ESPN firings have led to ugly media fights
Another noteworthy journalist battle that has spilled out in the wake of ESPN’s layoffs has nothing to do with standards or the direction of the business. It was personal. Boston radio host Kirk Minihane — best known nationally for calling Erin Andrews a “gutless b—h” — called out “SportsCenter” host Jemele Hill for being allowed to stay on at ESPN.
“If I lost my job at ESPN today and knew this dogs–t show with Jemele and Michael Smith still existed I’d lose my mind,” Minihane wrote on Twitter.
Another noteworthy journalist battle that has spilled out in the wake of ESPN’s layoffs has nothing to do with standards or the direction of the business. It was personal. Boston radio host Kirk Minihane — best known nationally for calling Erin Andrews a “gutless b—h” — called out “SportsCenter” host Jemele Hill for being allowed to stay on at ESPN.
“If I lost my job at ESPN today and knew this dogs–t show with Jemele and Michael Smith still existed I’d lose my mind,” Minihane wrote on Twitter.
‘SportsCenter’ anchor agrees politics is hurting ESPN
“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.”
Cohn agreed with the argument that certain sports fans may have disapproved of the way ESPN covered polarizing figures such as Roger Goodell, Colin Kaepernick and Caitlyn Jenner.
The example used was of the 2015 ESPYs. Jenner, a former Olympic champion in the decathlon, won the prestigious Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for publicly coming out as a transgender woman. Some felt athletes suffering from disease or disability — such as college basketball player Lauren Hill, who died from cancer three months before the ceremony, and marathoner Noah Galloway, who lost an arm and a leg in the Iraq War — were more deserving.
The issue isn't whether politics is hurting them or not. All their bad content is hurting them. The point is it doesn't really matter. These are issues at the margins compared to a larger market force issue.
If they switch to talking heads covering a niche sport like NASCAR or putting a show on TV following an agent around negotiating or any of the other objectively bad ideas people toss out, it just won't matter. This stuff is hitting it's head on the ceiling at similar #'s to what you have now. Non-live sports content is worth less and less by the day.
Maybe if they cut all politics out their ratings would go up slightly in the short-term, but they're still gonna lose another 12 million cable TV subscribers over the next 5 years regardless. What is so foreign about this concept? I don't get it. Is it just any issue related to politics makes it tough for people to see the forest from the trees?
If they switch to talking heads covering a niche sport like NASCAR or putting a show on TV following an agent around negotiating or any of the other objectively bad ideas people toss out, it just won't matter. This stuff is hitting it's head on the ceiling at similar #'s to what you have now. Non-live sports content is worth less and less by the day.
Maybe if they cut all politics out their ratings would go up slightly in the short-term, but they're still gonna lose another 12 million cable TV subscribers over the next 5 years regardless. What is so foreign about this concept? I don't get it. Is it just any issue related to politics makes it tough for people to see the forest from the trees?
Because the bundle is dying. This started happening in 2011. 4 years before lionizing a tranny was a thing.
If you think there is a huge inefficiency in the sports programming market, then I'd imagine someone will fill it and make billions. We'll see.
I'm open to the idea you can do better than ESPN and get better ratings, but most of the ideas I hear are just bad and won't work. It would take more than just cutting out the bad, it would take creating the good that appeals to all, which is harder than people think.
People say FS1/ESPN talk NFL year round too much now, but they have to really. NFL is the last non-niche sport. That's why the draft coverage has gotten so huge the last 10-12 years. This isn't by accident.
I sure hope you read the link I posted or you are just uninformed.
ESPN has been hemorrhaging Republican viewers and subscribers and not gaining Democrat viewers and subscribers. This is irrefutable and hurts the business.
Of course overpaying for broadcasting rights and having more media platforms to watch sports contributes as well, you can't say their editorial on how they present the sports to the audience doesn't matter because it does.
You think NASCAR isn't a niche sport and more people are into it than baseball or basketball combined, of course you think I'm uninformed. This is categorically false and obviously shows you are both uninformed and have a massive blind spot on this issue. But for whatever reason your bias won't allow you to see that. Which is fine, this issue is as smallball as it gets.
You should email FS1 with your thoughts, this seems like a pretty awesome opportunity for them to print billions of dollars by catering to more white middle-America viewers. Lemme know how it goes...
And I never said their editorial view didn't have an impact, but fixing it is akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
You should email FS1 with your thoughts, this seems like a pretty awesome opportunity for them to print billions of dollars by catering to more white middle-America viewers. Lemme know how it goes...
And I never said their editorial view didn't have an impact, but fixing it is akin to putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
The link you posted is classic correlation/causation.
NASCAR ratings are also down the last 6 years, to the point that they've had to change some of the rules in the sport.
Why are Republicans watching less NASCAR?
And again, I never said there was no impact, I just said it's at the margins so I dunno why you are pinning that opinion on me.
Didn't ESPN f--k up sports radio also? I wonder if that will change.
I mean, before I discovered TuneIn radio premium, trying to find certain football games to listen to on Saturdays was a huge pain in the ass. I think ESPN bought the rights to all the games and you couldn't listen unless you paid ESPN some kind of subscription. I think so anyway, I never subscribed.
I mean, before I discovered TuneIn radio premium, trying to find certain football games to listen to on Saturdays was a huge pain in the ass. I think ESPN bought the rights to all the games and you couldn't listen unless you paid ESPN some kind of subscription. I think so anyway, I never subscribed.
Something like sports radio you can probably fix. Bomani Jones gets on air and tells people Kirk Cousins gets more of a chance than RG3 and insinuates it is because of the color of their skin or that Kevin Love needs to go to Boston and insinuates it is because it is a racist city. He just always race baits, I dunno who is listening to that. If you fired him, that would probably improve ratings + advertising revenue for that particular timeslot by a good amount. Just your generic sports talk would be a big improvement over that.
But that is the radio, very small part of their business. And that format is dying because podcasts, satellite etc as well.
But that is the radio, very small part of their business. And that format is dying because podcasts, satellite etc as well.
