https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-weakened-espn-became-consumed-by-politics-1527176425 "John Skipper was furious. One of his star anchors, Jemele Hill, had sent a tweet calling President Donald Trump a “white supremacist.” Mr. Trump’s supporters called for her to be fired. Prominent black athletes defended the anchor, who is African-American. Sitting in his office last September, Mr. Skipper, then ESPN’s president, lit into Ms. Hill, according to people familiar with the meeting. If I punish you, he told her, I’d open us up to protests and come off as racist. If I do nothing, that will fuel a narrative among conservatives—and a faction within ESPN—that the network had become too liberal." "Well before Ms. Hill’s tweet controversy, network icon Bob Ley had approached Mr. Skipper to say “there was a problem with balance internally,” people familiar with the matter said." "Linda Cohn, one of ESPN’s most prominent female anchors, in April 2017 gave a radio interview opining that ESPN’s politics were pushing away viewers and the network had overpaid for NBA rights. Mr. Skipper called to berate her on both counts, people familiar with the call said." "Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger installed as his replacement [John Skipper] James Pitaro, Disney’s former consumer products and digital chief. Mr. Pitaro has promised to expand ESPN’s audience by targeting younger and casual fans, including with a new streaming service launched last month. He believes ESPN leaned too much into politics and that has influenced how the company was perceived, a person close to ESPN said. He has encouraged its programs to return to news and highlights and move away from opinionated commentary." "Mr. Skipper sought to promote progressive social values, but often his moves came off as overtly political, staffers said. Under Mr. Skipper, ESPN awarded a prestigious “ESPY” award for courage to Michael Sam, the first openly gay athlete drafted into the NFL, and another to Caitlyn Jenner for coming out as a transgender woman." "Conservative ESPN staffers grew frustrated by increased political commentary, including from ESPN executives during the presidential election, and worried about #BoycottESPN hashtags cropping up on Twitter. “Our viewers turned to us for sports,” said Jay Crawford, a longtime SportsCenter host who was laid off a year ago. “Realizing there’s never been a time in my lifetime where our country has been more divided, I saw no value in adding to that division.” Mark Shapiro, who helped pioneer debate shows at ESPN and is now co-president of media conglomerate WME-IMG, said, “there was too much emphasis on talking heads and fiery opinions and less on breaking news and analysis.” Tensions boiled over with the controversy over Ms. Hill in September. At their meeting, Mr. Skipper asked pointedly if Ms. Hill thought it fair to paint colleagues who voted for Donald Trump with a broad brush as white supremacists. “No, but I do think that they have the benefit of privilege,” Ms. Hill responded. Several ESPN employees later told Mr. Skipper that Ms. Hill should have been suspended for her Trump tweet because she violated the company’s social-media policy. “To me it was clear-cut that these are areas to stay away from regarding racial topics, religion, sex orientation, politics,” said Tim Legler, an ESPN basketball analyst and 17-year company veteran. Weeks later, Mr. Skipper suspended Ms. Hill when she used Twitter to urge a boycott of Dallas Cowboys advertisers after the team’s owner had suggested benching NFL players who staged social-justice protests during the national anthem. ESPN determined that was detrimental to the company, as ESPN shared some sponsors with the Cowboys, people familiar with the situation said. In February, Ms. Hill left SportsCenter to write for ESPN’s “The Undefeated” website."
https://www.google.com/amp/www.foxn...lbermann-amid-criticism-liberal-bias.amp.html To show they aren’t politically biased they bring back perhaps the most deranged lunatic lefty on earth? Great job ESPN I will continue my years long boycott of your shit network. F U Disney
Yeah hiring back Olbermann quite frankly shocked me. He’s more incinedary with his politics than Jemele Hill - which is quite the feat. They must be paying him a de minimus salary - with kickers to STFU.
ESPN ironically has the exact same problem as the republican establishment. They despise their viewers, just as establishment republicans have contempt for the suckers in flyover country who send their kids to die in pointless wars and fall for their lies about repealing obamacare, and standing up for traditional values, etc. Like most media, ESPN is mainly interested in appealing to other media and pushing a far left agenda. As do most other leftwing institutions, eg universities, government, charities, media, they get away with it because they have a monopoly position and answer only to parent Disney, whose CEO's evidently have approved. I have little doubt rehiring the toxic mental case Olbermann had to be approved by Disney's CEO. Their odiousness is illustrated by comparing their kid gloves treatment of Jemel Hill to the bum's rush they gave World Series hero and Red Sox icon Curt Shilling when he dared to deviate from the PC line on the trans bathroom issue. Hill insulted half the country and the duly elected President. Shilling expressed what was no doubt the majority opinion of the network's viewers. Anyone care to guess how long it would have taken them to fire a staffer who made even a slightly disparaging remark about Emperor Obama?