'F*** the Mormons!' Utah governor calls Oregon students' chant during BYU football game 'religious bigotry'; left-wing Oregon governor says 'we must do better'



Utah Gov. Spencer Cox blasted an "f*** the Mormons!" chant from University of Oregon students caught on video during a home football game Saturday against Brigham Young University in Eugene, Oregon.

"Religious bigotry alive and celebrated in Oregon," Cox, a Republican, wrote on a Twitter post that included video of the chant. Content warning: Profanity:

\u201cReligious bigotry alive and celebrated in Oregon.\u201d
— Spencer Cox (@Spencer Cox) 1663464796

BYU is private university in Utah sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are commonly known as Mormons, CBS News noted in its report on the incident.

One apology, one 'we must do better' declaration

The University of Oregon apologized for the incident Sunday.

"The University of Oregon sincerely apologizes for an offensive and disgraceful chant coming from the student section during yesterday’s game against Brigham Young University," the school said on a Twitter post. "These types of actions go against everything the university stands for, and it goes against the spirit of competition. We can and will do better as a campus community that has no place for hate, bias or bigotry."

Oregon's far-left Gov. Kate Brown posted a retweet of the school's apology and added a "we must do better" declaration: "In Oregon, we strive to be a welcoming, inclusive state to all, regardless of race, religion, gender, or background. Our state and nation have an ugly history of discrimination and bigotry. The chant at yesterday's Oregon-BYU game was unacceptable. We must do better."

Oregon beat BYU 41-20, CBS News noted.

Debunked Duke volleyball racism claim, anyone?

It's more than reasonable — unless you're avoiding the subject — to view the anti-LDS chant during the BYU football game in concert with a Duke volleyball player's now-debunked racism accusation against BYU last month.

BYU officials banned a fan accused of yelling racial slurs at Rachel Richardson, a Duke volleyball player, during an Aug. 26 match. Richardson's godmother claimed on social media that Richardson was called the N-word "every time she served" and was "threatened by a white male that told her to watch her back going to the team bus." Richardson made the same allegations.

It ignited a media firestorm, with talking heads from coast to coast characterizing the accusations as factual before actual facts came in. Here's one example, with CNN's Brianna Keilar telling Richardson's father she's "sorry for what your daughter had to endure" and him admitting he didn't attend the game at BYU:

Father of Duke volleyball player discusses racist comments directed at his daughter youtu.be

CNN was singing a different tune after BYU announced Sept. 9 that after an extensive investigation, it found no evidence to corroborate accusations than a fan racially harassed a Duke University volleyball player — and the school reversed the ban on the fan:

\u201cBYU reverses ban on fan after finding no evidence of slur against a Duke volleyball player. @JohnAvlon has today\u2019s Upon Further Review:\u201d
— New Day (@New Day) 1662988491

It's also reasonable to wonder if the racism accusation against BYU — despite it being disproven — played any part in the Oregon students chanting "f*** the Mormons" at Saturday's football game.

Here's the perspective of one Twitter user who apparently only heard about accusations against BYU and missed the debunking part: "Was this a reaction to the person that yelled racial slurs at the ladies of color who were in a volleyball match against BYU? Did @SpencerJCox ever condemn the person and this ugly episode at the mormon-owned BYU?"

And another one: "I'm old enough to remember BYU fans at a volleyball match yelling bigoted racial chants at a Black volleyball player. Bigotry alive and celebrated by BYU fans. Don't act like you are better."

But one Twitter user noticed the correlation: "This is a direct result of the hate commentary leveled against BYU following the Duke 'thing.; All commentators that condemned BYU, invoking the religion, are responsible and must face consequences. They are guilty of fanning and inciting violence."

CNN's 'Reliable Sources' suffers lowest ratings of the year — and it gets even worse for host Brian Stelter



The post-President Trump world has left many media outlets hurting for clicks and viewers, but possibly the hardest-hit network could be CNN. "Reliable Sources" suffered its lowest ratings of the year, and yet somehow the news gets even worse for host Brian Stelter.

"Reliable Sources" averaged only 810,000 total viewers for the May 2 episode, which was the smallest audience the show had so far this year, according to Fox News. It gets even worse for the struggling Sunday morning cable TV news show because in the highly coveted demographic of adults ages 25-54, "Reliable Sources" was able to garner an abysmal 163,000 viewers. The news opinion program had viewership below 1 million for five consecutive weeks.

To add insult to injury, "Reliable Sources" had better ratings without regular host Stelter, who has often been labeled as a "hall monitor" by his critics. The previous week's episode with fill-in host John Avalon notched 907,000 viewers, nearly 100,000 more than when Stetler returned from vacation. Avalon also did better with the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demo, averaging 182,000 viewers.

"Reliable Sources" claims to examine "the media world – telling the story behind the story – how the news gets made," but often spends large portions of the show criticizing Fox News, especially with Donald Trump not available as a viable target since he is out of the White House.

Turn on @CNN – it's @ReliableSources time – @JohnAvlon is in the chair while I'm somewhere out here. Guests:… https://t.co/GwklZXZIc1

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) 1619362847.0

CNN's "New Day" program is also struggling mightily, despite having a brand-new host. "New Day," which has a new co-host in Brianna Keilar who replaced Alisyn Camerota, had its worst ratings of the year last week. "New Day" is averaging fewer than 500,000 viewers with Keilar at the helm, down 37% compared to the first quarter with co-hosts Camerota and John Berman, according to Nielsen Media Research. "Fox & Friends," the direct competition for "New Day," reeled in an average of 1.2 million viewers from April 26 through May 2.

Overall, Fox News was the clearcut ratings winner with an average of 2.3 million primetime viewers, surpassing MSNBC with an average of 1.6 million. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" averaged 2.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable news program of the week.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey found that CNN is likely to continue to struggle in the ratings department. A survey of 1,000 likely voters between May 3-4 were asked if they continue to watch the big three cable networks.

Fox News was the winner with 41% of viewers saying they continue to watch the conservative news channel. But viewers are less likely to watch left-wing cable networks CNN and MSNBC. A mere 25% of respondents said they "generally watch" CNN, and only 21% said they tune into MSNBC.

"It may be that the biggest loser in last year's election wasn't a political candidate, but CNN, which has seen its ratings drop precipitously since former President Donald Trump left office in January," Rasmussen Reports stated. "Those numbers are a sharp reversal from four years ago, when Trump's presidency proved a ratings gold mine for CNN. In a June 2017 survey, 47% of regular cable news viewers said they generally watched CNN, compared to 33% for Fox News and 16% for MSNBC."

During President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office, ratings have plummeted for CNN and MSNBC.

"On average, 1.3 million household viewers were watching MSNBC in the last week of January, shortly after Biden took office," The Hill reported. "For the week ending April 25, that number was 868,000. At CNN, those figures went from 1.2 million to 749,000."