>> digital natives, and you have a great deal of faith. i have to tell you, aside from wanting to commit themselves because i work with them. been around you to a great extent. perhaps maybe some of your confidence there is a bit inflated in terms of optimism. their commitment. and they seem quite apathetic. fixing government which is really what you're talking about >> reforming government, of them had checked out. >> i am not for fixing government as an ins of itself but as a means to deal with a great challenge. this generation is more apathetic than any generation in history. mooring dazed and the data bears that out. >> you can watch this and other programs online booktv.org.

>> david zirin next on book tv. the authors essays brains from rights in egypt in the inner workings of the n.c.a.a. >> it is great to be at the polls. it is actually an honor. and know that there are binders full of writers who want to speak here, so i am very happy to be asked. mitt romney jokes are over. okay. the book is called "game over." before i start i want to say something brief about the passing of venezuelan president hugo chavis, seriously because it speaks directly to the main theme. known for many things. his legacy will be debated for years. yet one of the things as he did which is not discussed all is

that he was probably the number one international born in the side of the owners of major league baseball . venezuela is second only to the dominican republic in terms of providing major league baseball players to the big leagues. people like miguel carrera, the king, felix hernandez, pitcher for the mariners. the kind to panda, the world series mvp. all of them from venezuela. yet when he took power, he said to the people of major league baseball, you are not going to have been exploited relationship with this country. you're not going to do to us what you have done for decades and you're not going to do to us with the advent of the dominican republic which is in billions of dollars to build these baseball academies that find -- sign kids as genghis 15 years old for couple of thousand dollars and 99 percent of the market and the disposable. out the other and they are left, kicked out of the academy, and a

minor-league contract, prospects for my education and basically just take advantage of the country's love of baseball and high poverty rates to treat the country like a sweat shop to produce future major-league baseball players. he said to major league baseball, look. you're going to have education at the baseball academy some provide some sort of job training and we will tax the holy hell of you to pay for the social reforms that we're trying to do in this country. now, the response was twofold. first of all, they shut down all their academies. thirty major league baseball teams. the number of academies is gone from 22 to five. that did not stop them from recruiting and training players. what they did was with them off to the dominican republic hundreds of miles away from the families to put them in the dominican academies' instead. what is so interesting about it again next with the theme in my book is that the people of major league baseball, if you look get

their complaints, what they said was, he is trying to politicize our sport. he is trying to politicize major league baseball. how dare he makes sports and politics in such a way. and what is so ridiculous about that is the first of all, and this and there is nothing political whatsoever about having a free rein to go into a country and set up these kinds of baseball academies. that is not political at all. what it reveals, and this is true to the history of sports is that it is not sports and politics that are not supposed to makes the sports and a certain kind of politics that are not supposed to makes. politics have always been a part of sports. a fast you guys right now, who was the first president ever receive a professional team at the white house, who might you say? lets throw out some names here. teddy roosevelt is a good answer. any other guests?

woodrow wilson is another one. the first president ever receive a major league professional team was in the johnson administration. the andrew johnson administration. 1867, the cincinnati red. basically as long as we have had professional sports have been politicians trying to exploit professional sports for their own means and gains. yet when athletes themselves have attempted to use professional sports to speak to issues they care about, when fans have attempted to do that and that is when the hammer really does come down which is why i wrote this book because i feel like since 2008 there has been a revolutionary change in the world louseworts, revolutionary changes in terms of the way politics have shaped the sports that so many of us care about, yet you would never know that by reading the traditional sports media. anything you read the sports media and it reminds me of the

old reporters to use to be normal was called the race speech for the new york times and 1950's and they would go down and cover that so rights movement and come back with the most insipid, juvenile, irrelevant stories of what they're seeing, like the quality of dr. martin the pickings suits . and so, how can you be expected to be a civic leader when he wears his baggy gray flannel suits that are so ill fitting. you read this. my god. you don't see what is happening right before your eyes. that is so much in the sports journalism today. before i talk about the revolution -- revolutionary changes i want to talk a little bit about sports journalism because i think most "-- sports journalism involves roughly three categories. the first is just, you could call it the us weekly. who is an athlete dating him what kind of cars they're driving. you don't know where the kardashian sin in the nba begins

. this horrifying human centerpiece. and there is so much coverage to that it does not even matter how famous an nba player is. if you want to get coverage you're a lot better off being in some way connected to the kardashian family and you would be taking a political stance. the most famous basketball player on earth right now has to be lebron james. last year he and his teammates all wore huggies over their heads and started in solidarity with the family after the 70 was killed by george zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch leader visited the crime of wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a wrong ever read the wrong time. so all of the miami heat opposed to the same time with him on. it was an amazing sight in an amazing story, like you had not just lebron james and the wayne wade but mike miller, white

player from the dakotas, john howard, so old human have marched in the first march on washington and all these guys together as one saying we stand with this family. there are 70 times more stories about who the kardashian are dating in the nba then there are about what the miami he did. like a factor of 70 in terms of what people are actually examining, professional journalism's are looking at. that is one problem. the second is this hyper obsession on statistics. some people call them advanced statistics. you could numbers and new and different and creative ways. a lot about this that i love. i like a lot of the advanced statistics and articles. it seems to upset the right people.

people on espn heat the statistics. they say things that just -- you hear them. in my date we valued things like stick to it as and moxie, not things like numbers. a player, if they had a good cut and with the right height and the right skin color, but right there underneath it is like this, and that is the kind of player you wanted to see. now, that makes the statistics bellerophon. upsets all right people. on the flip side is hyper focused on statistics and means that people miss the humor start -- tumors' -- human stories i was just in brazil. there are about to have both the world cup and the olympics back-to-back in 2014 and 2016. there was this old professor who was interviewing in real.

kneele liberal reform may be bringing people out of poverty. he is against neil liberal reforms. what is that? you might call it a speed up. so we were on the beach. yes. i've seen those. and he says statistics, they're like the bathing suit, they show so much, but they hide the most important part. and i think that is very true. now, the third tight of sports journalism that is probably the most prevalent is what the great old sports writer for the new york times called the goning of athletes. this idea that you take athletes and turn them and said these unbelievably in fallible creatures who are supposed the job to our knees and the fealty to.

that can cause a lot of problems because of the people who have been dotted happen to people like joe paterno, lance armstrong, oscar de story is, and there is no journalism that says who these people really are and how they amassed his power and following. instead you don't really know where the sports journalist and is in the corporate pr release begins. you can see great evidence of this down the road from us in beaverton, ore. abenaki facility we could possibly take a moment to pity the poor people at nike or not, but we could because in the last year they have had to change the name of their plants armstrong fitness facility, the joe paterno of child care center and take down from there website their commercial which it unit know about it, i and the bullet

in the gun. you build people up without any regard for who they are and what they represent an end up with these stories with the next news cycle lists, how hard can they jump on these people and demonize them and the rest of it . they deserve to be jumped on and criticized, but the fact that there were built up so high in the first place should give us pause and gives us stories, the person, was as kermit the end of the day, making a bid girlfriend because he was a devout mormon kid at the catholic school to develop those teammates that he had never actually matter before and get his price for that since then looks like not only will it cost him millions of dollars in terms of getting drafted, but the vast indoor a series of interviews with nfl executives

arrested in the question, are you gay . that's what they're asking him, which really does reveal the kind of sanctified homophobia in the national football league. when he was interviewed by katie couric she asked him, are you gate. to me, there are only for good answers to that question. yes, no, it's none of your business, or on weekends. that can lead to me, is a good way to answer that, but his response was to say, do a little chuckle, i am far from day which to me just sounds like a horrible new sitcom starring kirk cameron. but this is to he is attempting to be. the more you try to fit in, the

more difficult it is in the more you keep the story alive. so this is the problem with sports journalism. the problem with it is that it is shielding as from some absolutely amazing thing that happened since 2008. politics shaping sports. and that think that there are four main ways that politics has changed sports says 2008 and i will go through them quickly and we can do some q&a. the first thing that happens in 2008 was the election of barack obama as the first african-american president. whenever people here might think about him, this week with ideas the ridiculous. the fact that what the centrality of african-american athletes they had a huge effect on the confidence of athletes to speak about politics.

kevin garnett wearing political slogans on his sneakers many took to court. my favorite is carmelo antony's said he would score 42 points. still a moment where sports and politics came together. so that in and of itself started to open the door to this question. ..

>> the other side is our society is what it is. get women on the front-page front-page, get people paying attention to women's sports. here is a way to do that. to say we need to stop having this debate. relearned the more women sports are sexualize door objectified the less people are interested in women's sports and there are reasons for that.

because the biggest are about women and daughters because it seems where men can box with their daughters. it is a discussion and beyond my pay grade but either way the study showed definitively the fact that women athletes those in the "sports illustrated" swimsuit issue you don't know where the models and and the athletes begin. they have hurt women's sports. they have destroyed women sports. and to look the sexist look over the last 20 years there are more covers now than there were 10 years ago or before 10 years before that

you can link the existence of the women's liberation movement or the women's athletic culture that prides the values and achievements as opposed to the way that they look. i thought this was a story that needed to be looked at part of the discussion every time where you have the objectification of the women athletes but it was not there. the third part that is huge, huge, actual athletes that care about gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgendered. all the ways in which these are constructed how girls are supposed to act and if

you are a gay boy the locker room is not a place for you where homophobia is accepted. in to keep women athletes in line for the young elegy bt but since 2008 you have seen a big change. because the national equality marching in washington d.c. after proposition viii passed in california and reduce consciousness of these ideas and it has gotten into sports just the past year that two weeks before the super bowl bet big story the player for the ravens who said i will use the platform of the super bowl to talk

about anti-bullying and marriage equality. and playing key roles to campaign around state referendums that is huge in maryland where i live event in minnesota where it is much trickier with the civil-rights marriage freedom act v voted yes a stop to get people from getting married and crisscrossing the states and between games and weathering the criticism of his coaches and on the flip side you have tim veto who is still a quarterback yet cannot throw yet can still get all this attention and way beyond his ability to perform

commercials for organizations and recently he had to cancel the engagement that brutally homophobic church by the name of jeffers with the major churches he had to pull back from a the criticisms if you believe you are catholic or jewish or muslim you are going to hell. so to empty boat pulled away but now be have learned he is back kava-- speaking. but he can't throw. my goodness. tim veto quarterback stop calling him that. just a side issue but the main fact that they have these discussions is a big deal but there is an

organization called we can play started by the of. family if you never heard of them there like hockey royalty the father was so long time manager of the toronto maple leaf samples of were scouts and a bright and capable of the closet it was not just to say we don't tolerate you or we except to add of the goodness of our hearts but we we will fight homophobia with you and make it a safe space for lgbt kids they started the group called you can play it is now led by patrick because brian died in a car accident he took that death to move forward to start the group you should go to the web site and over the next

several days they will have the first out gay player from the bourse board said it will be a hockey player. but the biggest thing that has happened that changed sports was the economic crisis of 2008. in and of itself may be economics for the simple reason public subsidies dried up for owners. i am sure people in portland have no idea what that feels like to hold out for public money when they could afford to pay for the stadium. but just how effective the sport and for lockouts just in the last year the nhl almost lost the whole season and the referees for the national football league. in each case except the

referees which was out of spite, all the owners said the same thing you cannot get the public subsidies therefore we need to keep the profitability levels up by extracting money from the salaries of players. that leads to the lockout of players menu also lockout everybody who works at the stadium, locking up everybody who picks up an extra shift at the bar across the street, everybody who could make a living through the connection of the public subsidies going into sports. but these private actors are intervening in the public investment to keep people from earning a living. and that is incredibly political. this is global. it was a global phenomenon. one of the things i could do is visit places right before and after the world cup had been there i go there when it is not fun but it is

interesting because you can see to the promises first of all, going to greece that is one of the main victims of the austerity crisis of 2008 economic crisis that took $34 trillion out of the economy you see people living in squatter camps. everybody that was paid for for the olympics are now basically elaborate homeless shelters the state let people set up squatter camps. that is greece. look at vancouver 2010. i was up there before the start of the games in on the front page half paper was devoted they would cut physical education programs throughout british columbia the other half how they would spend billions of dollars to fly snow to the mountains because they did not have enough snow for the

skiing competition for the olympics. you can see a dash of global warming their. another example is i was in south africa before the world cup and billions of dollars spent on the stadium. there we're irrigating the stadium 24 hours a day to make it look as clean as possible. within a five minute walk you have the entire neighborhoods without drinking water. to the point* where trucks have to drive out in the middle of the night to bring back drugs -- jugs of water. that is better than the situation new jersey next year when the super bowl takes place because christie the governor, he has already said when the super bowl is happening, people might have to realize leading up to

it, we will not have emergency services available in the areas if they live within a certain distance of the stadium because they are so worried about being able to hold the super bowl with the context if there is a snowstorm or 0 degrees. so they may not even get that for the super bowl. the other thing in south africa is the group that organized its had the south african government trademark the words world cup 2010. if you sold anything that's said world cup or 2010 it could be confiscated by the government which is of huge deal because of the economy was selling points that we need to spend billions of dollars of state money so then right after words

words, basically the public-sector union were presented with the bill to say i hope you enjoyed the party. you will pay for it that led to the three point* 1 million persons strike right after words. not covered in the sports page. isn't this the blasted out onto the next with no sense of what was taking place was a neo liberal trojan horse with the professor here in portland calls it celebration capitalism that is a great way to refer to it. the idea people would accept things they wouldn't otherwise because it is wrapped but we will host the olympics or the world cup and the vicious free-market reforms are pushed through. this is what i am writing about in the book. just to close at one to say why this is important. for me understanding sports

in a different lens is about a player for the houston rockets. royce white going on 22, a rookie in the nba and he sat out the first half of the season because he was objecting to the way his team was handling his issues. before he was drafted piece that i have mental-health issues of i can fly, a practice, play. they drafted him then they said we are still down with you needing help you have to use a psychiatrist employed by the team. he said a psychiatrist who works for my boss? i don't think i want to do that. i want to have my own if that is okay. they said no. so the first half of the year he sat out now he is starting to work his way back in and day gave in but

his process has increased his political confidence to change the way he looks not just that his own life but the whole world. he was interviewed by one of the writers of espn and he is a good journalist and a good writer. i am not just saying that the way he handled the interview was atrocious. and royce said the issue that nobody is talking about is really it is not just about me being mentally ill the majority of the nba is mentally ill. and chuck said what do you mean? he said of the buddy knows how many players smoke weed after games, a drink after games, not just because they are having fun and unwinding their doing it to manage their pain, alienation, isolation but nobody wants to talk about that. do know what else the majority of this country is

mentally ill. [laughter] and he said why do you think would not want to talk about that? he said because if we did with that we may have to devote resources. 60 percent of the country don't have to have a massive public health effort but if we are mentally ill then they will ignore us they'll have to spot the health coverage but he said i am willing to fight and die to get universal health coverage in the united states. do you know, why? because 2 percent controls all the wealth than the rest are fighting over the rest and we are stressed out of our minds figuring out how to make our way in the world. then chuck writes in his article, okay, royce sounds like a ninth grader who just

wrote a term paper now thinks he is the smartest person in the room. think about everything that does for "the reader" who reads this because for us it is safe to say we would say right on. you are a jerk. how dare you say that? but others may say well. then he provides this you don't have shoes taken seriously because he is just a loud mouth kid. not only is that foul but it blinds us to the fact people come up in sports news see the world a hell of a lot clearer than the fifth year-old author who has journalism school degrees for there is something unique about being a professional athlete where you come from the impoverished background, you are a person of color, yet how many people have

microphones and are asked what do you think about the world? a lot of times they are told the quiet, a tow the line now has the most important thing is to make money to support the people around you and sell something. if it has of swoosh it is the better. but athletes will say i have a platform, i know where i come from, i know people are looking up to me, i will do something with this to make the world a better place. those are the people we need to treasure and build movements around what they say and there is a tradition that sees jackie robinson and mohammad ali as essential to the women's liberation movement and lgbt liberation and royce white as central to building a world of exploitation on

human cooperation. thank you very much. i appreciated. [applause] >> i am sorry i was losing my voice but if you have a question we will give you a microphone so it can we recorded. you will be on tv. if you have out standing warrants or things to be be dealing with as sketchy nature or did not what your boss and a you are here, do not ask a question. [laughter] >> the first question is what you thought of the super bowl win chris from

the 49ers have that comment that was remarkable. the second thing is people who speak out, what about michael jordan refusing to speak out to be criticized and he did not want to take a political stand? >> terrific question. please say your name even if it is fake so i can address you. [laughter] >> if you did not hear about this, the super bowl has a thing called media day where people could ask questions of athletes and one of the people was the spawn of how word stern -- howard stern.

and he said have you feel about having a gave teammate and he said he would not except having had a teammate. but it was not just chris but other players also rejected the idea they had been part of an actual video they did. and they said i was never part of that. that is the only time dan savage has taken its video down from the its on negative it gets better project. it was very ugly and it would be ugly no matter what team but to choose to say homophobic things can never be seen as a good career move for about and it was very interesting.

number one baltimore ravens was in the percentage of residents is the was not even in the top-10. it is hard to root for a team that is homophobic when you are a city for decades has stood for the alternative way of looking at your lgbt brothers and sisters. that was a huge deal at the time. been to condemn the comments but then the news that not just manti te'o but the questions do you like girls and are you married and who are you dating and studiously plus? not only immoral and screwed up by illegal. you cannot ask that. a couple of players who came out of the closet after retirement they said the nfl asks this for decades. that is how they talk to

you. it is partly to dehumanize because they realize you are hours now and we control you. have the right to know everything about you. then you are ours to molded into as we say. it is a good that the players are breaking out but the nfl has a long way to go. despite the immediate condemnation, but michael jordan is a interesting character because we should support athletes to be political but not slamming athletes that don't choose to be. but the idea is political freedom people should have the right to speak out and not lose their job and also if that is where they are.

but also a michael jordan is not your typical athlete but -- with the fortune 500 company that runs a division of nike and what they do in southeast asia, so for michael jordan to say nothing when asked directly about sweatshops, that is political. that is a political choice he has made. i take issue when people say michael jordan decided not to be political. he did because he decided to represent a certain kind of politics that deal with the dictates of corporate america and to me that makes them worthy of any criticism you want to thrash him. >> -- throw at him. >> start there.

back to the gender issue, if female journalists had the feel they are being treated especially after the sideline? how can they be enhanced? >> we just passed the 25th anniversary of the first woman to ever broadcast the nfl game. by all accounts, rudy at the time the sports tv writer for "usa today" was determined thank gave her high notices. but it has never happened since then and but we have a situation river it is crazy.

but they can now with the gender studies of sports journalists. it is really bad, something like 17 percent are women. but if you take out espn come it drops down to subterranean levels. it is something about access. when there are women in the classroom they feel they would but it is not that they could. whether broadcasting or actual media and writing, it is very narrow. clear that the sheer numbers of women which is incredible , title ix funds one out of 34 young women to

one out of three. with that the number of women to buy sports apparel and the different factors but the number one rated college basketball game was the women's game between connecticut and tennessee, uc there is money to be made and ye money to be made and yet there is a death fight between the money they want to make and the sexist ideology they want to promote. they are fighting with a battle, must oppress women, all want their money. [laughter] and the result is one month of nfl players wearing pink to show their allegiance to the susan g. coleman foundation. that is where they put themselves and the terrible situation i do think this is

the next upsurge to talk about a political upsurge by women athletes to say i have the right to play without thinking but be like canada patrick to do that. >> my name is glenn and what would you change about college sports? [laughter] >> first of all, your featured very prominently in my book, not you in particularly as somebody with your name. >> i used to play basketball with him. i did not know if you would know who he is. >> you said that as a little being on television. [laughter] thank you. but there is a whole part because there is a part of lgbt athletes and in the 1970's was out of the closet

and he played baseball for the dodgers, he is credited with the high five and he made the mistake of having a relationship and the nature is up for debate but it was a relationship with tommy lasorda and his case on and that got him removed. he was out shoots it teammates but not in the media we still don't have a male player in the four major sports to has been out. so i do talk about glenn. what was the question? >> what would you change about college sports? >> i would figure out a way to blow the whole thing up and start over. figuratively. blow the whole thing up and

start over. talk to somebody not from this country and say our institutions of higher learning are also minor-league for the nfl or nba or a mill be franchising. it is crazy. and did you e. b. dubois talked about this a century ago and it was quite to read what he had to say. it is an outrage the football team at yale gets seven times the many as the english department and you think that is so cute. now is set been trott -- 7 trillion times as much. but that it was the effect of putting on a football.

but these are right and no pay. but the whole word student athletes comes from a college football player who was paralyzed trying to use to the n.c.a.a. to get workers' compensation and that was part of their defense to the supreme court to say they are not workers, their student-athletes. so the designation should exempt us from carrying about their health for having to compensate them if something horrible happens. to me and not to say there should not be sports on the campus but those amateur sports has turned into a moral cesspool.

fifth moral cesspool. fifth fact that gerry sandusky was raping kids in the locker room and it was covered up for years but what was so shocking and scary is people inside the world of the n.c.a.a. was to see how far he would go to protect the institution. we have known for years people look the other way if players are paid under the table or at institutions like notre dame or sexual assault or rape also the other way of small children are being abused in the showers. why? because the awful people? no. the idea that says the football program supports so much on his campus central social and psychological life of a region and therefore we will do what we have to do to make sure the

trains keep running on time the matter how monstrous. what happens, happens. i would absolutely change college sports down to the last compound. >>. >> i am with of a group and i was hoping you could talk about the potential fight going on around the prison company trying to find the stadium in florida. >> thank you for asking about that. for the campaign to start the new jim crow. the then new jim crow is a great book and is indispensable.

the most important anti-racist book from the autobiography of malcolm x. is amazing work. the new jim crow issue is becoming a campus issue in a serious way down in florida. there is a university called florida atlantic university and a prison called you group the second-largest private prison company in the united states. they spent $6 million to rename the football stadium genu groups stadium at florida atlantic university. this is horrible for so many reasons you don't know where to begin. it is horrible first of all, because private prisons use inherently immoral structures that spent tens of millions of dollars to lobby for the three strikes and mandatory minimum sentencing because if there

are less prisoners they make less money they want to make sure the incarceration rate is as high as possible because they get these paid contracts to build a private prisons. but even by the standards gm group is bad. a judge in mississippi, mississippi, ke ep in mind called them a cesspool of inhumanity based on how they treat prisoners and sanitation, withholding medication, a lack of clean beds, and no laundry, it is like penn state not because they are evil people but they looked at the profit margins and it is cheaper not to wash the sheets every day and make sure the toilets are clean but the results or human-rights violations on the repellent scale. what is scary is right now

all private prison companies are excited of the immigration reform and pushing through. that is why people would be in favor not living in the shadows, but one of the things they would do is make it open season on undocumented people to say now we can jail them. but the prison population is 2 million, the number of undocumented people in florida alone is 3 million. in florida alone 3 million potential prisoners and she'll group is buying for the contract to jail all 3 million that is insanely lucrative. said renaming the stadium is a form of branding to make their name more acceptable to the people to get the wonderful pr. what is brilliant is the

students are fighting back. the team of florida atlantic are called the owls so the students started a group called stop owl-katraz. they are raising hell and for students it is personal because some parents they have spent time in video group jails to have the experience to do that because they are children of immigrants to operate as a detention center they see themselves as a part to fight the new jim crow. that is something that we should draw inspiration from that is now the largest movement florida atlantic has seen since the vietnam war and it started because they got greedy with the private prison and their

money. >> my name is john. to piggyback on that a little bit, the power of espn, fox sports now having their own network, and the human guests how does that allow access to be under privileged how will they have access? as a kid i kid turn on any tv or radio for every sports hero, billie jean king, you name it. so if you start to show gay athletes we will see more women sports that we need to have access so the young

people can see that to have the inspiration. >> i am so glad you raised that because this is the other thing that happens in recent years but it goes further back may be roughly 20 or 30 years that there has always been a tight relationship between professional sports and working-class communities and that has been severed dramatically. when my dad was growing up up, he would find milk bottles to hand them in for coins then go to the brooklyn dodgers game think about how many need to see a major-league baseball game. i spoken in fremont california and astor rimm of 50 kids only one kid had raised their hands out of 50 south-central.

it is nothing if you are going to see a game it is probably because you are selling beer at or directing people to their seats, working concessions concessions, but sports themselves just to go, you mentioned the issue of cable , to watch a sporting event. >> channel eight has said on the game package but maybe somebody would say that. >> the worst part is, i don't know for here, but you fought off the effort to get tens of millions of dollars and good job. i always marveled how hank

paulson decided to name his son merit. it is a family name. [laughter] but still, and los angeles every betty's cable bill is going up because of paying for the dodgers new cable bill. ever buddies subsidizes but if you subsidize the dodgers then the collectivization of that privatization a profit is what sports have been doing for 30 or 40 years and it primed us for the bank bailouts with the idea is our job. and sports was one of the ways that people thought that is why we are supposed to do but it is but i agree

and here was what you are saying but we will have to fight. people will have to start looking at sports there a more activist lends something not just there for us but we have to fight to have access to with issues of basic health of the wind -- line. >> with a lance armstrong doping affair that just took place, do you perceive for other major league sports i have been hearing abofor other major league sports i have been hearing about soccer in particular with the running they do with the

10 yen marathoners comedy think that will be a big story in the future warble that be kept under wraps? >> david stern's sat in front of congress to thousand six to say nba players to use performance enhancing drugs because of their muscle mass it is not conducive to steroids some like football players who are big and people in congress are like that is brilliant. well said like lance armstrong? no. they are for all kinds of things blood oxygenation number one day allow you to train longer and harder. if you are in athlete who might come from a pour socio-economic background to know that if you take a pill is a difference between having a longer career to make millions of more

dollars, and for athletes it is a no great what negative what no-brainer because it is unexplored because people don't want to know the answers. my own view is anyone who thinks the status quo how they are regulated is absolutely out of their mind. the smartest people who talk about this or on the extreme of each side of the issue and the answer lies in the extremes. one set of arguments says we have to take it out of the shadows come out of the closet, a libertarian issue coming should be about decriminalization a better be out in the open under a doctor because it shows the danger is not use but abuse.

and they should be allowed to do what they want but the other side is no, no, no we have to do what we have to do because we don't know of the of long term health repercussions. is about people playing sports without feeling they have to do damage to their own bodies so we have to have biological passports, blood testing, urine testing and figure out of way to make sports chemical free. the answer needs to live with water to options because the current way it operates is a joke. they should we like the healthiest people in the world.

men who look like george clooney they should all look like martina and navratilova. with that is not the case. oftentimes people are broken one player said the thing about playing football is you weigh your right to have a middle aged goes straight from being young to being told that is about performance-enhancing drugs and the brutality to put your body through. in between games as well because obviously if you take something artificial those chickens will come home to roost eventually. thank you. >> i am sara. since you talked about the power of individual sports

players but the sports fans and what they are up to now because they have been doing cool things and how sports is played out in the air of spring? >> there is a whole chapter in the book about this and the sports fan club because it was brilliantly under reported that when the mubarak forces fell the fan club of the soccer team in egypt change because for decades he, like other dictators, they give extra room for soccer clubs to fight the police, each other, themselves, it is the

apolitical way to get frustrated and angry youth blowoffs' team. better they do that than be a part of a revolutionary movement to take on the government. so those soccer clubs that were the most experienced like setting up checkpoints they came ready made. and to keep the police from coming in and the revolutionary leadership continued after of mubarak had power and then the soccer clubs that made them so dangerous and the power

and the status quo that their hatred is always for the state apparatus and state violence. that is always their focus. they say that explicitly. but what we care about is if people are held to account for those who died. but the great pro -- broken promises of the current president is seeking justice for those who killed people under mubarak began the military intermediate dictatorship with that bridge. and to backtrack on those promises to make them a consistent street fighting force and they have gotten more politically powerful because as they had

disappointed people they look at what should we do? for these people and soccer clubs they hate them so they fight them so they say i hate mubarak or those others even more. so stay on the other side. i'm not going anywhere near you but by the end they link arms and i quote the one guy the revolutionary socialist of egypt that says i would rather see mubarak fall before i would never see others wind farms that is the craziest thing i ever thought i would see in egypt this is part of the arab spring. that is the first thing

gadaffi did to suspend the soccer matches because they saw as a possible transmission belt and the other place where soccer and the middle east plays a huge role on the gaza strip and i ride about that in the book because there have been three players on the palestinian teams in the last two years and with the bombing of caused the headquarters that association was bombed they were targeted and telling that story, the palestinian soccer player kept in jail for two years without charges then was released because of international pressure also pushed through

another group that is about as corrupt as you can imagine so that speaking out for the palestinian soccer player is a moment that said i thought i would see ice cream the verge from urinals before i would see that. [laughter] budget is a sign of the times it truly is and the story of palestinian soccer that i talk about in the book and is well worth telling. we have five more minutes. >> i ate was wondering how you're reporting what's received from the other

mainstream sports reporters. >> that's funny grass that. i like people to like me but some people don't like me and that hurts but some people like espn and his sad like what you are doing keep doing what you're doing and that helps to create more space with those too consciously reach out is gratifying. i am not doing this in a vacuum but it is connected for people to have better coverage. so is good but those who

really, really dislike me and that is her fault but they do because i do think sports journalism is a political pursuits how you talk about people is political and athletes is a political decision high you talk or not talk is a political decision if you do something politically that night disagree with i will talk about or read -- because it is a way to of a political state but the concept of politics, debate politics, debate, why you may think these issues matter and that is rickets ugly sometimes. they say the opposite of love so hates is cool.

[laughter] >> i could ask your thoughts to do major league homophobia in the big league with homosexual latency in sports. >> that is huge. there are views spectacles more homoerotic van the nfl game if you look at honestly. you don't want to say that but, i do. anytime you have tight been spending over you will have questions. and homophobia is an outgrowth particularly that

it is men touching and rolling around. the word suze in our vernacular is teddy roosevelt and that was no way to define people who would not play football so the idea that football is manhood and no discussion to do with homoeroticism in football is a discussion that makes me popular with other sports writers by the way. [laughter] and i will never forget why probably the most homoerotic sport that is very enjoyable is mixed martial arts and if you think of the actual positions, and touching touching, submission holds

holds, it is the homoerotic sport coat and a don't you think. we have this thing it is only gay if you make a contact. on a cultural indictment of our world, it is on a day if you make eye contact? and on that we will call that night. thank you. [applause]

>> we have to take back media. independent media will save us. the most part institutions on earth, more powerful than any bomb or missile, the idea that explodes on to the scene, but it doesn't happen when it is contained by the box, the tv screen that we all gays have for so many hours a week. we need to be able to hear speaking for themselves outside the box.