ESPN kills the goose

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They had it so good.

In 1995 Disney bought Capital Cities/ ABC Inc. for $19 billion.  Along with ABC, Disney acquired the Lifetime and A&E cable channels and something called ESPN, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports.” ESPN was a cash cow for Disney. Dannel Malloy and the state of Connecticut, eager to hand out money to wildly profitable businesses, made ESPN one of its “First Five.”

In support of ESPN’s capital investment and the commitment to retain and create full-time jobs in Connecticut, the state will provide:
– A 10-year, $17.5 million loan from the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) for the construction of the facility and the creation of at least 200 jobs.
– Up to $1.2 million to fund a job training grant program ranging from $300,000 for 200 jobs created to $150,000 for each additional 100 jobs created up to 800 jobs. Job training will be developed based on ESPN’s needs.
– The Connecticut Development Authority may also assist with up to $6 million in sales use tax exemptions on capital equipment and construction materials.
“Digital Center 2 represents an exciting new chapter in ESPN’s continued growth in Connecticut,” said Ed Durso, ESPN Executive Vice President, Administration. “It will help reshape how we deliver our content to sports fans. With great, ongoing support from state and local officials, ESPN is proud to be part of the ‘First Five’ initiative.”

The “First Five” program is designed to attract large-scale business development projects by augmenting and combining the state’s best incentive and tax credit programs for the first five companies that create 200 new jobs within two years, or invest $25 million and create 200 new jobs within five years.

Good times.

But then came obama and the plague known as social justice. Rather than focus on the mission (sports), the anchors at ESPN began to feel empowered- empowered to shove their left wing political views down the throats of viewers.

Exhibit 1

At the 2015 ESPYs, ESPN awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award to Caitlyn Jenner for the “enormous courage” required in her decision to publicly come out as a transgendered woman. It was a controversial decision at the time, made more so by reports that claimed Jenner’s camp lobbied for the award in exchange for PR plugs and letting ABC get an exclusive first post-surgery interview.

Exhibit 2

Earlier this week, the ESPYs opened with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul on stage together asking for all athletes to make an effort to affect society for the better after weeks of tragic violence around the nation. Later we learned that James went to ESPN with the idea and obviously they were happy to provide the extremely-visible spotlight.

Exhibit 3

Thursday night, ESPN and WatchESPN simulcast President Obama’s ABC News-hosted town hall on shootings across America. The commercial-free, hour-long broadcast was simulcast across many more of Disney’s channels as well but it’s notable that ESPN personality Jemele Hill is also a part of the broadcast.

Not only did ESPN make a hard left turn, it began pummeling conservatives:

Exhibit 1:

In March 2015, Sunday Countdown host Mike Ditka, who had thrown his public support behind Republican candidate Donald Trump, told a radio station that he thought Obama was “the worst president we’ve ever had.” A few days later, it was announced that Ditka would be leaving Sunday Countdown to take, as The Big Lead put it, “an unspecified emeritus-type NFL role at the network.” Ditka swore the move was his decision and unrelated to his comments.

Exhibit 2:

In April 2016, ESPN fired commentator Curt Schilling over his repost of a Facebook meme mocking trans people, the latest in a series of comments or social media controversies involving Schilling’s conservative opinions. The former MLB pitcher would go on to say that being a Republican at ESPN “felt like the underground” and that “religion on the table was a much easier topic than who you voted for.”

If only someone wrote a book that warned about doing this kind of stupid stuff.

After hemorrhaging subscribers the honchos at ESPN began to reconsider the left wing political tilt:

As the 2016 election looms, ESPN sent employees a memo telling them to avoid making any political or partisan comments.

“At ESPN, our reputation and journalistic credibility are of paramount importance — and that extends to our coverage of the Presidential Election, candidates, issues and the intersection of sports and society,” the memo reads, which was also posted to ESPN’s website two weeks ago. “Our audiences should be confident that political pressures or personal interests do not influence our news decisions.”

Way late ESPN admitted targeting conservatives was a bad idea:

“It is accurate that the Walt Disney Company and ESPN are committed to diversity and inclusion,” Skipper said. “These are long-standing values that drive fundamental fairness while providing us with the widest possible pool of talent to create the smartest and most creative staff. We do not view this as a political stance but as a human stance. We do not think tolerance is the domain of a particular political philosophy.”

Inside ESPN, however, some feel the lack of tolerance of a particular political philosophy is a problem.

“We’ve done a great job of diversity,” said longtime ESPN anchor Bob Ley. “But the one place we have miles to go is diversity of thought.”

Many ESPN employees I talked to — including liberals and conservatives, most of whom preferred to speak on background — worry that the company’s politics have become a little too obvious, empowering those who feel as if they’re in line with the company’s position and driving underground those who don’t.

“If you’re a Republican or conservative, you feel the need to talk in whispers,” one conservative ESPN employee said. “There’s even a fear of putting Fox News on a TV [in the office].”

ESPN anchor Linda Cohn weighed in:

The network may be losing the subscriber revenue not just because of cord-cutting, Cohn allowed, but because viewers are increasingly turned off by ESPN inserting politics into its sports coverage.

“That is definitely a percentage of it,” Cohn said Thursday on 77 WABC’s “Bernie and Sid” show when asked whether certain social or political stances contributed to the stupor that resulted in roughly 100 employees getting the ax this week. “I don’t know how big a percentage, but if anyone wants to ignore that fact, they’re blind.”

It might be too late. The goose is dying:

It’s a dark day at ESPN.

The sports broadcasting network sent a memo to employees early Wednesday, informing them that a series of previously announced layoffs would take place today. Familiar faces like Ed Werder, Danny Kanell, Len Elmore, Jayson Stark, Trent Dilfer and Brett McMurphy are among those who have been let go.

The total number of employees cut will be around 100, Fox News has learned.

It was stupid for ESPN to allow this to go on for as long as it did. Sports is something that can unite people of different political stripes. When you walk into the Stadium, you’re a Yankee fan and the Red Sox are the bad guys. Liberal and conservative labels don’t matter. That’s the way sports should be.

Ask Colin Kaepernick.

Never go full SJW.  Just shut up and do sports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Unlike NBC, I guess Disney wants to be a SJW AND make money.

I gave up ESPN several years ago. If I do watch an event there I keep the mute button handy.

Good Bye ESPN and good bye forever i hope their soon be turned off pernimatly they have brought it on themselves

Since they went all SJW the ONLY programming I watch on ESPN is the masters golf tournament. I love golf too much to give up this April pleasure. But that’s it. I watch nothing else. No NFL, no baseball, no football, and absolutely no basketball. Haven’t watched any basketball since around 1975 when dribbling became optional.

Another example of why we cant have nice things, MTV no music videos, ESPN, the coverage is better on the local channel, or turn on the radio and mute the TV. A&E, just not the line up it used to have, you might forget it stands for Arts and Entertainment. Watch a Disney TV production its the teens that must teach the ignorant brainless parents the lifes lesson, No more the kid messing up and the Parent providing guidance into understanding responsibility.
Now who forgets lessons from a founder?

@Bill… Deplorable Me:

Social Justice was an antisemitic American Roman Catholic periodical published by Father Charles Coughlin during the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Social Justice was controversial for printing antisemitic polemics such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Coughlin claimed that Marxist atheism in Europe was a Jewish plot against America. The December 5, 1938, issue of Social Justice included an article by Coughlin which reportedly closely resembled a speech made by Joseph Goebbels on September 13, 1935, attacking Jews and Communists, with some sections being copied verbatim by Coughlin from an English translation of the Goebbels speech.

Coughlin, however, stated, “Nothing can be gained by linking ourselves with any organization which is engaged in agitating racial animosities or propagating racial hatreds.”

=============================================

i just wonder if the social justice darlings realize they are the nazis… and their ideals and so on parallel the nazis ranging from lebensraum, to blood and soil… and what Weather Underground were about, charlese manson and even Mecha admits thats their thing as did the WUnderground buddies the BLA…

Shut up and do sports—exactly–certainly loud mouths Ditka and Schilling didn’t do that.

BTW on entertainment The Dixie Chicks are financially the #1 female group of all time–and the top country western female group of the last 25 years-Natalie Maines is great.

No doubt Colin screwed up though I think he’ll sign with someone once training camp starts.

@Rich Wheeler:

Shut up and do sports—exactly–certainly loud mouths Ditka and Schilling didn’t do that.

Can you recall them expressing political opinions BEFORE the left made ESPN a political platform?

ESPN is an East Coast liberal, elitist organization who think that nothing of importance happens west of the Hudson.
People do not want sports coverage served up with a generous serving of left wing propaganda.

@Jim Thorpe: A loss of 400thousand subscribers you would think that would be a learning experience, but like the Dem party they are still confused.

@kitt: Hell, the left CAN’T learn a lesson; you can’t have a learning experience when you blame everyone else for your failures.

@kitt:
That is a good analogy with the Democrat Party. But in this case I think that ESPN is even worse, The Democrat Party is about politics , albeit misguided, but ESPN is about sports. That’s it ,be
about sportes and don’t go all scolding SJW. As you say , they
don’t learn.

@Rich Wheeler: Shut up and do sports

, you mean SING.
Must be a Dixie Chick fan.

BTW on entertainment The Dixie Chicks are financially the #1 female group of all time–and the top country western female group of the last 25 years-Natalie Maines is great.
Sadly the truth is these Dixie Chicks had their last hit albums in 1998 and 1999, well before they screwed up.
The went completely dark for years!
Their ”rehabilitation tours,” are still ongoing, but hardly like those old days.

@Rich Wheeler:

BTW on entertainment The Dixie Chicks are financially the #1 female group of all time

Not sure what criteria they based that on. A little time spent on Google brings up numerous ‘Top 10 Female Group’ rankings. Not one that I saw had the Dixie Chicks *IN* the top 10, let alone at the top of the list – although I did see the news article that made the claim.

The Billboard list (which I would consider definitive as they track actual sales) of top female groups of all time consists of:
1) The Supremes
2) TLC
3) Destiny’s Child
4) The Pointer Sisters
5) The Bangles
6) The Shirelles
7) Wilson Phillips
8) Expose
9) En Vogue
10) Martha and the Vandellas

Wikipedia puts the Spice Girls as the top selling girl group world wide, as do several others with TLC, Destiny’s Child, the Pussycat Dolls and Bananarama holding various rankings among the lists interspersed with a few South Korean and Japanese girl groups.

But the Dixie Chicks were conspicuous by their absence, regardless of who did the ranking.

@Jay: Perhaps the list was who was tops on the liberal list of those who went overseas and denounced the President of the United States and leader of the free world.

@Bill… Deplorable Me:
Heh. Yeah, pretty much my thought. Wishful thinking that SJW posturing can/will have a positive outcome.

@Bill… Deplorable Me: what is SJW?

@Rich Wheeler:

BTW on entertainment The Dixie Chicks are financially the #1 female group of all time–and the top country western female group of the last 25 years-Natalie Maines is great

You must be severely constipated, you are so full of crap. The group totally disbanded years ago after their GWB tirade and have only recently gotten back together. Most country music stations still do not play them. People don’t like their entertainment with dose’s of politics. They didn’t even have a No. one song until 1998,, which is hardly 25 years ago..

@Rich Wheeler:

No doubt Colin screwed up though I think he’ll sign with someone once training camp starts

He’s poison, no one in NFL will touch him. He single handedly dropped viewership in the NFL by 7%. Football is supposed to be about sports, not politics. .

@Bill… Deplorable Me:

Perhaps the list was who was tops on the liberal list of those who went overseas and denounced the President of the United States and leader of the free world

.Yes, I think that’s likely the correct list they are at the top of.

Hey Richie: Here’s a little about Chicks:

Both “Not Ready to Make Nice” and second single “Everybody Knows” were largely ignored by U.S. country radio[81] and failed to penetrate the top 35 of the Hot Country Songs chart. In June 2006, Emily Robison noted the lack of support from other country music performers: “A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do. … A lot of pandering started going on, and you’d see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism.”[81] Maines commented, “The entire country may disagree with me, but I don’t understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country … I don’t see why people care about patriotism.”[81

Yeah, who cares about silly old ‘patriotism’?

@Redteam: Got smart and switched from country —which mostly sucks— to good old rock and roll–they’re doing fine.
If patriotism means always supporting what your Prez does you who did not support Obama are certainly not patriots–are you?

Americans forgive most everything–Colin is an excellent QB in the right scheme–he’ll most certainly get picked up.

SJW Social justice warrior

@Jay: They were and are top female Country group of all time..But as you can see from your list CW girl groups are nowhere to be seen.
Thanks for your research. Long live rock and roll.

@Rich Wheeler:

If patriotism means always supporting what your Prez does

I think you’re confused. Patriotism has to do with love and allegiance of your country. Not some politician.

@Rich Wheeler:

Colin is an excellent QB in the right scheme

really? He was in the same system for the last few years and got worse each year until he flunked out completely. Completing more interceptions than passes is not the right direction. He’ll never play NFL again. No good. Hurt the team and league. Not worth the time to try to get him better. He only gets worse with time. Why are you defending someone that will not stand for the National Anthem? Him and Natalie must make a good couple.

@Rich Wheeler: They only had two No. 1 albums and one of them was sold to liberal rock fans, not to country fans. The country stations still mostly do not play them.

@Rich Wheeler:

They were and are top female Country group of all time..But as you can see from your list CW girl groups are nowhere to be seen.
Thanks for your research. Long live rock and roll.

You’re welcome. I’m a rock and roller myself.

I guess claims like that depend on how thin you choose to slice the pie. Just for fun, quick, name another female CW group. Yep, they may very well be the biggest fish in that very small pond, but…

An article in the Nash Country Daily extended the claim to:

“Dixie Chicks – 30.5 million U.S. units sold
The Dixie Chicks are the best-selling female band of all time—of any genre—”

A much higher bar in my opinion. And where I start thinking about calling ‘bovine excrement’. To reiterate the point of how small that pond is, the supposed ‘Best selling female band of all time’ (from the January 6th NCD article “The 20 Top-Selling Country Acts of All Time“) only makes it to #9 on the list of Country artists.

I also have been accused of being pedantic – and rightfully so. Granting the Dixie Chicks their 30.5M units sold, let’s go back and compare them to the ‘of any genre’ criteria.

Spice Girls – 85M
TLC – 70M
Destiny’s Child – 60M
Pussycat Dolls – 54M
Bananarama – 40M

So, while they may be the top-selling (only?) female CW group, the hyperbolic claim that they are the best selling of all time in any genre doesn’t pass the sniff test.

@Redteam: Sports and music–politics irrelevant -Colin’s and Niners slide happened–fast– when Harbaugh left.
Dixie Chicks successful in country and rock genres. Jay’s #24 gives details.
Agree on definition of patriotism though Natalie’s protest was against her fellow Texan “w”

@Rich Wheeler: from 21 above: quoting the Chicks

… A lot of pandering started going on, and you’d see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism.”[81] Maines commented, “The entire country may disagree with me, but I don’t understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country … I don’t see why people care about patriotism.

Agree on definition of patriotism though Natalie’s protest was against her fellow Texan “w”

Show me where she mentioned W in that quote. I can show you where she mentioned ‘the country’ and ‘this land’ Face it Rich, they are POS.

@Jay: Jay, your numbers from above pretty well agree with what I’ve seen, also though they point out that most have been sold to Rock fans since they became Anti patriots. Not so much to country fans.

@Rich Wheeler:

Colin’s and Niners slide happened–fast– when Harbaugh left.

Let’s see if that’s right. Harbaugh was there for the first year the same year that Colin arrived 2011. CK played in 3 games and didn’t start any. in 12 he started 7 and was 5-2 in 13 he started 16 and won 12 in 14 he started 16 and went 8-8, that outstandingly poor performance led to Harbaugh being fired. But what the hell, he made a great recovery in 15, when he was 2-6. No, wait he improved to a 1-10 this year. So yea, you may be right, I’m sure when a head coach sees the name Colin Kaepernick the word ‘winner’ is not what comes to mind. More like “oh hell no, I want to keep my job.

Hey! Yes, you! You’ve always noticed how time flies so fast and this year is going to end again, however, not realizing that you are still burning your money in paying your high-cost apartment. Good thing if you have your own home, but what if you don’t? While enjoying life at your young age, why not start investing your hard earned money to a more significant thing like real estate property