It seems there is nothing that far-leftism cannot touch and then ruin. Przemysław Babiarz, a long-time news broadcaster on Polish state television, lost his position commenting on the 2024 Paris Olympics after someone got offended that he criticized the John Lennon song “Imagine.”
During the contentious opening ceremonies—the games put on a theatrical display many saw as overly sexual and mocking Christianity—Babiarz was unhappy with the decision to play Lennon’s song, calling it a piece that celebrated “the vision of communism.” It’s hard to argue with that, given that the song’s lyrics ask listeners to imagine a world where everyone is equal to everyone else in every way, and with no place for religion.
It was the commentator’s own Polish network, Telewizja Polska (TVP), that suspended him. The network announced the suspension on its evening news program. The network’s statement could not have been more ironic. It invoked “tolerance” to justify suspending Babiarz, saying that his remarks about the famous song were in violation of “basic Olympic ideas.” Using language like “mutual understanding” and “reconciliation,” the network seemed to congratulate itself on denying those things to its own employee.
Almost unbelievably, the TVP spokeswoman called Babiarz’s remarks “scandalous.”
The network certainly got a lot of hostile reaction. More than 150 Polish athletes, present and past, who have competed in the Olympics contacted the state network to register their displeasure with the decision and to demand that Babiarz be reinstated. But TVP will tolerate zero dissent. They fired one of their sports executives, Jakub Kwiatkowski, for supporting his colleague in public. One might wonder if TVP has actual Communist party operatives on its editorial staff.
TVP employee Polonia Christiana, who was behind the announcement, was most offended that Babiarz used the word “unfortunately” to characterize the “vision of communism” he said Lennon’s song represented.
But Babiarz has support from across the political spectrum, according to other Polish media. Even the head of the leftist Lewica political group asked the state broadcaster, “Have you gone crazy?”