(04-26-2017 01:16 PM)Banter Wrote:  I'm not sure anything could "sound" more Cincinnati than thinking ESPN is "too liberal."

You've obviously never been asked where you went to HS.

(04-26-2017 12:55 PM)namrag Wrote:  Their left wing slant is 100% why I rarely watch ESPN anymore. I tune in only when there is a live event on that I am specifically looking for, and I DVR the 30 for 30 series.
Otherwise, the continued left wing commentary by the on-air talent, and their quick silencing of any on-air talent who voice conservative views has made me strongly dislike them as a network.

Make sports political and you can count on losing a good portion of the viewers who don't share the same political opinions.

Similar to this site, wouldn't you say?

(04-26-2017 12:43 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  I expect espn to continue its collapse.

They will because they refuse to acknowledge the SJW factor that has turned off a ton of people and honestly the overall content absolutely sucks too. It's painfully obvious in who is being laid off and who isn't they are turning a blind eye to it. I mean Jamele Hill rants for 30 minutes every day on either political issues or Lebron's shopping habits. She brings nothing to the table from a sports standpoint. And it's just a microcosm of pretty much the entire network. I used to enjoy ESPN and watch it faithfully, but their political views ruined it for me.. I can't wait for the day of ala carte cable subscription when we can select our packages on a channel by channel basis. It'll feel so good dumping every single one of their channels.

Saw this comment on another site and I thought it pretty much summed things up pretty well...

Quote:I agree with the general critique that there has been a leftward/pc political drift in ESPN's coverage. It seems to go hand in hand with an increased presence of AA "talent". What comes along with that is a complete reluctance by elite whites to have balanced discussions about anything racial (a lot of stuff in sports). White elites understand well that it's better just to keep quiet than to step over the line and get involved in a race discussion where you end up saying the wrong thing.

Bomani, for example. If you listen to his show on Sirius from 4-6 (or whenever it is)...the man is bright. But his show is heavily influenced by his race-conscious point of view. Those who challenge him (and it's pretty limited from my sampling) get ridiculed or called the R word.

For me, Bomani isn't entertaining. That's the main complaint.

So, sports talk has become the vehicle for AA's, primarily, to discuss larger topics...domestic politics, "justice" issues. For a variety of reasons, it's not something I'm interested in consuming as I'm driving around in my car.

(04-26-2017 01:16 PM)Banter Wrote:  I'm not sure anything could "sound" more Cincinnati than thinking ESPN is "too liberal."

Actually it is a pretty well covered topic across the US.

Outkick the coverage has been reporting on it for quite some time
Latest http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn-f...day-042617

ESPN admits they are going to be more political
http://www.espn.com/blog/ombudsman/post/...e-for-espn

If you can't see/hear the slant in their politics, then you have a problem. ESPN made a huge story out of the transition of the 1976 Olympic Decathlon gold medal winner. I won't bother going into Michael Sam and Colin Kaepernick.

(04-26-2017 01:16 PM)Banter Wrote:  I'm not sure anything could "sound" more Cincinnati than thinking ESPN is "too liberal."

Funny, because outside of my years at UC for my undergraduate degree, I have never lived in Cincy.

I could care less if you want to discount my opinion. I will continue to not watch ESPN. And judging by national articles on the topic, I am certainly not alone.

(04-26-2017 01:26 PM)cpawfan Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 01:16 PM)Banter Wrote:  I'm not sure anything could "sound" more Cincinnati than thinking ESPN is "too liberal."

Actually it is a pretty well covered topic across the US.

Outkick the coverage has been reporting on it for quite some time
Latest http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn-f...day-042617

ESPN admits they are going to be more political
http://www.espn.com/blog/ombudsman/post/...e-for-espn

If you can't see/hear the slant in their politics, then you have a problem. ESPN made a huge story out of the transition of the 1976 Olympic Decathlon gold medal winner. I won't bother going into Michael Sam and Colin Kaepernick.

Not only this, Cincinnati is not that conservative anymore. At least to say, not the city itself. You have to go out to the outlying townships and towns in the suburbs and the surrounding counties to find a good concentration of folks who are right of center.

Len Elmore - he did just about every UC game on ESPN this season. I thought he usually did a pretty good job.

https://twitter.com/LenElmore/status/857294793059295232

This isn't a trend unique to ESPN. It's the diluting of cable viewership and the cord cutting from many. If ESPN was the only station having these issues I'd buy the political BS. It's not. ESPN needing to readjust its business model has been obvious to anyone who follows the direction that TV is going.

The Right Wing Attack dogs love to call anyone who stands up for minority rights SJWs and love to bring it into every type of conversation regardless of what is going on. Newsflash... it's not right wing people bailing on ESPN. People like me watch far less than ever before as well. too many better alternatives out there unless we are talking live sports. I'd rather DVR the many great episodes of TV off many stations... or hell like many other people on the left I know, cut the cord altogether.

(04-26-2017 01:22 PM)geef Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 12:55 PM)namrag Wrote:  Their left wing slant is 100% why I rarely watch ESPN anymore. I tune in only when there is a live event on that I am specifically looking for, and I DVR the 30 for 30 series.
Otherwise, the continued left wing commentary by the on-air talent, and their quick silencing of any on-air talent who voice conservative views has made me strongly dislike them as a network.

Make sports political and you can count on losing a good portion of the viewers who don't share the same political opinions.

Similar to this site, wouldn't you say?

No I would not say.

While I routinely see various political statements and signatures by posters on this site, I do not see the moderators or owners of the site selecting for any political bias by encouraging political statements by one side of the political spectrum while silencing political statements by those on the opposite side of the political spectrum, which is what ESPN does.

(04-26-2017 01:42 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  This isn't a trend unique to ESPN. It's the diluting of cable viewership and the cord cutting from many. If ESPN was the only station having these issues I'd buy the political BS. It's not. ESPN needing to readjust its business model has been obvious to anyone who follows the direction that TV is going.

The Right Wing Attack dogs love to call anyone who stands up for minority rights SJWs and love to bring it into every type of conversation regardless of what is going on. Newsflash... it's not right wing people bailing on ESPN. People like me watch far less than ever before as well. too many better alternatives out there unless we are talking live sports. I'd rather DVR the many great episodes of TV off many stations... or hell like many other people on the left I know, cut the cord altogether.

Please stop conflating two separate items

1 - ESPN's current business model is unsustainable.

2 - ESPN's programming has had an obvious left-ward political slant over the last few years.

Mark, I enjoy a fair amount of your sports commentary, but you have a pavlovian response any time anyone mentions something being on the left. What some other's consider on the left, you consider the mainstream middle and it makes you very defensive. This is probably one you should sit out.

(04-26-2017 01:42 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  This isn't a trend unique to ESPN. It's the diluting of cable viewership and the cord cutting from many. If ESPN was the only station having these issues I'd buy the political BS. It's not. ESPN needing to readjust its business model has been obvious to anyone who follows the direction that TV is going.

The Right Wing Attack dogs love to call anyone who stands up for minority rights SJWs and love to bring it into every type of conversation regardless of what is going on. Newsflash... it's not right wing people bailing on ESPN. People like me watch far less than ever before as well. too many better alternatives out there unless we are talking live sports. I'd rather DVR the many great episodes of TV off many stations... or hell like many other people on the left I know, cut the cord altogether.

Mark I think you have developed an instinct while posting on this board to over defend the left. My social beliefs are incredibly liberal but to deny that people who are tuning in expecting sports talk and instead getting social/political talk rammed down their throat has not led to a decline in viewership is ridiculous. Hell I'll even stay away from social and political stuff, I got tired of turning on sportscenter and seeing 15 minutes of make a wish bull ****. It's great that players are doing charitable things like that but I honestly don't give a ****. I want sports. It's pretty simple.

Personally for me politics has nothing to do with it. I only watch ESPN for actual sporting events - mostly college football and college basketball.

And then it's usually just UC games or UC related games - like a UC opponent or league member.

I no longer watch "P5" unless it meets my UC criteria.

TV sports, like TV news, is just too saturated. There is just too much of it out there and I think people are getting bored with it. When I was a kid the weekly national tv Saturday baseball game was more of an event. MNF was an event but now there is football every night.

I'm not sure ESPN can recover as they are on the hook for billions of dollars a year now. Maybe this will eventually help level the playing field for the "G5".

Jay Crawford @jaycrawfordespn
After 14 wonderful years my time at espn is over. From Cold Pizza to First Take to SC I made more friends than I can name. Forever grateful!

I hope SVP gets canned and goes out on his own and does his own show. Loved his show with Russilo.

(04-26-2017 01:56 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  I hope SVP gets canned and goes out on his own and does his own show. Loved his show with Russilo.

He's one that i think could do the same thing Dan Patrick has done to be wildly successful.

What is really going to be interesting is when Amazon buys ESPN from Disney. I think it is inevitable.

With Iger out of the picture, who desperately wants into politics and has used ESPN as a platform for his political views, it will be interesting to see how things change when Bezos and Amazon take over.

I even wonder if it will open up conference expansion again. Surely the Longhorn Network, which is $65 mill in the hole since it's conception will go away and ESPN's ability to keep these conferences from expanding will be all but gone...

(04-26-2017 01:50 PM)cpawfan Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 01:42 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  This isn't a trend unique to ESPN. It's the diluting of cable viewership and the cord cutting from many. If ESPN was the only station having these issues I'd buy the political BS. It's not. ESPN needing to readjust its business model has been obvious to anyone who follows the direction that TV is going.

The Right Wing Attack dogs love to call anyone who stands up for minority rights SJWs and love to bring it into every type of conversation regardless of what is going on. Newsflash... it's not right wing people bailing on ESPN. People like me watch far less than ever before as well. too many better alternatives out there unless we are talking live sports. I'd rather DVR the many great episodes of TV off many stations... or hell like many other people on the left I know, cut the cord altogether.

Please stop conflating two separate items

1 - ESPN's current business model is unsustainable.

2 - ESPN's programming has had an obvious left-ward political slant over the last few years.

Mark, I enjoy a fair amount of your sports commentary, but you have a pavlovian response any time anyone mentions something being on the left. What some other's consider on the left, you consider the mainstream middle and it makes you very defensive. This is probably one you should sit out.

Don't hurt your shoulder patting yourself on the back.

What you seem to consider the mainstream middle others view as being solidly on the right. We all have political bias and within reason it makes the discussions better on this board.

I would love for SVP to do the same, but I think he's one of the untouchables over there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

(04-26-2017 02:04 PM)Marcus Wrote:  What is really going to be interesting is when Amazon buys ESPN from Disney. I think it is inevitable.

With Iger out of the picture, who desperately wants into politics and has used ESPN as a platform for his political views, it will be interesting to see how things change when Bezos and Amazon take over.

I even wonder if it will open up conference expansion again. Surely the Longhorn Network, which is $65 mill in the hole since it's conception will go away and ESPN's ability to keep these conferences from expanding will be all but gone...

Now I want to write a story about a dystopian future where espn goes bankrupt and can't pay their NBA and P5 contracts

(04-26-2017 02:25 PM)cpawfan Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 02:04 PM)Marcus Wrote:  What is really going to be interesting is when Amazon buys ESPN from Disney. I think it is inevitable.

With Iger out of the picture, who desperately wants into politics and has used ESPN as a platform for his political views, it will be interesting to see how things change when Bezos and Amazon take over.

I even wonder if it will open up conference expansion again. Surely the Longhorn Network, which is $65 mill in the hole since it's conception will go away and ESPN's ability to keep these conferences from expanding will be all but gone...

Now I want to write a story about a dystopian future where espn goes bankrupt and can't pay their NBA and P5 contracts

It would not surprise me at all. The talk of Disney unloading (as we are now seeing) and then dumping ESPN has been going around for a while now.