Those who have been reading the blog since the beginning may remember a post linking to the Nation of Islam Sports Blog. The NOI post was pretty funny in its own right, but the comments after it were hilarious. I can't remember who said it, but I agree completely: "People taking satire seriously on the Internet never gets old."
Today Deadspin linked to an article in the Duke Basketball Report (which confusingly has a section titled "Duke Football") about Duke hatred. I was pleased to see that Maryland gets credit for starting the trend of truly hating Duke (although the article goes on to cite examples of Duke hatred that predate the peak of Maryland's vitriol by a decade).
The whole article (manifesto? tirade?) is unbearably long (7 parts!!!), repetitive, and typically self-indulgent. It reads like someone got carried away writing a term paper. 
It's all worthwhile, though, when you get to "Part III. Race" (yes, each part is numbered and has a title, like this is some fucking Ken Burns documentary). The main exhibit in the race section (which is supposed to be the big revelation of the article) is the Nation of Islam Sports Blog post mentioned above. I kept waiting for the DBR to acknowledge that the NOI blog is supposed to be satire and then claim that racial humor like that isn't funny. But then I saw this:
We should point out too that it’s not clear that the site is officially sanctioned by the Nation of Islam. Then again, there’s no evidence to suggest the NOI opposes it, either.
What?!?! Those DBR simpletons took the NOI blog so seriously that they felt they had a journalistic responsibility to point out that there was no obvious official connection to the real Nation of Islam! I thought that the whole Myra Piggie thing was an aberration, but maybe Duke students just aren't that smart (or are just criminally gullible). The DBR article even goes on to suggest that Coach K should sue the NOI blog for libel. I'll let the lawyers on this blog comment on the merits of the case, but I seem to remember something from my high school civics class that satire qualifies as protected speech (no matter, apparently the NOISb has Jackie Chiles on retainer).
Almost as funny as their misinterpretation of the NOI blog is the prescription for how to make all that Duke hate go away: "quite frankly, Duke could stand to throw a charm offensive at the press." That has to be the worst possible solution to this non-problem. The Duke hatred has a few origins, but the media glorification of Duke played no small part. I'll assume if you're reading this blog you understand the media's pre-2001 Duke bias (which continues to some extent today, although the Duke haters in the media have come out of the closet) and don't need me to go point-by-point on how annoying stories about Duke's "clean program" and "good kids" used to be.
Predictably, the NOISb skewers the DBR article in a fabulous retort.
Photo credit: Truth About Duke
3 Responses:
This was your best post ever. If there was a way to permanently save posts, I'd make sure this one was on it.
On a related note, the John Riggins Show (yes, I listen every day) pointed out that the best part of the Florida win last night was that they'd quit talking about Duke as the "last back-to-back championship team." Good enough for me.
Welcome Kentucky fans!
Yes, Nation of Islam SportsBlog is satirical. The title probably should have given it away.
Knuckleheads. FREDTERP
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