On Sunday September 22nd NBC Sports showed footage of an elephant being shot and killed in Botaswana's Okavango Delta. This footage ran on the show, "Under the Wild Skies", a show sponsored by the NRA. During the killing the hunters boasted their guns were made to kill ivory and after celebrated with champagne.
NBC Sports has made an alarming turn away from actual sports to hunting shows. Their show "Shark Hunters" also shows bloody killings of sharks by supposed "sportsmen". It's time for NBC Sports to stop covering bloodsports and cover real sports with actual athletes that don't glorify cruelty and violence.
Dear Mr Lazarus,
We the undersigned are demanding you stop covering bloodsports on NBC Sports.
The show "Under the Wild Skies" showed grown men hunting elephants and bragging about "killing ivory". This show and others like it (Shark Hunters for example) are not sport. They glorify senseless killing, and boyish fantasies of manhood.
Real sports can show the greatness of humanity, the spirit of competition and collaboration. They also demonstrate the importance of accepting defeat with grace and striving to improve. None of these values are expressed in shows dedicated to bloodsports.
We are demanding you turn NBC Sports back into a real sports channel and stop supporting boodsports.
