Sports mixing with politics has become a widely discussed topic on this board. In a wide ranging interview, former ESPN boss John Skipper now reveals that he abruptly resigned because he was being extorted from someone he had bought cocaine from. But that was not the most eyebrow-raising comment he made as far as I was concerned.
I did not know much about Skipper's background until now, but he was a self-described "counterculture hippie" who worked 10 years for Rolling Stone magazine. At some point, he went to Disney and spent 27 years. With that background, he may have been predisposed to enable an environment where people like Max Kellerman and others could run roughshod with their far left views and drive away viewers who wanted no part of politics mixed with sports. I always wondered why a good soldier like Linda Cohn could be punished and suspended by ESPN for merely stating that some of her fellow hosts talked too much politics. Now I understand why.
I did not know much about Skipper's background until now, but he was a self-described "counterculture hippie" who worked 10 years for Rolling Stone magazine. At some point, he went to Disney and spent 27 years. With that background, he may have been predisposed to enable an environment where people like Max Kellerman and others could run roughshod with their far left views and drive away viewers who wanted no part of politics mixed with sports. I always wondered why a good soldier like Linda Cohn could be punished and suspended by ESPN for merely stating that some of her fellow hosts talked too much politics. Now I understand why.
