Gene Policinski: Speaking your mind, when free speech has consequences

  Some people like Donald Trump and say nice things about him.

  Some people don’t like Donald Trump, and some say things about Donald Trump that are unkind, hurtful and downright insulting. Some people say those things on social media.

  And sometimes people who like Donald Trump respond to those comments.

  All of that is fine in free speech terms. And all of that pretty well sums up the tempest in a TV teapot over ESPN host Jemele Hill tweeting last week that the president was a “bigot” and a “white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself with other white supremacists.”

Gene Policinski: Tweeting — and setting the nation’s ‘chat agenda’

  From Sean Penn and the Oscars to Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly at their cable TV perches, and with a dash of national security issues for good measure, we’re “all atwitter” – literally.

  Twitter – the 140-character social media phenom – is used by just 23% of adult Americans who are online, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center report. For teens, surveys say it’s about one-quarter of online regulars, and rising quickly.

Sam Fulwood III: Calling foul against racism in the NBA

  It’s easy—and justifiable—to join the posse that saddled up to ride Donald Sterling right out of the National Basketball Association.

  TMZ Sports, a section of celebrity gossip website TMZ, reported late Friday night that it had obtained damning audio of Sterling, who owns the Los Angeles Clippers. The tape is allegedly of Sterling telling his girlfriend that, among other things, he didn’t want her bringing black people—specifically, former Los Angeles Lakers’ star and current businessman Magic Johnson—to watch his team play.

Sam Fulwood III: How to fix college sports

  Although ESPN sports writer Jason Whitlock is not a personal favorite, there’s something compelling about his look-at-me writing approach to all things in the sports world. In the same way that motorists feel forced to rubberneck at calamity along the highway, Whitlock drives people to notice his antics, which often result in controversy over the point he’s trying to make. But last week, Whitlock’s showboating actually managed to draw attention to important issues: the corporate exploitation of young black men in sports and an ignorance of the historical importance of black athletes.

Sam Fulwood III: Jason Collins’s anticlimactic announcement

  In a widely discussed article posted Monday on the Sports Illustrated website and published in the May 6 edition of the magazine, professional athlete Jason Collins declared, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.”

  We interrupt this column for other breaking-news developments: The world did not come to an end yesterday, and the sun rose in the east and set in the west. Also, we’re reliably informed by our sources at the Federal Aviation Administration that all airliners departing from U.S. airports landed safely at their destinations. And, closer to home, Fido bit a mailman on Main Street. Back to you, Sam, for more details on the not-so-shocking story about the gay basketball player.