishes, and I’m free to respond. I’m also free to ignore him.

  12. when i watched this on reliable sources i was aghast, why does he not understand that pro sports are not the place for his idealism. maybe he should concentrate on not sounding like and idiot when he covers swimming during the next summer Olympics.

  13. I don’t think he’s even using the phrase correctly.

    “That’s really a stupid argument because you’re a dumbass” is an ad-hominem attack.

    “That’s a really stupid argument because A, B, and C. Wow, you really are a dumbass.” is not an ad hominem attack. It’s a potentially viable argument followed by verbal abuse.

    • I was thinking along the same lines.

      As stated, he is basically saying that the facts presented by the pro-2A crowd are merely emotional responses that have little to do reason.

  14. You have all the nuance and thoughtfulness of an executive order, you piece of sh1t. FOAD. By the way, your shirt stinks.

  15. Wow. Even in back-peddling, CYA mode he can’t avoid revealing his anti-gun sentiments. “It wasn’t me! It was what I read on air to millions of people!” Why bother to retroactively soften your message if in the end you just repeat it? I hope people are not as dumb as they think they are, but I wonder.

  16. BC is a very self-absorbed guy and a legend in his own mind not that he has a well-developed one. BC also gets the petty career opportunist award for his rant knowing how the mass media industry and CNN view guns and gun owners.

    • Does anybody outside of his peers really care about Costas? It’s as if he’s famous for being famous. I guess that publicity stunt made him at least a little relevant, if only for all the wrong reasons.

      • BC sounds like such a “po-me” “I’m being victimized by over-reacting gun owners”. The mass media is full of people with egos to match politicians. I guess becoming the news itself is for the media even more of a career bragging point than poorly ranting-off of an unrelated news event to a football game.

  17. Thoughtful people start by accepting their ignorance and then learn as much as they can from as many perspectives as they can, before they form an opinion based on the evidence and their ability to interpret it.

    For example, I have no opinions on the best way to cure brain cancer. I’m not trained in the field, I don’t understand the very specialized science behind it, so I refrain from offering any sort of opinions. About the only suggestion I might make would be to ask someone who actually knows what they are talking about like a oncologist with a specialty in neurology.

    What I would never do is go to a medical convention on brain cancer and insist that everyone is treating it wrong, because the real common sense treatment for brain cancer is snorting cherry Kool Aid powder. Then, when I am scoffed at and dismissed by the experts, claim I just want to have a “rational debate” about curing cancer by snorting cherry Kool Aid powder.

    So how many gun experts did Bob Costa consult before he formed his opinions on guns?

    And that’s why he is not a thoughtful person with a difference of opinion. He is an irrational person with an unqualified opinion and, in a sensible world, would be ignored.

  18. Be advised, Costa- Piers Morgan has just as many stupidly held opinions as you do, and he can deliver them in a British accent! Your career warning light is on.

  19. Will someone please call the waaaahmbulance for Bob Costas, his panties are bunching up bc ppl didn’t eat his spoon-fed BS.

  20. I wonder who advised him to insert the word “Opinion” in his Clinton like rationalzation of his Crypto-Commiehood

  21. Yeah, they were ad hominem attacks on him, not people pointing out the ignorance of his statements. Isn’t it weird how people get so offended when they use their freedom of speech, end up sounding like morons, and other people use thier freedom of speech to point out how the first speaker is an idiot?

  23. “And in this particular case, I think I made an error in thinking I could get as much nuance as was necessary in, in that short period of time…”

    “Nuance”. Libspeak for “you gun owners are abunch of hicks and rubes, and you can’t understand highly intellectual people like me. Neener, neener, neener.”

  24. -ā€œIā€™m not by nature a mean-spirited or personally combative guy.”-

    Every gun-grabber is, so yes, you are.

    I’m reminded of an old saying that if you have to say “but” in a sentence, then everything that came before it is false.

  26. Thoughtful, huh? No, just a good leftist foot soldier (read dupe) who knows he’s smarter and better than you.

  29. Bob lives at 15 Central Park West, the most expensive (per sf) residence in NYC.
    His neighbors are Lloyd Blankfein, Sandy Weil, Sting, A-Rod, etc.
    Any speculation on whether they have armed security there?

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