The Slatest

Today in Conservative Media: The Super Bowl

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates after defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in overtime during Super Bowl 51 on Sunday.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.

On Monday, conservative media praised the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl win and celebrated the team’s widely reported ties to President Trump while decrying all perceived instances of politicization of the event.

In a post called “Liberals Explode With Vitriol as #NotMySuperBowlChamps Trends on Social Media,” Breitbart wrote: “The left-wing sports media has been out for blood for the better part of a year because Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and team owner Robert Kraft all came out as unapologetic fans of President Trump. And, now that they’ve won the Super Bowl the left has turned apoplectic.” The post included a roundup of Twitter posts using the hashtag.

A different tweet-heavy Breitbart post drew a parallel between the reaction to the 2016 election and to the Super Bowl: “Naturally, many liberals were crushed by Super Bowl 51 and took to Twitter to lament that it felt just as bad as how they felt on Election Day last November when Trump pulled his own come-from-behind win.” The Daily Caller went with a similar post titled, “The Outcome of The Super Bowl Reminded a Lot of People of the Presidential Election.”

The right-wing site the Gateway Pundit wrote about how Trump predicted the Patriots’ victory and included a tweet of a photo of Brady and Trump with the message: “The left loses again!”

National Review focused on Super Bowl commercials, blasting Airbnb’s ad as a “lecture … on diversity” and 84 Lumber for “portray[ing] illegal immigrants in the most sympathetic way possible.” The post called the ads “sheer propaganda” and said that “conservatives watching … these odes to tolerance, compassion, and diversity, they know they’re watching a lie.” The Blaze took exception with Audi’s ad addressing the pay disparity between men and women in the U.S., writing that the gender pay gap is a “myth.”

Right-wing media did, however, praise Hyundai’s Super Bowl ad featuring U.S. service members. One of the top stories on conservative Facebook pages was a post from the Independent Journal Review, which wrote that the ad captured the “true meaning of service members’ sacrifice.”

Similarly, conservative media unequivocally hailed Lady Gaga’s halftime performance as nonpolitical and inclusive. Breitbart wrote: “At a time when Hollywood has made itself insufferable with its increasingly hysterical political commentary, Lady Gaga shocked the world simply by entertaining it.”  A different Breitbart post was headlined, “Left Bashes Lady Gaga for Not Attacking Trump During Super Bowl Halftime Show.” National Review said: “Strangely enough—and against all odds—there was an answer to this propaganda, and it came from, yes, Lady Gaga. Wittingly or unwittingly, she demonstrated what inclusion actually looks like.”

The Blaze applauded the performance, writing: “Even the few bars of ‘Born This Way’ she sang did not include the overtly pro-LGBT anthemic phrases.”

The top story on conservative Facebook pages was an Independent Journal Review post called “Lady Gaga Just Taught Beyoncé How to Really Bring America Together With Epic Halftime Show.” The post racked up nearly 150,000 Facebook likes in five hours.