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‘Only good cracker is a dead cracker’: Karmelo Anthony protests spark riot fears

The Blaze
3 weeks 5 days ago


Last week, a jury was seated in the Karmelo Anthony murder trial in Collin County, Texas. Despite a Batson challenge from the defense, no black jurors were selected.

Anthony was charged with first-degree murder in April 2025 when he allegedly stabbed 17-year-old high school student Austin Metcalf in the chest after a verbal confrontation. Anthony pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming he acted in self defense, despite the victim being unarmed.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock was “overjoyed” when he heard the news that all prospective black jurors were struck, believing that true justice is only possible if black bias is not a factor.

But now that the trial is underway, there’s a new concern that’s making some Texans worried: What if a guilty verdict sparks mass riots?


Former Infowars host turned independent media entrepreneur Owen Shroyer, who lives in Austin, Texas, is one of those cautionary voices.

On June 4, he tweeted:

But Whitlock disagrees.

“I think all the emotion around this trial, the support of Karmelo Anthony, I think it's all bought and paid for and fake,” he counters. “I don't think there are real people in support of Karmelo Anthony.”

While Shroyer agrees that a guilty verdict is unlikely to culminate in “Black Lives Matter-style riots,” he does believe there will be consequences at the “local” level.

“Based off of what I saw outside of that courtroom, I do believe there is going to be a local community ... issue,” he says. “I don't know if it'll get to the level of Ferguson with buildings on fire, but I do anticipate there'll be some stress and strife if Karmelo Anthony gets a long sentence.”

Supporters of Karmelo Anthony have gathered daily outside the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas, wearing matching “We Declare He Will Walk Free” T-shirts and chanting slogans like, “Self-defense is not a crime,” while protesting the lack of black jurors. One protester has gone viral for repeatedly shouting, “The only good cracker is a dead cracker!” directly in front of police officers.

“Once you get a group like that that truly believes that they're fighting racism, and that's a cause that they're going to get out in the streets for, sometimes these things can tend to grow and get some gravity,” says Shroyer.

But Whitlock has sources in the Frisco area who have led him to believe that much of the hype is manufactured.

“I know a few people in Frisco, Texas. I spent some time a year ago talking to a woman whose daughter went to high school with Karmelo Anthony. I just think the people on the ground know like Karmelo Anthony was a troublemaker, and this story is BS,” he says.

Shroyer, however, believes our highly racialized time has produced people who “are not logical” and “don't care about the facts.”

He recounts how during the Michael Brown trial in 2014, Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder, a black man, concluded that Brown never said, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” But despite this verdict and copious forensic evidence and credible witnesses supporting Officer Darren Wilson’s account, protesters “didn’t change their minds” and even continued to protest.

“These people, unfortunately, they're very emotional-based,” says Shroyer.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

BlazeTV Staff

The NFL’s antitrust exemption is a win for fans

The Blaze
3 weeks 5 days ago


Critics have long argued that the NFL gets an unfair pass under antitrust law. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 allows the league to do things that would normally raise legal red flags, including pooling all 32 teams’ television rights and negotiating media deals as one entity. That kind of coordinated behavior is exactly what the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was designed to scrutinize.

But measured by what matters most under modern antitrust law — consumer welfare — the NFL’s exemption looks far less like a sweetheart deal for billionaires and much more like a good deal for fans.

The irony of stripping the NFL’s exemption in the name of protecting fans is that fans would likely end up worse off.

Antitrust law generally asks a simple question: Does the challenged conduct hurt consumers? By that standard, the NFL’s model holds up well. Fans have more access to games at lower real prices, even as league costs have risen sharply, including large inflation-adjusted gains in player salaries.

Hometown fans can watch every one of their local team’s games free over the air each season. The typical fan can access more than 100 games a year without paying for cable or a streaming bundle. Even the avid fan who wants every regular-season game can, according to research by LightShed Partners, watch all 272 games in 2026 for less than $600.

That comes to less than $3 per game.

Compare that with 2006, when full coverage required paying roughly $60 a month for DirecTV plus $290 for Sunday Ticket. Adjusted for inflation, that is more than $1,600 in today’s dollars. In other words, the real cost of watching the full NFL season has fallen by more than 60% over the past two decades.

That is not what consumer harm usually looks like.

Some critics argue that if the NFL lost its exemption, individual teams would cut their own media deals and fans would benefit from more competition. In practice, that would likely mean 32 teams signing separate deals with different streaming services, regional networks, cable channels, and digital platforms. Fans who wanted to follow the whole season would have to assemble a patchwork of subscriptions, apps, logins, blackout rules, and geographic restrictions.

That would not help fans. It would make watching football more expensive and more frustrating.

European soccer offers a warning. Leagues there have spent years fighting over collective television licensing, and fragmented rights have often made the product harder for ordinary fans to follow while enriching a handful of powerful clubs. The irony of stripping the NFL’s exemption in the name of protecting fans is that fans would likely end up worse off.

The NFL also differs from ordinary industries in a deeper way. In most markets, antitrust law assumes independent competitors produce better outcomes than coordinated actors. A dominant firm may seek to squeeze out rivals, raise prices, and control the market. But professional sports do not work like normal markets.

The NFL’s “product” requires competition among many teams. A single team cannot produce a season. Fans do not merely want great franchises; they want close, unpredictable games. If the same teams win every year and the outcome seems predetermined, people stop watching.

RELATED: Sports broadcasting blackouts are killing American culture

PRANGKUL RUANGSRI/iStock/Getty Images

That is why the NFL needs coordination in a way most industries do not. Revenue sharing, pooled media rights, and coordinated scheduling are not tricks to suppress competition. They help preserve competitive balance. When money flows from richer franchises to smaller-market teams, the league prevents a handful of clubs from dominating year after year.

Few industries operate by having winners subsidize losers. In most markets, that would look suspicious. In professional football, it helps create the product fans want.

Antitrust law usually assumes cooperation among competitors harms consumers. In the NFL, cooperation among competitors helps produce better competition on the field.

The Sports Broadcasting Act is not a dusty relic or a lobbyist favor from another era. It reflects a real difference between sports leagues and ordinary industries. Coordination can benefit consumers when the product itself depends on balanced competition, shared scheduling, broad access, and national distribution.

The data supports that conclusion. Fans are paying less in real terms for more access than ever, despite rising league costs. Blow up the current system in the name of a simplistic demand for “more competition,” and the likely result would be higher prices, fragmented access, and a worse viewing experience.

Antitrust law exists to protect consumers, not to punish cooperation for its own sake. In the NFL’s case, coordination lowers prices and improves the product by giving fans more football, broader access, and closer games. It’s the opposite of what it does in many other industries where antitrust concerns are relevant.

Tomas J. Philipson

Report: Netanyahu Called Off Major Iran Strike After Trump Warned Israel Was ‘On Its Own’

Breitbart
3 weeks 5 days ago

President Donald Trump personally intervened Monday to stop Israel from carrying out a significantly larger military operation against Iran after warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further escalation could leave Israel confronting Tehran without American backing, multiple U.S. and Israeli media report.

The post Report: Netanyahu Called Off Major Iran Strike After Trump Warned Israel Was ‘On Its Own’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Joshua Klein