The latest scolding commentator to ignore China’s human rights abuses

As the Winter Olympic Games officially wind to an end in China tomorrow, now seems like a good time to mention selective outrage and reporting when it comes to human rights abuses.     

Golf Channel — owned by NBC, the network broadcasting the Olympics — commentator Brandel Chamblee recently ranted about golf superstar Phil Mickelson in a heated commentary posted on the Golf Channel website.

To be clear, I am a longtime fan of Chamblee and consider him to be one of the best golf commentators and writers in the business. Often, his spot-on observations about the game are exceptional. That said, his indignant attack of Mickelson betrayed a seemingly common trend these days by some on the left who need a “go-to” example of a human rights abuse to cite when criticizing others in an “I’m superior to you” fashion.          

This example involved the 2018 assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian operatives in Turkey, a crime that should never be forgotten. Chamblee managed to weave that crime into the body of his diatribe against Mickelson, because Mickelson — along with eventual winner Harold Varner III, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and a host of other international golfers — played in the Saudi International event in Saudi Arabia.

Said Chamblee, in part: “It was not obnoxious greed by the PGA Tour that opened the door, to use Mickelson’s phrase, for a potential Saudi-backed rival league. It was the never-ending stream of human atrocities, such as the butchering and dismembering of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, of which the Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, which sponsors this week’s Saudi International event, has been accused of abetting. Horrors such as that are hard to hide and impossible to ignore, which compelled the Saudis to engage in the calculated deception commonly known as sports-washing …”     

I have no problem with Chamblee making that point. What I find disingenuous is his audacity to cite a “never-ending stream of human atrocities” and “horrors such as that are hard to hide” while ignoring perhaps the largest human rights abuse of our time: China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang province.    

Keep in mind, Chamblee started his hit piece by writing: “Phil Mickelson cares a lot about his media rights, but apparently not so much about human rights” — even though Chamblee has no idea what’s in Mickelson’s heart.  

Let’s talk about human rights. Yes, Khashoggi’s murder was horrific, but if the despicable killing of one human being is “impossible to ignore,” what would Chamblee call the torture and killing of thousands of Uyghurs in China?     

As host of the Olympics, it’s logical to see why some would believe NBC essentially crawled into bed with China and purposely turned a blind eye to the atrocities against the country’s Muslim minority citizens. To paraphrase Chamblee, would that be called “profit or self-interest-washing?” It should be noted that the U.S. and eight other countries imposed diplomatic boycotts on the Games.   

Chamblee can add his name to journalists who imperiously cite Khashoggi’s murder but ignore the tragic fate of thousands of innocent people in China. Why? In Chamblee’s case, I can only surmise that job protection may have played a role.  

But if Chamblee drew a line in the sand and set the standard with his accusations about the Saudi Public Investment Fund, then shouldn’t he view NBC — and every other business and entity willingly doing business with China while ignoring its atrocities — through the same prism and extend the same condemnation?   

FBI Director Christopher Wray, in a recent speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, warned of  “the threat posed by the Chinese government here at home to our economic security and our freedoms,” saying it has “reached a new level — more brazen, more damaging than ever before, and it’s vital — vital — that all of us focus on that threat together.” 

Clearly, not all of us are listening and heeding the warning.

On a January podcast, Golden State Warriors minority owner Chamath Palihapitiya shockingly declared: “Let’s be honest, nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs. You bring it up because you really care, and I think that’s nice that you care. The rest of us don’t care. I’m telling you a very hard, ugly truth. Of all the things that I care about, it is below my line.”     

Is the torture and killing of the Uyghurs similarly below Chamblee’s or NBC’s “line”? Does what’s happening to them matter to executives with the Golf Channel, or Big Tech, or on the campuses of American colleges, or in Hollywood?

Maybe, like Chamblee, we’re talking about but not stopping a horrific human rights abuse of our time because we don’t want to be forced into a John Cena-like, cringe-worthy apology for daring to mention anything that might offend those who have become the paymasters to much of the business world: China’s leaders.     

Again, Chamblee is one of the best golf commentators in the sports business. But, if he wants to set the standard for what is unacceptable and who is pure of heart when it comes to “horrors … that are hard to hide and impossible to ignore,” he may want to address the gruesome fate of the Uyghurs. An essay on how many millions of dollars NBC is making from its China connection might be a good place to start.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.