What happened to ESPN?
What happened to ESPN? Remember the days when you turned on SportsCenter and all you got were sports and witty commentary? Remember the catch phrases and endless cycle of highlights? Remember when it wasn’t bias against certain NCAA conferences because ESPN didn’t have the TV rights to air that conferences’ games? Remember when you were home “sick” from school and you switched the TV back and forth from SportsCenter to Maury, because you knew as you awaited the much-anticipated lie detector results, you could switch to ESPN and at least see highlights of the game from the night before? Remember when you could watch it for hours on end and not hear or see anything related to politics? What happened?
ESPN is bleeding, and they only have themselves to blame. By introducing this “New ESPN”, filled with discussions on culture, politics, race, and sports (seemingly in that order), in a bullish attempt to appeal to more viewers, they have put themselves in a horrible position. In November 2016 alone, ESPN lost over 600,000 subscribers. ESPN will also be cutting $100 million in salaries in order to increase their bottom line. Jamie Horowitz, a former ESPN executive, stated that SportsCenter ratings had dropped 27% between 2010 and 2016, and a 36% in the 18–34 demographic.
Clay Travis, a competitor with Fox Sports (who worked on Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore’s campaign in 2000), wrote in February, 2017, “ESPN decided to become a social justice warrior network, treating all liberal opinion makers as those worthy of promotion and casting aside all those who had the gall to challenge the new Disney world order…When you alienate half of your potential consumers, why should you expect their uninterrupted loyalty?”
Travis’s criticism rang true just this early April, when ESPN demoted African American anchor Sage Steele, removing her from ESPN’s NBA Countdown because of her conservative political views. Specifically, on Instagram she complained about Trump protestors causing her to miss a flight, criticizing NFL players’ decision to kneel during the National Anthem, and at a conference in February, Steele said, “There are times that I believe that we, as African-Americans, can be hypocritical, and that is to not look ourselves in the mirror when we are saying certain things and blaming other groups for one thing when we are doing the exact same thing.” She was removed due to ESPNs new guidelines to limit “on-air” political commentary.
To not see the hypocrisy in that is to be as blind as the day you were born. ESPN affiliates, FiveThirtyEight, The Undefeated, and ESPN’s own SC6 featuring Jamele Hill and Michael Smith often feature liberal political opinions. ESPN’s own news release describes SC6 as a “deliberate and well-paced conversational format in which they discuss sports topics, news, culture, and social issues.”
Just last night, ESPN Public Editor, Jim Brady, wrote a column entitled, “Like it or not, ESPN isn’t sticking to sports”. Brady writes about the criticism of this new ESPN, and declares it’s not going to change, citing ESPN President John Skipper. In his column, Brady focuses on ESPN affiliate FiveThirtyEight, which, in part, discusses their “predictably successful election season”. The column spends 9 paragraphs on how the election bolstered the websites visits per month, and reasons why their prediction that Trump only had 29% chance of winning was actually correct. I ask again, WHAT HAPPENED!? Where did the sports go!? Below is an image of the first page of ESPN affiliate’s FiveThirtyEight.com website, taken April 13, 2017.
After a quick scan, you’ll see there are nine different articles posted, and three are about sports. Also included are articles about Impeaching President Donald Trump, and if Trump is to blame for “The Surprising Close Race in Kansas 4”. But yet Sage Steele gets demoted for her conservative political beliefs…hmmm.
Regardless of your political views, race, or culture, there was always one universal equalizer: sports. Sports were an escape from those issues. Who hasn’t gotten in a political argument with a family member then change the subject to the local NFL or NBA team just to get out of the conversation? Personally, I remember a few years back when Easter and The Master’s fell on the same weekend. My Dad and Aunt do not see eye to eye whatsoever when it comes to politics. Once the political commentary rose to its inevitable unbearable level at the dinner table, I simply turned the volume up on the TV and silence drew when the sweet sound of the chirping birds filled the room and Phil Mickelson was making a run.
Fans love the athletic competition between two teams or players that come down to who was better and who wanted it more. Who would claw and fight to be crowned the champion. Which fan base was the best (Philadelphia obviously), and classic jawing back and forth between rival teams and fans. Today, sports fans cannot turn on ESPN and just see sports, which is a true shame.
I understand that “What happened?” is a subjective question. Whether you agree with my answer to that or not, I think we can all agree that we miss the ESPN of old, and ESPN should focus more on getting back to the roots that grew it into the “Worldwide Leader in Sports”, and less on cultural and political commentary.
