Currently, ESPN is less known for pioneering sports news, and more known for pushing progressive politics.
The network has done everything from giving “Female Athlete of the Year” to a transgender man out of competition for decades to promoting the poetry of a cop killer and fugitive on its website.
Despite the obvious signs, one liberal host made a shocking statement about ESPN.
Keith Olbermann has become the poster boy for Trump Derangement Syndrome. The man who was once a funny and integral part of ESPN’s flagship program SportsCenter has since turned into a far-left political caricature.
Olbermann dubbed himself leader of #TheResistence on his laughable anti-Trump internet show whose rhetoric was about as impactful as a pirate radio station in the middle of nowhere.
Olbermann pulled the plug on his failed show, claiming that his “work” against Trump was done. Since then, the economy has improved, unemployment is down, and the United States could be on the brink of a detente with North Korea.
Well done, Keith.
Olbermann was recently on an ESPN podcast, opining on the politics of ESPN. In his view, the problems that his former employer is experiencing has nothing to do with its commitment to left-wing politics.
From Breitbart:
During a Friday appearance on Tony Kornheiser’s podcast, ESPN contributor Keith Olbermann discussed Pablo Torre’s upcoming ESPN show with Bomani Jones and the network’s battles with a drop in ratings, shrugging off the notion that the increased coverage of politics is the reason.
Olbermann argued the loss in ratings is not just ESPN, but rather “the business of cable.”
Partial transcript as follows:
TORRE: The point you guys both raised about laughter — because ESPN is in the middle of a culture war [said sarcastically]. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but we are in a culture war. One of the things that I think people —
OLBERMANN: Baloney, by the way.
TORRE: Well, yes. At risk of further culture warring, I will not comment further on the culture war that may or may not be a culture war.
OLBERMANN: The subscribers of the Golf Channel, they’ve lost more in the last month than ESPN. So what’s the politics of this? The politics is called “the business of cable.” OK, end of story, thank you for tuning in.
TORRE: Yes, I don’t think people are canceling all of their cable because they don’t like ESPN. That’s my general hypothesis.
Olbermann completely ignores the report from ombudsman Jim Brady, the objective reporter entrusted with evaluating the network, who found that ESPN had a growing adherence to progressive politics that was having an adverse effect.
ESPN higher-ups were so interested in Brady’s findings, they scrapped the ombudsman position altogether.
Despite the non-partisan feedback, ESPN has seen a steady decline in subscriptions and ratings, which can’t all be chalked up to the growing number of cord-cutters.
ESPN’s latest liberal excursion, the ill-fated morning show Get Up!, debuted with dreadful ratings, and has only slipped. ESPN threw millions and millions into the show, yet it’s clocked lower ratings than their morning SportsCenter reruns.
Of course Olbermann and Pablo Torre discount these facts. After all, Torre has his own “non-political” show on deck.