That image is from Zero Hedge but it was so good I had to use it.
We see every day new protestations by professional athletes about political matters. Almost all are left wing politics.
ESPN, a sports network has become another source of left wing politics.
ESPN became a cable-television giant by offering wall-to-wall sports, so naturally the channel has increasingly chosen to offer political commentary. In a remarkable coincidence, its viewership has been declining. ESPN’s shrinking audience triggered layoffs of about 100 employees this week. While this column wishes that Fox Butterfield could help make sense of all this, sports fans nationwide are hoping that perhaps the cable network will once again consider offering the coverage that made them watch in the first place.
It seems to be a mystery to the management.
Like many cable networks, ESPN has been hit hard by consumers canceling expensive monthly pay-TV packages in favor of smaller packages or streaming services. Over the past five years, ESPN has gone from 99 million subscribers to 87.44 million, according to Nielsen data. At the same time, the cost for sports content continues to rise, putting pressure on the sports giant’s bottom line.
Well, they fired Rush Limbaugh and Curt Schilling for comments they disliked. Who could have predicted this ?
The network may be losing subscriber revenue not just because of cord-cutting, Cohn allowed, but because viewers are increasingly turned off by ESPN inserting politics into its sports coverage.
“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.”
Then there is the epidemic of protesting during the National Anthem.
It began with Colin Kaepernick, a biracial child adopted and raised by white parents who have been rewarded by his outrageous behavior which is celebrated on the left as seen in the NY Times.
His name was Colin Kaepernick, and what he was looking for, Ogundimu and others discovered, was a deeper connection to his own roots and a broader understanding of the lives of others.
Seven years later, now 29, Kaepernick is the most polarizing figure in American sports. Outside of politics, there may be nobody in popular culture at this complex moment so divisive and so galvanizing, so scorned and so appreciated.
Contrary to the Times, it may have begun with his Black Muslim girlfriend who thinks the owner of the Baltimore team who pays his black players millions is a “slave owner.”
Kaepernick’s antics are now being imitated by 8 year old children who are members of a “football team.”
These players all seem to have a characteristic in common.
They are all black. A few white players have adopted this pose in sympathy but it seems this is one more example of the yearning for segregation.
The millionaire players may not be doing their poorer imitators in inner city ghettos any good.
