Members of the Greater Scranton YMCA spar in martial arts classes, but some at the Pennsylvania facility were on the verge of real fights — right up until the gym removed the cause of their pugnaciousness: cable news.
The Y — located in one of the 2016 presidential election’s most hotly-contested battlegrounds —banished CNN, Fox News and MSNBC from its television screens because political debates prompted by news coverage on the networks was bringing exercisers close to blows.
The gym’s chief executive, Trish Fisher, told WBRE-TV last week that “there was one (near-fight) that was broken up by another member that was just about ready to go physical, and we’ve had members step forward saying they’ve felt a little uncomfortable about the arguments that were going on over the politics.”
DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty ImagesDemocratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton greets supporters after a campaign rally with Vice President Joe Biden, August 15, 2016, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Scranton is the seat of Lackawanna County, which Hillary Clinton won narrowly last fall with 49.8 per cent of the vote, compared to 46.4 per cent for Donald Trump. Trump made his final campaign stop in Scranton, en route to winning Pennsylvania. Joe Biden, a Scranton native, stumped for Clinton in his hometown on the weekend before Election Day.
Apparently some voters have not cooled off enough to hit the elliptical while watching Rachel Maddow or Bill O’Reilly without wanting to hit each other, too.
Slaven Vlasic/Getty ImagesBill O'Reilly
“We had a board meeting last Thursday, and one of our board members brought it up,” Fisher says.”It became a topic of discussion, and several other board members had witnessed arguments and heated words between some of the members. They said, ‘Let’s talk about this. Do we want to continue this type of thing? Because we’re really role models for all the kids coming into the building.’ We decided to take the proactive approach to this.”
She added: It’s really a bunch of grown men who can’t control themselves, I guess. I have a degree in history, and I was a history teacher before this. I am all about people’s right to have open debate. But safety is our No. 1 priority.”
