The world of sports has been corrupted by “woke” politics.
Fans can’t turn on sports media without being inundated by political messaging.
Now anti-Trump former ESPN hosts are planning one big move.
ESPN is bleeding money.
As more and more people ditch cable for streaming services, ESPN is losing a ton of subscribers.
It doesn’t help that the network has decided to embrace progressive politics and chase off sports fans looking for apolitical content.
There have even been whispers that Disney is interested in cutting its losses with ESPN.
Now former ESPN employees Dan Le Batard, Jemele Hill, Bomani Jones, and John Skipper are in talks to start a new left-wing sports venture.
From Front Office Sports:
“Former ESPN president John Skipper and personality Dan Le Batard are partnering on a politically progressive sports media company. The new venture is described as the strategic opposite of Clay Travis’ Outkick, sources told Front Office Sports. Skipper and Le Batard will build a diverse lineup of progressive sports voices, said sources. Their target list includes former ESPN colleagues Jemele Hill, Bomani Jones and Kate Fagan.”
Clay Travis’s Outkick media company has picked up major steam as a place where non-woke sports fans can go for content.
Hill commented on the possible sports network:
“We’re trying to figure out the most productive way to work together…Both John and Dan know I have such a deep level of respect for them. So me working with them again always felt like it was inevitable.”
One of the programs that Le Batard and others could face is that the current market is saturated with leftist sports media.
ESPN has begun to lean into politics; in one recent incident, NBA analyst Jalen Rose yelled during a live broadcast for authorities to arrest the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
Deadspin and Yahoo Sports are other major sites with a clear left-wing bias.
It’s hard to imagine there’s an untapped market of progressive sports fans.
Ratings tanked for ESPN’s primetime SportsCenter slot when Hill was the co-host, and Jones has had multiple ESPN radio shows fail to attract an audience.
Hill also co-hosts a show on Vice Sports with former ESPN personality Cari Champion, which became best known for an embarrassing interview with Youtuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.
It’s hard to imagine how this unnamed sports venture can cover new territory in the “woke” media ecosystem.
There does not seem to be an appetite for such content.
The NBA’s ratings collapsed during last season once the league embraced Black Lives Matter and far-left politics.
Ratings during the NBA finals were so bad, commissioner Adam Silver essentially promised the league wasn’t going down the social justice path again.
Thus far, the league has scaled back the progressive propaganda.
If virtually the entire sports media goes full “woke,” they’ll only serve to build up Clay Travis even more as one of the few refuges for people who simply aren’t interested in that content.