Rise and Fall of ESPN

[MullinMayhem]

ESPN is going to keep failing as long as they remain a very biased political channel. People do not tune in for MSNBC or FOX, they tune in for sports. Long gone are the days where Chris Berman would be giving some funny commentary over highlights or Stuart Scott would be yelling "Booya!". As long as they keep people like Jemele Hill employed who should get a job as an activist instead, they will continue to falter. We all know why she's still employed though, let's be real. It's still shocking to me how clueless MTV and ESPN are...as Michael Jordan once said "Republicans buy sneakers too". Smart man...not sure why you would want to alienate literally 50% of America especially in business where it will affect your bottom line. ESPN was at its best when you had no clue about the political stance of their hosts.

As an added note, did anyone see that ESPN partnered with a Barstool Sports show? They lasted one episode and then ESPN cancelled it after PC pressure (some ist or ism). It's very obvious why Barstool is trending up and ESPN is trending down. Barstool is much more down to earth, original, authentic, and funny. ESPN is that old out of touch dad trying to be cool to impress his son's friends but his friends roll their eyes. Barstool does not care about PC culture...ESPN is downright frightened by it. Barstool is not political and ESPN is basically an extension of MSNBC and CNN. But they still don't get it.

Earlier this week on First Take, Stephen A. Smith criticized J.R. Smith, and other NBA players, for wearing a hoodie during games on the bench because "it reminds white people" of Trayvon Martin.

Exactly my point...perfect example. Networks like ESPN try to wedge issues where they don't exist or don't belong. If you want to really talk about the issues, why not have a truly balanced debate? We are being force-fed politics from only one POV. ESPN would probably argue that Skip and Stephen A. debate on opposite sides all the time on issues, but if you really watch, Skip does nothing but grovel and apologize before submissively giving his take on issues. By the way I actually like Stephen A...we don't agree on a lot but that's okay. Jemele Hill could literally smack the CEO of ESPN in the face and he'd apologize to her and put her on 2 weeks paid leave. That's where they're at now. That's the climate. Just claim racism or sexism...or some phobia or ist or ism. All people need to use are buzzwords these days to silence people. They don't have to have any legitimacy or merit, they are to be taken as fact without any questions. The majority of America is sick and tired of the victim ideology and the one-sided dialogue. Corn Pops are now racist, have you heard? I wish I was joking. When you cry wolf a million times, you are asking to be ignored.

[billyjack]

i don't see ESPN's toilet bowl circling as political. i see it as two things:

- ESPN making up sports news rather than just reporting it.... them force feeding us Tim Tebow (several years ago) and Lebron (still ongoing), promoting the shit out of their properties, while absolutely ignoring the NHL and any other sport they didn't own. People finally understand their manipulation, except ACC hoops fans still love ESPN, and Bilas and McDonough are ACC homers.

- But i think its mainly ESPN's ridiculous cost, for content that is available elsewhere. Basically their final stand is SEC football and ACC basketball (and loudmouth talking head shows), and those arent enough to justify ridiculous costs. So with similar content with several other networks, it's only logical i think for water to seek its own level, bringing ESPN in this case way down towards CBS and Fox, etc. So ESPN is totally screwed.

If it was truly political, then they would'vd gotten hit by hiring Rush Limbaugh 10-12 years ago. Think of how radical and alienating that decision was, and he even started things off with racist comments about McNabb. Even with that, ESPN sailed along for another decade as the sports king.

Anyway, that's my take, for what it's worth.

[MullinMayhem]

i don't see ESPN's toilet bowl circling as political. i see it as two things:

- ESPN making up sports news rather than just reporting it.... them force feeding us Tim Tebow (several years ago) and Lebron (still ongoing), promoting the shit out of their properties, while absolutely ignoring the NHL and any other sport they didn't own. People finally understand their manipulation, except ACC hoops fans still love ESPN, and Bilas and McDonough are ACC homers.

- But i think its mainly ESPN's ridiculous cost, for content that is available elsewhere. Basically their final stand is SEC football and ACC basketball (and loudmouth talking head shows), and those arent enough to justify ridiculous costs. So with similar content with several other networks, it's only logical i think for water to seek its own level, bringing ESPN in this case way down towards CBS and Fox, etc. So ESPN is totally screwed.

If it was truly political, then they would'vd gotten hit by hiring Rush Limbaugh 10-12 years ago. Think of how radical and alienating that decision was, and he even started things off with racist comments about McNabb. Even with that, ESPN sailed along for another decade as the sports king.

Anyway, that's my take, for what it's worth.

If it wasn't political they would not have fired Curt Schilling for suggesting that men should use the men's room and women should use the women's room. Yes, that happened. Jemele Hill is privileged and you know why. She is the golden girl (sorry if that offends people with gold skin, I'm not goldist). Imagine a white male host on ESPN calling Obama a black supremacist (and by the way if that happened, I'd say he should be fired 100%). Would ESPN slap him on the wrist? Come on. She never learns her lesson because she understands the dynamic. She is actually the one with the power and the privilege this day in age, yet still gets portrayed as a victim. You can't have two separate standards based on the color of your skin. That used to be wrong according to MLK.

[bluejayfanatic]

Thinking the decline of ESPN is because it's "political" is about as dumb as MullinMayhem's 6th grade snowflake "I'm a victim" rant about isms.

[MullinMayhem]

Thinking the decline of ESPN is because it's "political" is about as dumb as MullinMayhem's 6th grade snowflake "I'm a victim" rant about isms.

Not saying it's the only reason but it's certainly a big one. Even ESPN themselves sent out a memo to employees saying "we are not a political organization". And yes, when even South Park, Bill Maher, and myself (Obama voter) have said enough with the PC crap, people are at their wits end.

[bluejayfanatic]

Not saying it's the only reason but it's certainly a big one. Even ESPN themselves sent out a memo to employees saying "we are not a political organization". And yes, when even South Park, Bill Maher, and myself (Obama voter) have said enough with the PC crap, people are at their wits end.

Well, if South Park said it...

[Edrick]

Id give even odds MullinMayhem has AM radio on right now.

[billyjack]

i don't see ESPN's toilet bowl circling as political. i see it as two things:

- ESPN making up sports news rather than just reporting it.... them force feeding us Tim Tebow (several years ago) and Lebron (still ongoing), promoting the shit out of their properties, while absolutely ignoring the NHL and any other sport they didn't own. People finally understand their manipulation, except ACC hoops fans still love ESPN, and Bilas and McDonough are ACC homers.

- But i think its mainly ESPN's ridiculous cost, for content that is available elsewhere. Basically their final stand is SEC football and ACC basketball (and loudmouth talking head shows), and those arent enough to justify ridiculous costs. So with similar content with several other networks, it's only logical i think for water to seek its own level, bringing ESPN in this case way down towards CBS and Fox, etc. So ESPN is totally screwed.

If it was truly political, then they would'vd gotten hit by hiring Rush Limbaugh 10-12 years ago. Think of how radical and alienating that decision was, and he even started things off with racist comments about McNabb. Even with that, ESPN sailed along for another decade as the sports king.

Anyway, that's my take, for what it's worth.

If it wasn't political they would not have fired Curt Schilling for suggesting that men should use the men's room and women should use the women's room. Yes, that happened. Jemele Hill is privileged and you know why. She is the golden girl (sorry if that offends people with gold skin, I'm not goldist). Imagine a white male host on ESPN calling Obama a black supremacist (and by the way if that happened, I'd say he should be fired 100%). Would ESPN slap him on the wrist? Come on. She never learns her lesson because she understands the dynamic. She is actually the one with the power and the privilege this day in age, yet still gets portrayed as a victim. You can't have two separate standards based on the color of your skin. That used to be wrong according to MLK.

I don't want to have this site turn into a political place. We get along i think cuz we stick to sports.

But you have been way over the top.


First if all, Curt Schilling shouldn't have had a job with ESPN in the first place, totally unrelated to politics... he soaked us Rhode Islanders to the tune of $85 million for some dimwit video game company, never apologized, and has no credibility for that, and for the fact that he chickened out about steroids when under oath in front of Congress.

Jemele Hill... what's your beef with her? i don't watch ESPN so i barely know her. That she supports the NFL players right to silently protest during the national anthem. And as an African American, she disagrees with a guy who waved off a freakin Nazi-KKK parade. That's your beef. And she was suspended. And how do you want NFL players to protest? Me, i always stand for the anthem. But with NFL players, they're not sitting, not turning their backs on the flag, not yelling during the song, not taking the time during the anthem to run to the bathroom or concession stand like half the crowd is... how would you recommend that they protest? Or do you want them to just shut up and entertain you?

Whatever else you just wrote is totally off base, pretty bad comments about what you're implying, and about your victimhood etc.

Also, you've mentioned MLK favorably here and on the off-topic board. But in his day, people of your political bent hated the guy, labeled him a Communist, a rabble-rouser, un-American. His speech of April 4th in 67 coming out against Vietnam etc, put him in the national doghouse. Look into his actual life history, because based on what you're saying here, you'd have hated him... Jackie Robinson too.

[billyjack]

i apologize to everyone else here for getting political. i won't do it again. All of us are rational, reasonable people, no matter where we line up politically. Mullin Mayhem to me has just been way, way over the top out-of-control with his comments, that if i didn't respond i'd get serious agita.

[MullinMayhem]

Not sure how questioning PC culture (which half the country does) is suddenly "over the top" or extreme. It seems one side wants to have conversations and the other side would rather signal their virtue and call names to shut down speech. Jemele Hill is not a moderate as you imply. She plays identity politics and views everything through a racial lens. She is constantly coming down on NFL players who do not play the game of identity politics (see Dez Bryant who brushes her off). That IMO is extreme and many would agree. The belief that you must vote a certain way or have certain views because of the color of your skin is absurd and insulting and MLK would 100% agree with me on that. The issue is that PC culture has changed the definitions of formerly serious words like racism. Back in the day there was legitimate racism and any halfway decent person would agree with that. Siccing dogs, fire hoses, refusing to allow in certain schools, etc. definitely racist. But now we have people calling Corn Pops racist for depicting a cartoon corn pop as a janitor on the cereal box. If you agree with that, it's fine. You are entitled to your opinion, but I'm also entitled to my opinion to call it absurd. I just think it makes a mockery of real victims of real racism. And before I'm slandered by people saying I don't believe it exists anymore, that's false...of course it does. Unfortunately it's part of human nature. That doesn't mean we shouldn't act against it, but we also shouldn't overuse these serious terms and water them down to the point where South Park makes fun of you.