Posted on 09/18/2014 4:52:37 AM PDT by LeoMcNeil
There was a time not too long ago where you could turn on ESPN or sports talk without being subjected to politics. Unfortunately sports programing has turned into an endless stream of political issues pushed almost exclusively by sports journalists. The NFL is their current target. Ray Rice beat up his then fiancee. Everyone has known that he punched her for over six months, the NFL responded with a 2 game suspension. Then a video of the attack came out. Suddenly the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely and ESPN has decided to have a “national conversation” about how we need to “reprogram” how boys are raised. A handful of football players engage in domestic violence and suddenly the political hacks at ESPN want to reprogram all boys.
It doesn’t stop there. Adrian Peterson apparently spanked his son with a switch. This is a relatively common occurrence, especially down south. Peterson is hardly the model parent, he has seven illegitimate children. Apparently he cares enough to discipline his kids. Nevertheless he’s been charged with child abuse in Texas. The Minnesota Vikings deactivated Peterson for last weeks game. The announced he would play this upcoming Sunday. That is until the ESPN echo chamber wouldn’t stop hammering the Vikings for their decision. By yesterday the Vikings had relented. ESPN celebrated their reversal, on one show declaring that the Vikings couldn’t play Peterson because of all the “noise” coming from the outside on this issue. All of the noise came from ESPN of course.
NFL fans don’t particularly care about what Adrian Peterson does with his kids. Vikings fans in particular don’t care. He hasn’t been accused of murder, unlike ESPN commentator Ray Lewis. Even in the case of Ray Rice, everyone agrees his conduct was outrageous. Nevertheless his fiancee forgave him and married him. The video didn’t change anything for most fans, it only confirmed what had previously been reported. Unfortunately for the last several weeks ESPN has been running these two stories in an endless loop. They’ve been preaching at fans about violence against women and children while endlessly warning the NFL of “appearances.” The message has been clear, ESPN is warning the NFL that they won’t stop with these stories until they’re catered to.
The problem here is two fold. First, fans don’t really care about these stories. People who turn on football commentary shows want to hear stories about games played last week or previews of this weeks games. Football fans don’t turn on ESPN for political or social commentary. Second, these journalists and commentators over at ESPN seem to think they’re Woodward and Bernstein. They talk incessantly about these social issues in their echo chamber and therefore they assume everyone agrees with them and/or cares about the topic. These guys fantasize about taking out Roger Goodell or some other important person in sports. They imagine they’re “educating” their viewers. In reality, they’re annoying their viewers and face losing them as a result.
People watch sports to escape politics and just about everything else in their lives. ESPN was created 35 years ago to foster that escape 24/7. Unfortunately in the last few years they have subjected viewers to an endless stream of politics. These days they’re talking down to viewers like we’re naughty boys who beat our wives and kids. The fact though is that fans aren’t all in on these stories. We don’t like what Ray Rice did but his actions hardly warrant the sort of gab onslaught ESPN has served up. The Peterson story is worse because it assumes that everyone is in agreement that spanking children is wrong. In reality, most parents spank. Worse, ESPN has created a one network echo chamber that makes it seem like the entire country is turning on the NFL and the Vikings unless Adrian Peterson is banned. The reality is the opposite, fans don’t particularly care about the subject matter and most would rather see him play. There’s going to come a point where fans stop watching commentary shows. One imagines that even at that point the leftists at ESPN won’t stop pushing politics.
Why did it take 25-30 years for ESPN to figure this out? I’ll grant the network used to have more actual sporting events. They would tape delay Australian Rules Football and other events. However, we’re talking about a network with three live sports channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU), a dedicated news channel and a classic sports channel. In addition, they also run the SEC Network and Longhorn Network.
There’s enough sports and there’s demand for commentary. The problem is that the demand for commentary relates to the game on the field, not the off field politics. People want to watch breakdowns of previous games by sports commentators and they want to watch prediction commentary for upcoming games. People want to watch draft analysis without hearing about the sexual perversion of one of the players to be drafted.
I was referring to their nightly sports hi-lite show..it has the two Canadian guys...they’re pretty good.
I disagree with the article in that ESPN is in the business of getting as many people to watch to maximize the advertising revenue. They are concentrating on these issues now because that is what most people want to watch. Most people find the X and O’s type of talk a real snoozefest. If ESPN ignored the Rice’s and Peterson’s, and concentrated on breaking down the Bear’s defensive scheme they would look like jerks. Also to describe what Peterson did as something positive is one of the dumbest things I have heard in a long time. If anyone disciplines their children in the manner of the Royal Navy circa 1805, they are committing child abuse, and are a savage to boot.
If you can’t find a football or baseball or basketball game on espn then you’re a moron.
He tuned in at 10am on a weekday and couldn’t figure out why there was no game on. Anyone with a brain can figure out that games on a weekday will be between 7pm - 1am Eastern Time throughout the continental USA. The only fans hurt in this regards were soccer fans, who couldn’t watch Netherlands-Czech Rep in the Euro qualifiers last week because of the Rice situation. Every other scheduled game was broadcasted.
Sorry, once the author wrote that about Peterson, he established he was a bigger idiot than anyone at ESPN.
On the other hand, Rebecca Lowe is top notch on the NBC with the Premier League.
Depends on what time of day you’re trying to watch a game. There’s a reason why commentary shows are often on in the afternoon and early evening. Games generally don’t start on weekdays until 7pm eastern. Some events might take place during the afternoon but these are generally special events or once a year events like grand slam tennis or golf.
So the only way to grow the business is by expanding your coverage into topics that attract interest from people who aren't sports fans. This is why major sports leagues and sports networks have become entertainment industries rather than sports enterprises.
Sports talk radio is boring as hell, it’s even worse when sports hosts try to talk politics.
Most of them in Bristol at ESPN hate his guts but they’re all trying to mimic his style.
aka ESPN Ocho.
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