President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

A reasonable take. And still, the more I read, the more I'm fine with the decision to switch him to another game.

 

I liked Will Leitch's column on this ESPN mess. Especially this bit.

There has long been a school of thought that Clay Travis, who used to write about college football for Fox Sports but now mostly talks about globalist cucks and head lice, is actually a smart person who has decided that the way he can advance his personal brand is to try to become the Sean Hannity of sports and appeal to a select, but stubbornly, resolutely focused, sliver of the sports fan audience. As someone who has worked with Travis in the past, briefly at both Deadspin and Fox Sports 1, and found him mostly affable and effusive in person, let me humbly submit that if Travis' "Sean Hannity of sports" schtick began as an act, the artist and performance have since merged into an unrecognizable singularity. He's more Pepe the Frog than man now.

ESPN's Robert Lee flap was much ado about nothing.

 

That may be the most flowery passage Leitch has ever written. Not his usual beige.

 

That's well said. Thanks for posting that and the link.

 

Unless it's an iconic voice on the call like Michaels or Musberger or Keith Jackson, I don't pay any mind to who the announcer is.

 

Here's what Leitch wrote about ESPN's liberal leaning:

7. ESPN isn't institutionally liberal. ESPN is part of a massive corporation whose goal is to make money. It is not trying to convert your children to godlessness. There are many talented people at ESPN, even after the layoffs, and they will continue to do great work. But the only reason the network does anything is to increase viewers and make money. Currently, it's in the interest of Fox Sports and Breitbart personalities to pretend that ESPN -- and CNN, and CBS, and The New York Times, and whoever else might happen to say something they believe they can exploit -- has some wide-ranging, institutional "liberal" bias. If ESPN decided to become an overtly conservative network and website in the next six months, you'd start seeing competitors give Keith Olbermann a counterprogramming show within weeks. It's all just a way to make yourself stand out when you are otherwise not doing so.

I think this is inaccurate.

1. How would Leitch know for sure if ESPN is institutionally liberal? Some of ESPN's decisions suggest, well, it is quite liberal.

2. The first bolded statement is highly debatable. I can't imagine some of ESPN's endeavors make a lick of money. Grantland was a sinkhole that got shuttered; I find it very unlikely that The Undefeated is making money, or that it was created with making money as its central purpose. (Clearly, the site is meant to give a voice to black writers and black issues regardless of whether people read them at length or not.)

3. The second bolded statement is ludicrous. Fox Sports would jump in bed with Olbermann, huh? My suspicion is Olbermann is done, period.

Leitch's commentary on not knowing the politics of most co-workers or sportswriters politics is additionally patently absurd.

You read Twitter for a couple days, and you especially know if they're liberal. It's clear, quick.

As I wrote before: Objectivity is not cool or fun. Have a take. Pick a side. If you're on Twitter, pick the left side.

 

ESPN is owned by Disney, which is arch-conservative, although consumer-oriented politically correct.

The end.

 

Doesn't mean shit.
The people who do support him vote.

 

What in the world makes you think this?

Oh, and spare me Walt Disney's personal history from a century ago.

Disney is progressive. Without a doubt.

 

Maybe ESPN should reassign Bob Ley.

Just to avoid any confusion.

 

Disney is not arch-conservative, it is arch-conventional, which ain't the same thing at all. True story: At the Persian Gulf War Super Bowl (XXV) in Tampa, I wound up one evening at the hotel bar chatting with two junior Disney execs who were part of producing the halftime show. One said in all seriousness about the war, "if the White House would just have given us a little advance notice, we'd have been able to put together something REALLY patriotic."
Whitney Houston put their fears to rest.

 

Disney ultra-Christianizes their sports movies. See "Secretariat" with the preposterous heaping helping of Jeezus. Like the horse was singing Amazing Grace coming down the stretch.