ESPN's own people have acknowledge that their turn left has affected their viewership. As I said in AD's first post about the ESPN layoffs, cord-cutting and other new forms of sports media have had a measurable impact on ESPN's bottom line and viewership, but to think that their ideological injection of politics into sports has not been a factor as well is just naive. Cool, you haven't noticed it, but many other people have and have stopped watching the channel altogether for those specific reasons. It's real.
Joer and Advarkas have been right all along on ESPiN
- Thread starter Dr.L.ThugU
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Lmao you speaking on balance and bias is like Bill Clinton speaking about sex abuse victims.
Crack investigative reporting. I assume @Doc Holliday-JB is still analyzing the Vegas Raiders draft and the amount of cash that will be spent at the Bunny Ranch.
If you do not see the left-wing bias on ESPN, then that has more to do with your personal beliefs than with whether or not the claim is actually true. I am a conservative person, and I fully understand that I am a conservative person. Most conservatives, like me, understand that their views are conservative. Liberals often think differently.
For example, one of my brothers, whom I love dearly, is a far left liberal. Yes, we grew up in the same home, but I spent my life owning and running businesses, and he spent his entire life in academia. That is often what happens. If you're a business owner, you are likely to trend conservative. If you work in an institution, like a governmental agency or in academia, you're likely to trend liberal. That is just the way the world works.
But the difference is, that while I fully understand I am conservative, my brother is puzzled that I think he is a far left liberal. He thinks he is a centrist whose opinions do not represent an agenda, but rather "common sense."
If you go on my Facebook page, and look at my friends, you will see a wide diversity of age, color, ethnic background, and, if you read some of my friends' post, you would see that half my friends are liberal, and half are conservative. That is the way I've been my entire life.
But, if you go on my brother's Facebook page, you will see that every single person he is friends with on Facebook, with few exceptions, has spent their life as a teacher, principal, or school administrator. Now, I am not trying to promote Facebook here, I am just showing that Facebook often allows people to see one's life in microcosm. While I have spent my life often surrounded by people who think totally differently than I do, my brother has spent his life surrounded by people who think exactly the way he does. And so do many of the people who work at ESPN.
The fact is, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon can trash conservatives, including our president, constantly and with impunity, while Curt Schilling was immediately fired for talking about Islamic terrorism, and the transgender bathroom bill. Sage Steele, a conservative woman, was immediately demoted after expressing conservative views, and replaced by a liberal woman. How many of you remember, a couple years ago, when Chris Broussard, who covers the NBA basketball beat on ESPN, expressed conservative Christian views when discussing this transgender issue? Not only did Broussard get chastised by the network, but ESPN issued a public apology for his remarks!!!!
Bob Ley, who along with Chris Berman, are the only two ESPN employees to have been with the network since 1979, has expressed his opinion that there is no diversity of thought at the network, and the conservative people speak in whispers around the building. That is a fact, if you don't believe me, believe Bob Ley. Google it.
So if you are a person who has liberal views, and you hear Tony Kornheiser say that Trump is an idiot, you may have no problem with that. Meanwhile, you probably wanted Curt Schilling's head when he said we should be more worried about Islamic terrorism then transgender bathrooms.
And after all that, you still won't understand that the network has a liberal slant, because you think that Kornheiser was simply stating a well-known fact, and that Schilling was spewing hate speech.
And that is why many posters on this board do not understand that ESPN has a liberal slant.
For example, one of my brothers, whom I love dearly, is a far left liberal. Yes, we grew up in the same home, but I spent my life owning and running businesses, and he spent his entire life in academia. That is often what happens. If you're a business owner, you are likely to trend conservative. If you work in an institution, like a governmental agency or in academia, you're likely to trend liberal. That is just the way the world works.
But the difference is, that while I fully understand I am conservative, my brother is puzzled that I think he is a far left liberal. He thinks he is a centrist whose opinions do not represent an agenda, but rather "common sense."
If you go on my Facebook page, and look at my friends, you will see a wide diversity of age, color, ethnic background, and, if you read some of my friends' post, you would see that half my friends are liberal, and half are conservative. That is the way I've been my entire life.
But, if you go on my brother's Facebook page, you will see that every single person he is friends with on Facebook, with few exceptions, has spent their life as a teacher, principal, or school administrator. Now, I am not trying to promote Facebook here, I am just showing that Facebook often allows people to see one's life in microcosm. While I have spent my life often surrounded by people who think totally differently than I do, my brother has spent his life surrounded by people who think exactly the way he does. And so do many of the people who work at ESPN.
The fact is, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon can trash conservatives, including our president, constantly and with impunity, while Curt Schilling was immediately fired for talking about Islamic terrorism, and the transgender bathroom bill. Sage Steele, a conservative woman, was immediately demoted after expressing conservative views, and replaced by a liberal woman. How many of you remember, a couple years ago, when Chris Broussard, who covers the NBA basketball beat on ESPN, expressed conservative Christian views when discussing this transgender issue? Not only did Broussard get chastised by the network, but ESPN issued a public apology for his remarks!!!!
Bob Ley, who along with Chris Berman, are the only two ESPN employees to have been with the network since 1979, has expressed his opinion that there is no diversity of thought at the network, and the conservative people speak in whispers around the building. That is a fact, if you don't believe me, believe Bob Ley. Google it.
So if you are a person who has liberal views, and you hear Tony Kornheiser say that Trump is an idiot, you may have no problem with that. Meanwhile, you probably wanted Curt Schilling's head when he said we should be more worried about Islamic terrorism then transgender bathrooms.
And after all that, you still won't understand that the network has a liberal slant, because you think that Kornheiser was simply stating a well-known fact, and that Schilling was spewing hate speech.
And that is why many posters on this board do not understand that ESPN has a liberal slant.
I have watched alot of ESPN over the years and I have yet to personally see ANYTHING with political connotations even watching the Sports Reporters on Sunday mornings. The closest thing to politics that I've seen is when LeBron James and company spoke out about police brutality and when Bruce/Caitlin Jenner or whatever you want to call it received the ESPY award for courage over others who were far more deserving.
"Quoting" words "condescending" doesn't make you seem "smart". ESPN makes 60% of their money from cable subscriptions and all the press about their declining revenue is about cord cutters, not people keeping their cable but not watching ESPN. Unless you have a Nielsen box or you cancel your cable subscription, your "boycott" doesn't do anything.
I'm one of those far left leaning liberals if you think being for racial/gender equality and universal healthcare makes me so. I definitely agree ESPN is left leaning but I would think because of that they would be MORE and not less popular. Most "conservative" folks living in the -Burbs or rural areas with the most progressive places being the population centers on either coasts. If this issue of cord cutting wasn't so I'd believe ESPN would have been just fine. Fox Sports is garbage and is doing horribly when it comes to ratings. ESPN is not even remotely worried about them.
Incorrect. First of all, anybody who doesn't think the bias has zero to do with their ratings nosedive is not being honest with themselves, but are just trying to appease their ideological slant. Second, when people are surveyed and the results show that viewership is down, advertisers pull away or at least get better deals. That translates to less money coming in.
Wrong, they make most their money off subscriptions. All the articles talking about their declining revenue says it's because of people are cord cutting.
ESPN has declining viewership because of cable cutters and because they talked about Tebow for a 3 years straight. I didn't even say they don't have any bias, but bias is not the main reason they are losing money.
ESPN makes 7 dollars a month for every cable subscriber. If you have cable you're giving ESPN 84 dollars a year. That's worth way more than your eyeballs on ads. If you were mad at ESPN for having a bias and you stopped paying for cable then that would have an impact, but I haven't seen anything that suggests that's happening. People are cutting cable because it's expensive and you can get the content other ways. I stopped watching ESPN because they talked about Tebow for 3 years straight. If anything over covering Tebow showed conservative bias. ESPN's bias is towards sensational non-sense. Could they take a liberal position on an issue sure, but ultimately they are trying to do what they think will make money. If a liberal person thought ESPN was bias for over covering the Christian conservative Tim Tebow, I would tell them the same thing.
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The political discourse around here is almost as tough to watch as a Coach No D defense.
Everyone thinks they are smarter than everyone else.
Some could use a little more arm violence.
Everyone thinks they are smarter than everyone else.
Some could use a little more arm violence.
... it's a combination of both.
As much as they lost the flyover states by being too political, they've also lost a huge chunk of a younger generation—Millennials through Gen X—who rely more on mobile and digital than they do pouring a bowl of Cheerios and leaving four episodes of SportsCenter on a loop every weekday morning like it's 1997 instead of 2017.
Fact is ESPN hasn't properly embraced the digital age. Until they develop a logical game plan, the struggles will continue. Cutting overhead was a start, but it's just the beginning. Need a new go-to-market strategy with whatever they roll out next.
Need to become pioneers again (if they have it in them.) Innovate or die.
Running Nate Silver columns on their web page and the Bruce Jenner ESPY crap did it for me. . I find their college football coverage annoying as well I stopped visiting their webpage.
According to research (going by the linked article in the OP) the viewership amongst conservatives has dropped dramatically while in some cases left leaning viewers have increased their viewing of ESPiN. Are you saying that only conservatives are cutting the cord? Makes sense that middle aged and up conservative males and not left leaning millenials are doing most of the cord cutting........
This is absolutely reasonable. It's a combination . One of them being their left wing slant turning off a particular segment of the population who happened to have been reliable customers (viewers).
So you think O'Really and Hannity should be added now that they've been shit canned by Fox. Do they need a safe space to land?
Actually, one would use quotes when one is "using" exact words from another source or person. I used them as they were directly from the article that I posted an excerpt from (except for a couple which I admit I used to look more intelligent than I really am).
Sorry you felt they were condescending. Also, I am really not that smart......if you are referring to scholastic achievements or Mensa score.
I am smart enough to know however that advertisement dollars are much more valuable to a media outlet compared to cable and direct TV subscriptions and have common sense enough to know that each person that has a Nielsen box isn't the cumulative number of measured viewership, no, it is the sampling rate in which viewership is determined.
Do your self a little test: Go start a social media entity like Facebook or Twitter, have 3 million people sign up for it, create an account BUT do not actually use it, no actual eye traffic. See how many advertisers knock down your door.
ESPN Lays Off Staff Amid Liberal Politics-Driven Ratings Slump
ESPN announced Wednesday that they’ll be cutting more than 100 staffers, including some of their on-air personalities, in a major downsizing effort Disney hopes will save the flagging network.
The news comes amid a slump in viewership that many analysts are connecting to a formatting change that mixed political commentary in with ESPN’s sport coverage.
The group receiving pink slips include a handful of anchors and on-air reporters, as well as writers and behind-the-scenes television, radio and print personnel who help run the multi-media company. Some talent will see their contributions reduced, and others will move into a special “contributor” status.
These cuts are also just the first round: ESPN is reportedly looking to trim $250 million from their yearly budget in 2017.
The reason for the layoffs is straightforward. ESPN’s viewership has been in a ongoing slump and recovery looks unlikely. The sports cable network, majority owned by Walt Disney, is down to 87.8 million domestic subscribers according to just released figures from Nielsen. Subscriptions are decreasing each month.
ESPN has lost its primetime ratings crown to Fox News Channel and ratings of “Monday Night Football” are down 12% from the previous season.
Many of ESPN’s woes stem from so-called “cord cutting”. TV viewers are increasingly shunning pricey cable TV packages in favor of trimmed down options that don’t include the high priced sports network.
But growing evidence would suggest the subscriber slump is also driven, in part, by viewer disgust with ESPN’s politics. The network has become increasingly liberal of late, not bothering to disguise the left-wing sympathies of its presenters and commentators.
Viewers, it seems, are getting sick of the side order of conventional liberalism served up with their diet of sport by ESPN personalities such as Max Kellerman and Michael Wilbon:
ESPN announced Wednesday that they’ll be cutting more than 100 staffers, including some of their on-air personalities, in a major downsizing effort Disney hopes will save the flagging network.
The news comes amid a slump in viewership that many analysts are connecting to a formatting change that mixed political commentary in with ESPN’s sport coverage.
The group receiving pink slips include a handful of anchors and on-air reporters, as well as writers and behind-the-scenes television, radio and print personnel who help run the multi-media company. Some talent will see their contributions reduced, and others will move into a special “contributor” status.
These cuts are also just the first round: ESPN is reportedly looking to trim $250 million from their yearly budget in 2017.
The reason for the layoffs is straightforward. ESPN’s viewership has been in a ongoing slump and recovery looks unlikely. The sports cable network, majority owned by Walt Disney, is down to 87.8 million domestic subscribers according to just released figures from Nielsen. Subscriptions are decreasing each month.
ESPN has lost its primetime ratings crown to Fox News Channel and ratings of “Monday Night Football” are down 12% from the previous season.
Many of ESPN’s woes stem from so-called “cord cutting”. TV viewers are increasingly shunning pricey cable TV packages in favor of trimmed down options that don’t include the high priced sports network.
But growing evidence would suggest the subscriber slump is also driven, in part, by viewer disgust with ESPN’s politics. The network has become increasingly liberal of late, not bothering to disguise the left-wing sympathies of its presenters and commentators.
Viewers, it seems, are getting sick of the side order of conventional liberalism served up with their diet of sport by ESPN personalities such as Max Kellerman and Michael Wilbon:
So there are people watching ESPN, which are giving them ad dollars and subscription dollars, there are people with subscriptions that don't watch, which are only giving them subscription dollars, and people that are not giving them any money.
That article (which let's be real is an ad for their analytics service) is about viewership trends in Cincinnati in 2015. Viewership changes when people stop watching but keep their cable and when they cancel their cable. We also don't know why people are doing either of those from that data shown.
Basically it's kind of interesting but it doesn't really prove anything. The main things I know is that cable cutting is the main thing hurting ESPN, and I haven't seen anything that people are cutting cable just to protest an ESPN liberal bias. People that don't like ESPN because they think they are liberal celebrate their falling revenue, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that people think ESPN is liberal is the reason for them to get rid of cable.
http://www.businessinsider.com/espn-revenue-subscriber-fees-2015-11
ESPN makes 60% of their money from subscriptions and 40% from ads, so the subscriptions are in fact more valuable. I don't understand how there is a debate about this.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/frankb...able-networks-in-affiliate-fees/#5045de823de0
Other cable changes get subscription money too but ESPN by far gets the most. Cable cutting hurts them more than any other channel.
Sure... consenting eh? Just like Hillary enabled his behavior. You know the same guy who was on multiple flight manifest of a known pedophiles jet going to a private island for sex romps with underage victims. Interesting you use the term consenting lol.
Bottom line is Fox got rid of its most deplorable on air personalities. I don't watch much of espn except for game day and a live game. I don't know why anyone who proclaims to be boycotting espn because of an alleged progressive slant would care. ESPN has hired more women and African Americans in recent past making up for past inequities.
If you want to boycott espn boycott espn. Who cares why you are doing it? I don't.
If you want to boycott espn boycott espn. Who cares why you are doing it? I don't.
You're right, we should discard the research because it was about trends in a particular region, it's not like the polls people believe in blindly that survey around 5 to 600 people on average yet are considered a microcosm of the population in general.
No one said cord cutting isn't a factor. No one says subscriptions don't generate money or even a majority of the money they bring in, some of us are pointing out other factors hurting them as well such as their lean to the left and some of you are just being dismissive as most people who wound up shocked and appalled when the election results came in on Nov 8th were . Some people refuse to listen.
Nope im not! I guess you'd fall into the same enabler category as Hillary.
Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender's jet much more than previously known
By Malia ZimmermanPublished May 13, 2016
FoxNews.com
Epstein, (inset left), and Clinton flew together at least 26 times on the disgraced financier's "Lolita Express." (John Coates, airport-data.com)
Former President Bill Clinton was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the “Lolita Express” -- even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.
The most directly impacted source of revenue by people deciding to no longer watch a particular channel is from advertisers, period If people decide to stop watching ESPN, they aren't cancelling their Direct TV subscription. If they are sick of their kids watching Sponge Bob, they aren't cancelling their Direct TV subscription. They stop watching THAT channel. That quickly and directly effects viewership, which quickly and effectively hurts advertising dollars. Most advertising contracts are monthly contracts, some are even weekly, and some are even by event. Massive amounts of people don't cancel Direct TV or Comcast because they are suddenly sick of ESPN......that should be common sense. Sure, over time with the additions of internet options like Netflix, PS4, on-line stuff I'm sure there has been some migration away from traditional TV viewership, but for someone like ESPN (and most others) half or more of your revenue (advertising dollars) is directly related to how many people are watching because advertisers are watching who is watching.
*How about some props for not using any quotes!!
Fox News has flight logs. This proves Bill raped young girls. Did you letter in causal long jump?Nope im not! I guess you'd fall into the same enabler category as Hillary.
Flight logs show Bill Clinton flew on sex offender's jet much more than previously known
By Malia ZimmermanPublished May 13, 2016
FoxNews.com
Epstein, (inset left), and Clinton flew together at least 26 times on the disgraced financier's "Lolita Express." (John Coates, airport-data.com)
Former President Bill Clinton was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the “Lolita Express” -- even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.
I am not boycotting ESPN. I couldn't stand Keith Olbermann. I just think it is an interesting topic. Hannity is still on? I happen to like Lou Dobbs way more than anyone on the regular FOX News.
ESPN can be liberal. ESPN is be losing money. No one has showed anything that actually proves those things are related in a meaningful way. You're reading way too much into whatever I said and projected your own narrative.
I'd believe conservative viewership is down on ESPN, but correlation doesn't prove causation. Unless there was like an exit survey of cable cutters and their reason for cutting was "ESPN is liberal" then this is just a hunch people have.
Can you stop putting things in parenthesis to circumvent your self ban on using quotes?
Proof as in you want me to knock on every door in the country and find out if they think ESPiN leans left and if their perception that it does, if applicable , has an effect on their ESPiN viewing habits?
I don't think I will be able to provide you with "proof"......
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