In yet another saga of the bottom-feeding media in this once great country a reporter seeking to become the story tried to hijack the retirement announcement of NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. The longtime offensive superstar – until age caught up with him – decided to go out on top after his Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 last month and retired yesterday. Manning holds a good chunk of the league passing records and is a two time world champion as well as one of the truly good guys and positive role models in the National Thug League.

Mr. Manning has been the target of a sleazy smear campaign launched by Black Lives Matter Activist Shaun King who is a columnist for the New York Daily News. Mr. King’s attack on Manning is a racially motivated vendetta undertaken as payback over criticism of losing quarterback Cam Newton who acted like a punk in his post-game media session. No one likes a sore loser which is exactly what Newton was after his massive onfield choke job cost his Carolina Panthers teammates a world championship. King threw a tantrum followed by the publication of documents related to a 20 year old sexual misconduct case to stick it to whitey as represented by Manning.

King is still working hard to milk his slime job on Manning as well as spraying gasoline on the smoldering racial tensions with numerous pieces of agitprop for his employer. The ginned-up controversy led to a USA Today reporter popping the most stupid, poorly timed and utterly tasteless question of the week during an occasion devoted to honoring the future Hall of Famer.

CBS Sports defended the boorish conduct of attention whore Lindsay Jones in the opinion piece “Here’s why Peyton Manning needed to be asked an uncomfortable question”:

The moving and emotional press conference Peyton Manning used Monday to say goodbye to a game he helped define became authentic because of its most difficult moment: When a reporter, liberated from sycophancy and doing what journalists should do, asked the right question.

What about those 20-year-old allegations of sexual assault that were regurgitated over the past month?

The reaction was swift and, at times, merciless. Those worthy of respect and those who have none called the question all the predictable things. Selfish. Attention-seeking. Self-righteous. Insensitive. Contemptuous. Lower than scum.

I could keep going, but how many examples of this kind of drivel do we really need? Suffice to say, a lot of people spewed some dumb, hot garbage because a journalist did what we do. We ask the questions you won’t, or can’t.

The reporter who asked the question, Lindsay Jones, covers the NFL for USA Today. Before that, she covered the Broncos for more than four years for the Denver Post. I don’t know her personally. But I do know that I find her work speaks for itself, that she’s respected and smart, and that the question she asked Monday had to be asked. It was all the more remarkable because these days it’s more and more common for working journalists to let groupthink rule and fear of offending those we cover blunt our candor or courage.

The question had to be asked.

So give me a break on this “time and place” argument, this idea that working reporters are supposed to recalibrate their jobs to celebrate anyone. Get a clue. It’s the cowards and followers who have made certain corners of our culture a betrayal of the best parts of ourselves. Look no further than some of last year’s best movies (Spotlight, The Big Short), to some corners of our political system, to all the places we look back and think, Wish someone had thought to ask about that.

This kind of crap only serves to validate the yellow journalism of King, a dishonest race-baiter who should be fired from his gig over his blatant and obvious agenda. It’s just tough shit that Supercam Superscam couldn’t put his money where his mouth was at the most critical time and then to compound matters with his surly act after the game. Sadly in 2016 America with the crushing wave of enforced diversity and the war on free speech that is what passes for racism. If you happen to have a newspaper column then you can use that forum to stomp on your sour grapes but it crosses the line when you have to dredge up a two decades old incident of youthful indiscretion to make a point.

Ms. Jones is justifiably taking heavy fire on social media for her decision to make Manning’s retirement presser all about her.