Stuart Scott Changed Sports Media and Changed Me

Stuart Scott Changed Sports Media and Changed Me

Stuart Scott Changed Sports Media and Changed Me

Dave Zirin appeared on MSNBC’s The Reid Report to talk about the passing of the trailblazing ESPN anchor, Stuart Scott.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

On Sunday morning, legendary ESPN anchor Stuart Scott died at the age of 49. The Nation sports editor Dave Zirin joined Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The Reid Report on Monday to discuss Scott’s legacy. Scott was a “liberator of language,” Zirin said. “He was a…representative of a hip-hop generation and a hip-hop vernacular that a lot of America, and certainly not Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN is headquartered, wasn’t exposed to before.”

But Scott’s influence wasn’t limited to sports media. Zirin also talked about Scott’s impact on his own experience with cancer. “I [was] in a fog of depression and self-loathing and anger. No one was reaching me,” he told Reid. “And then I watched Stuart Scott’s speech. And I listened, over and over again, to those seven words, where he said, ‘You fight cancer by how you live.’” Scott reframed the traditional cancer narrative, Zirin said—once again, changing the game.

—Naomi Gordon-Loebl

 

Support independent journalism that does not fall in line

Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

Ad Policy
x