ESPN has doubled down on its blatant progressive agenda.
The network sat on its hands when commentator Jemele Hill said Donald Trump was a white supremacist, and virtue-signaled by giving Caitlyn Jenner an athletic courage award despite not competing in sports for decades.
ESPN is now in damage control mode, as the ratings backlash has been severe, but one tweet from a host won’t help the rescue effort.
The morning show “Get Up,” ESPN’s latest liberal experiment, has been dead on arrival. Co-host Mike Greenberg insisted the show wouldn’t be political, but fellow co-host Jalen Rose posted an anti-Trump tweet that undermined Greenberg’s desperate assurance.
From Sports Illustrated:
Shania Twain. The pop star, who can’t even vote in a U.S. election said she would’ve voted for Donald Trump and people went nuts and she had to do the obligatory apologize. Why am I telling you about this?
Because on Monday morning. ESPN Get Up host, Jalen Rose tweeted, “Welcome to the Walk of Shame, Shania Twain.” This wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but Rose ended up deleting the tweet.
Given that 1) ESPN already has a problem with people thinking it has a left-leaning agenda, 2) Mike Greenberg going out of his way to say Get Up wouldn’t do politics unless it crossed over into sports before the show launched, and 3) The show is struggling in the ratings, Rose and/or ESPN probably figured they didn’t need the headache of the fallout. But, of course, once something is on the Internet it’s on the Internet forever.
Rose’s attempt to hide his political bias appears to be in vain, as “Get Up!” drowns in an interminable downward spiral.
More from Sports Illustrated:
ESPN’s new morning show, “Get Up,” closed out its third week on the air today. Three weeks is still not a enough time to fully judge a show, but when it comes the ratings, the news is going from bad to worse for Mike Greenberg, Michelle Beadle and Jalen Rose.
The debut episode drew 283,000 viewers. This Tuesday’s episode drew 233,000 viewers while Wednesday’s show pulled in 243,000 viewers. The show is not picking up viewers, which would’ve been expected with the NBA playoffs going on. The other problem for the World Wide Leader is that the show has no momentum, no buzz. As unbelievably awful as shows like “Undisputed” and “First Take” are, people are at least talking about them, even if they’re mocking them. The savages on social media aren’t even doing that with “Get Up.” It’s just … there.
While most people would agree the traditional “SportsCenter” format is out of date in this era of getting any information at any time you want, the cry from people who want a regular, nuts-and-bolts sports show in the morning has been loud. Is “Get Up’s” problem that people don’t like the format or that they don’t like the hosts? That’s a question ESPN better find out the answer to sooner rather than later because those hosts are making $14.5 million dollars combined to bring in a number that a much cheaper show could bring in.
Twain’s crime that begot all of this controversy? She said to The Guardian:
“I would have voted for him because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest. Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn’t be able to have both. If I were voting, I just don’t want bulls**t. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent.”
That’s a harmless statement considering Trump’s opponent was “Crooked” Hillary Clinton, a woman whose smarmy and spiteful post-election world tour has cemented her as one of the most loathsome presidential candidates in American history.