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ESPN and Politics (1 Viewer)

What's your take on how much sports sites and writers should get into politics?

  • I love it when sports sites and writers get into politics

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I like when sports sites and writers get into politics

    Votes: 3 2.3%

  • On the fence

    Votes: 7 5.5%

  • I don't really like when sports sites and writers get into politics

    Votes: 25 19.5%

  • I hate when sports sites and writers get into politics

    Votes: 92 71.9%

  • Totally depends on whether I agree with their political take

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Total voters
    128
Joe Bryant

Joe Bryant

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I know this is both forums but thought it was interesting. And didn't see it in the ESPN thread.

https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-pitaro-espn-disney-20190520-story.html

New ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro:

Pitaro has also satisfied ESPN’s more traditional fans by steering commentators away from political discussions on-air and on social media, which heightened during President Trump’s criticism of NFL player protests against social injustice during the playing of the national anthem.

“Without question our data tells us our fans do not want us to cover politics,” Pitaro said. “My job is to provide clarity. I really believe that some of our talent was confused on what was expected of them. If you fast-forward to today, I don’t believe they are confused.”
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What's your take on how much sports sites and writers should get into politics?

 
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If I want politics, I watch a different channel.  Some stories may naturally blend and could qualify as both (ie. the anthem story noted above).  In those cases, they are probably remiss to completely ignore it especially if some aspect of the story affects game play,  but I certainly do not them to focus on the politics.  

 
I don’t care if the writers get into politics.  Everyone is entitled to their voice, and they shouldn’t be muted or censored when they exercise it.

But they can use their voice on their private platforms like everybody else.  I don’t want my sports platforms taking political positions whether or not I agree with the stance they take.  I will get my politics elsewhere, thanks.

(Exception for a semi-private community like the ffa, where I am happy to read a moderate volume of political opinion from posters I’ve come to “know” and respect.  But I don’t want FBG daily email taking political shots.)

 
I think that from a ratings perspective, a sports network would be wise to focus on sports.

Now, that obviously becomes a little difficult when a sports story becomes political (i.e., when players decline to visit the White House) or when the President inserts himself into a story (i.e., Kaepernick). But I'd rather see ESPN treat those stories as dispassionately as possible -- report the bare facts, but don't dwell on them or comment on them.

 
It is dead seriously driving me away from sports.  It isn't just politics - sports are becoming reality TV.

I don't give a rats ### who they are hooking up with, what clubs they are at, who cheated on who, what they are wearing, who doesn't like who, who tweeted this or that, who unfollowed what, if they are good people, bad people, horrible people.

Put the athlete on the field/court and let me watch them be athletes.

I'll just watch Big Brother.

 
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I don’t care if there’s a reason the story has a political component such as teams visiting the WH, Cuba and MLB, and other type stories. I have no desire to keep rehashing the same stuff over and over, I’d just tune into CNN for that. 

 
I asked the same question to some friends and one friend had an interesting comment. 

It depends what his goal is. Making more money or making the world a better place to live. As the president of the Company it should probably be to maximize revenue. 
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What do you think of that?

 
I actively avoid politics when it comes to sports broadcasts, but it isnt my business to tell them not to do it. They need to ask themselves what their priorities are then make decisions accordingly. 

 
I don’t want ESPN talking about politics. But today I heard Rachel Nichols say something like, ‘a serious injury to Iguodala could change this series.’

Might as well just watch Vanderpump Rules at this point. 

 
I think the fact that this guy is making an effort to get politics out of his programming (thank god) and the results of your poll thus far speak for themselves. 

Maybe, just maybe I can tune into ESPN again.

 
Joe Bryant said:
I asked the same question to some friends and one friend had an interesting comment. 

What do you think of that?
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Not buying the argument that talking sports on ESPN makes the world a better place. 

 
Joe Summer said:
Does your friend think that "talking about politics" makes the world a better place to live? Because that's pretty much the opposite of reality, IMO.

 
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That's the real question isn't it? 

I will follow up with him but yes, my assumption is he thinks sharing your viewpoint will make the world better.

The data (admittedly tiny sample size here) seems to suggest the opposite. It seems to say nobody wants to hear it. 

I think one element of sharing an opinion that's overlooked is one has to consider how it's heard. 

 
unfortunately in this country we have politicized virtually everything

they tried to politicize sports, and might even succeed  eventually-  I'd prefer not.   Politics is just a small aspect of life that for some reason people blow out of proportion.   We'd all be better off with LESS politics in everything, far less.

 
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Joe Bryant said:
That's the real question isn't it? 

I will follow up with him but yes, my assumption is he thinks sharing your viewpoint will make the world better.

The data (admittedly tiny sample size here) seems to suggest the opposite. It seems to say nobody wants to hear it. 

I think one element of sharing an opinion that's overlooked is one has to consider how it's heard. 
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There is a level of political discussion that could be credited as "making the world a better place" but it is a level far above the abilities of ESPN to provide.  It takes people familiar with the issues at hand, ability to understand different view points, and the intelligence to debate topics, not just shout over the top of each other.  ESPN has proven it is not capable of that level of dialogue with their current roster of talent.

 
I don't watch a ton of ESPN but I don't see a lot of politics when I do.  Unless by politics you mean discussion about race :shrug:

The Jemele Hill-Michael Smith show was a long time ago in television years.  ESPN today seems to pretty much stick to sports.

 I don't have a problem if their on-air personalities have opinions off-air and you shouldn't either.

 
Da Guru said:

PSF prime example.
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The contributions from Maurile, SaintsInDome, and a few other posters (IvanKaramazov for example) make the Political Subforum one of the better resources in the entire internet. You only need to put about 10 users on ignore for that place to really hum.
 
Bull Dozier said:
There is a level of political discussion that could be credited as "making the world a better place" but it is a level far above the abilities of ESPN to provide.  It takes people familiar with the issues at hand, ability to understand different view points, and the intelligence to debate topics, not just shout over the top of each other.  ESPN has proven it is not capable of that level of dialogue with their current roster of talent.
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This.

 
I'll take it from a different perspective...I have two sons age 8...they absolutely love sports.  They play football, basketball, baseball and soccer and they'll watch almost anything competitive.  When they wake up before school, they watch sportscenter.  Most of the time it's ok, but when they start talking about subjects that are too complex for an 8 yo (or things that I don't feel comfortable for them to even talk about ) it makes me change the channel.  If I was comfortable it was going to be just sports wouldn't be an issue.

I know this is just my perspective, but if I was ESPN, I'd want to make sure I was getting those kids ingrained in sports as much as possible at a young age.

 
Tiger Fan said:
I'll take it from a different perspective...I have two sons age 8...they absolutely love sports.  They play football, basketball, baseball and soccer and they'll watch almost anything competitive.  When they wake up before school, they watch sportscenter.  Most of the time it's ok, but when they start talking about subjects that are too complex for an 8 yo (or things that I don't feel comfortable for them to even talk about ) it makes me change the channel.  If I was comfortable it was going to be just sports wouldn't be an issue.

I know this is just my perspective, but if I was ESPN, I'd want to make sure I was getting those kids ingrained in sports as much as possible at a young age.
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That's a good take. I'd never thought of that angle before.

 
Love him or Hate him, Clay Travis' book "Republicans wear Sneakers Too" goes really in depth on this subject and the culture ESPN created that basically streamlined the narrative over the past few years.

Stick to sports....it's an escape from all the stresses in life and unites everyone.

 
Tiger Fan said:
Stick to sports....it's an escape from all the stresses in life and unites everyone.
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To argue the other side - I know some people who seriously think electing a person or making sure a person is not elected is genuinely the most important thing. 

Now I know some people who I think just do it for shtick. But some I think genuinely think it's a valiant thing to try and change someone's opinion.

 
For instance, I buy spices online from Penzeys. They send an email frequently with what used to be cooking tips and such. 

After the 2016 election, they sent an email that said:

"The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades. The American people are taking notice. Let's commit to giving the people a better choice. Our kindness really is our strength."
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I don't doubt they're sincere. I understand what they're saying. We've seen plenty of that discussion here on a message board. I just wonder if they realize how that's received from a customer. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
For instance, I buy spices online from Penzeys. They send an email frequently with what used to be cooking tips and such. 

After the 2016 election, they sent an email that said:

I don't doubt they're sincere. I understand what they're saying. We've seen plenty of that discussion here on a message board. I just wonder if they realize how that's received from a customer. 
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I don't have any research to back this up, but I would assume people being accused of racism that aren't racist probably don't respond well to the accusations.  I could be way off, though.

 
TheIronSheik said:
I don't have any research to back this up, but I would assume people being accused of racism that aren't racist probably don't respond well to the accusations.  I could be way off, though.
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It's a stretch I know but I think you're probably right. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
To argue the other side - I know some people who seriously think electing a person or making sure a person is not elected is genuinely the most important thing. 

Now I know some people who I think just do it for shtick. But some I think genuinely think it's a valiant thing to try and change someone's opinion.
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I'm lost at the connection from what I bolded to my comments about the "stick to sports"....maybe I'm missing something.  Can you clarify?

 
And this topic is interesting to me too as obviously we have a similar situation, albeit with an audience that's just a sliver of what ESPN has. 

I'll talk a little here about politics on the forums but mostly try to see what you guys think on things. 

But for our communication with our customers on normal customer emails and such, we keep that almost completely football. I'll send a note on July 4th, Memorial Day and Veterans Day but it's slanted politically at all either way. For me, that feels like the right thing.

But I'm assuming others would say my silence is wrong. It's an interesting situation. 

 
Tiger Fan said:
I'm lost at the connection from what I bolded to my comments about the "stick to sports"....maybe I'm missing something.  Can you clarify?
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I'm saying I know some people who think you don't have to stick to sports. I don't agree with this for the most part. But I know people who do. 

 
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Joe Bryant said:
I'm saying I know some people who think you don't have to stick to sports. I don't agree with this for the most part. But I know people who do. 
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Yeah, sorry, I responded before reading your spices example; which helped.  I think in the ESPN case, I think that leadership probably were misguided in thinking that their audience agreed with them across the board....likely due to social media (which grossly misrepresents views of the actual population); and thought they were doing the right thing socially and commercially.....but in reality, they lost the vision of why their core audience tuned in.....for sports. 

The politics stuff snowballed so much where it turned people off.

 
Joe Bryant said:
And this topic is interesting to me too as obviously we have a similar situation, albeit with an audience that's just a sliver of what ESPN has. 

I'll talk a little here about politics on the forums but mostly try to see what you guys think on things. 

But for our communication with our customers on normal customer emails and such, we keep that almost completely football. I'll send a note on July 4th, Memorial Day and Veterans Day but it's slanted politically at all either way. For me, that feels like the right thing.

But I'm assuming others would say my silence is wrong. It's an interesting situation. 
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I think these people are the extremely vocal minority.  

Most studies have shown that the overwhelming number of people (Dems, Reps and Indies) all want less political talk.  But the loudest speakers on social media clamor for it, and it makes it seem like a lot more than actually do, want it.  

 
Joe Bryant said:
For instance, I buy spices online from Penzeys. They send an email frequently with what used to be cooking tips and such. 

After the 2016 election, they sent an email that said:

"The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades. The American people are taking notice. Let's commit to giving the people a better choice. Our kindness really is our strength."
Click to expand...
I don't doubt they're sincere. I understand what they're saying. We've seen plenty of that discussion here on a message board. I just wonder if they realize how that's received from a customer. 
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Doesn't seem like a very smart business move. Also, I would argue that accusing the Republican party of openly embracing racism is not a very "kind" thing to say. They should have followed their own advice and found a kinder way to express their feelings.

 
Just my opinion, if politics or social movement is "part" of your brand, then it makes sense to get involved politically.  Ben and Jerry's comes to mind here....and to an even more out of the box example, musical artists whose music is driven by political items in nature (Ex. you shouldn't go to a Rage Against The Machine concert and get pissed off for them going on an anti Bush rant).

 
TheIronSheik said:
I think these people are the extremely vocal minority.  

Most studies have shown that the overwhelming number of people (Dems, Reps and Indies) all want less political talk.  But the loudest speakers on social media clamor for it, and it makes it seem like a lot more than actually do, want it.  
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:goodposting:

Twitter in general is the extreme vocal minority, I believe I've read that only 20% of total twitter users are based in the USA.  They tend to be younger and more left leaning.  Of those, 10% create 80% of the tweets.  I think I've also heard about 25% of the US twitter population is African American.

 
Joe Bryant said:
To argue the other side - I know some people who seriously think electing a person or making sure a person is not elected is genuinely the most important thing. 

Now I know some people who I think just do it for shtick. But some I think genuinely think it's a valiant thing to try and change someone's opinion.
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There's more to life than politics.  Sure, some people think being political and being behind a force for change is the most important thing in the world.  They are not wrong, they are free to have their own opinion on what is important (something great about freedom).  

Personally, after a youth very interested in politics, I have come to realize I don't need politics ever present in my life.  I pay attention and am an informed voter, but there are other more important things in my life.

People and entities that force their politics down the throats of others, for whatever reason, I avoid.

 
Bull Dozier said:
There's more to life than politics.  Sure, some people think being political and being behind a force for change is the most important thing in the world.  They are not wrong, they are free to have their own opinion on what is important (something great about freedom).  

Personally, after a youth very interested in politics, I have come to realize I don't need politics ever present in my life.  I pay attention and am an informed voter, but there are other more important things in my life.

People and entities that force their politics down the throats of others, for whatever reason, I avoid.
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I get involved in some of my local stuff where I can actually make a difference.  Just don`t know where the people who will drive 12 hours to DC to protest abortion or whatever find the time.

I do know people who are protest pros and they have a group of about 100 that will go anywhere for any cause. I was in downtown Detroit when there was a huge wall protest last year so I met up with them to check it out.   Everybody is milling around not doing much of anything, laughing and talking..then news trucks pulled up and everybody started hopping around acting irate, chanting and waving signs, news trucks pulled away they all stopped and were talking calmly again and many went to the bar. Wondering if the big protests go the same way.

 
The people who clamor for putting politics in everything are the same people who are begrudgingly invited over for their family's Thanksgiving dinner. They're that Uncle who always rails against the same thing over and over, and causes Mom to drink heavily in order to cope. They're the politically vocal cousin who gets seated next to the grandparents who can't hear or listen too well anyways.

Thanks, Twitter, for giving those people a microphone into everyone else's lives when they should just be rightly ignored by their loved ones that one day a year when they are forced into one another's physical presence.

 
Tiger Fan said:
Love him or Hate him, Clay Travis' book "Republicans wear Sneakers Too" goes really in depth on this subject and the culture ESPN created that basically streamlined the narrative over the past few years.

Stick to sports....it's an escape from all the stresses in life and unites everyone.
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Odd to use Clay Travis as your example of sticking to sports.  He's fanned the flames to build his own career.

 
Black Box said:
The people who clamor for putting politics in everything are the same people who are begrudgingly invited over for their family's Thanksgiving dinner. They're that Uncle who always rails against the same thing over and over, and causes Mom to drink heavily in order to cope. They're the politically vocal cousin who gets seated next to the grandparents who can't hear or listen too well anyways.

Thanks, Twitter, for giving those people a microphone into everyone else's lives when they should just be rightly ignored by their loved ones that one day a year when they are forced into one another's physical presence.
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:goodposting:

People who are too into politics suck. 

 
Eephus said:
Odd to use Clay Travis as your example of sticking to sports.  He's fanned the flames to build his own career.
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He wrote a whole book on the implications of ESPN not sticking to sports. That’s why I referenced him.

While Travis first started out focused on sports, he’s never been shy about saying that he’s going to talk about things that interest him. 

Totally different. 

 
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