American Master Billie Jean King Featuring The Next Presidential Candidate

The Official PBS Blurb

“For the first time, American Masters profiles a sports figure, Billie Jean King: a deliberate woman who has been a major force in changing, and democratizing, the cultural landscape. 9/10/13.”

Tax Payer Financed PBS
Electioneered In The Next Presidential Election
Of 2016

I just happened to watch Billie Jean King this week (9/11/2013) to be surprised by Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton appearing extensively during this program to make comments on this outstanding athlete and her time. Her comments were mostly well known platitudes hailing feminism and equal rights/pay and so on worth of any politician.

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) did not mind to allow Ms. Clinton to state her undivided support for LBGT issues. In addition, she was touting the “achievements” of that the 1960s like Civil Rights Act and Title IX.

This is one more good reason why I do not donate to PBS, but watch it.

PBS Promotes The Current President Obama

Besides Ms. Clinton, we also watched extensive comments by Ms. Valerie B. Jarret, Senior Advisor to SCOTUS, throughout the program. Could PBS really not find another subject expert? Was Ms. Jarret even an expert? I don’t think so.

Two Battles Of The Sexes Tennis Matches

PBS spent a lot of time to present two tennis matches between Bobby Riggs first against Ms. Margaret Court and then against Ms. King. He famously challenged any woman to beat him in tennis.

The 55 year old chauvinist (to use this politically correct term J) clown who came out of athletic retirement and probably had the time of his life to play against two top rated young female athletes. Just for the sheer fun of it I might have done the same, but without some of the clownish extravaganzas of Mr. Riggs.

Billie Jean King at first resisted Mr. Rigg’s challenge, but then played against him for a then enormous $100,000 winner takes all prize money.

What PBS omitted to mention is:

1.       “For many years while in retirement, Riggs was a well-known golf and tennis hustler and made a living by placing bets on himself to win matches against other, apparently better, players.” (Wikipedia)

2.       “There was also widespread speculation, based on Riggs' unusually poor play and large number of unforced errors, that Riggs had purposely lost the match in order to win large sums of money that he had bet against himself, as a way to pay off his gambling debts. … in exchange for cancelling Riggs' gambling debt to the mob. … Riggs wanted a rematch but King was against it. Riggs considered suing King, as a rematch had been part of the contract.” (Wikipedia)

3.       There were other such battles of the sexes in the meantime e.g. Conners vs. Navratilova, which Conners won.

The Ex Husband Of Ms. King

I am very glad that PBS gave also a lot of time to hear Mr. King’s opinion. Kudos!

I took away that the couple was at least in the beginning sort of a proverbial match in heaven, they met in college on the tennis court (where else?) and it was love at first sight or so. He loved her blue eyes. Throughout the program, he seemed to speak respectfully, admiringly, or even fondly of his former wife.

She paid for his law degree, but he apparently supported her all the way up to or not even much longer then the famous press conference of Ms. Jean were she admitted her affair with another women. Excerpts of this press conference are shown. I don’t remember or I am not sure, whether he was present at this press conference.

They were married from 1965 to 1987 or 22 years. During this crucial period of Billie Jean King’s life she made her phenomenal sports career etc., came out as a lesbian and so on.

In conclusion, it was perhaps this man whose love for his wife made Billie Jean King possible. Something that feminists surely don’t want to hear or admit.

Equal Pay For Women

American Masters dwells considerably on this subject and how Billie Jean King and other contemporary top female tennis players organized themselves and demanded equal pay. King was portrayed as a champion for equal prize money.

In a free market economy it is debatable if men and women should automatically and in every case earn the same money just because they work in the same job or function. As far as professional tennis professionals are concerned other business relevant metrics than same tournament may apply. What about advertisement revenue or number of spectators? Are men and women tennis matches equal in this respect as well?

Advocate For LGBT?

American Masters does not say much about this subject other than that Billie Jean King felt she was compelled to come out in public when “an intimate relationship with her secretary, Marilyn Barnett [became known]. King acknowledged the relationship when it became public in a May 1981 'palimony' lawsuit filed by Barnett, making King the first prominent professional female athlete to come out as a lesbian.” (Wikipedia) So what else did Ms. King do after she was involuntarily outed for LGBT? She has a relationship with Elton John’s AIDS Foundation. OK, what else?

Ms. King recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. The official statement reads “Billie Jean King was an acclaimed professional tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s, and has helped champion gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all areas of public life. King beat Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, then the most viewed tennis match in history.  King became one of the first openly lesbian major sports figures in America when she came out in 1981. Following her professional tennis career, King became the first woman commissioner in professional sports when she co-founded and led the World Team Tennis (WTT) League.  The U.S. Tennis Association named the National Tennis Center, where the US Open is played, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006.” (Emphasis added).