Bobby Burack’s column at Outkick has a great rundown on the departure of many of ESPN’s woke personalities, including the possible departure of Bomani Jones, whose role on the network has substantially declined.
“In addition to a seat next to Dan Le Batard on Highly Questionable, the network gave Jones his own afternoon radio show, The Right Time,” Burack writes. “It turns out, radio wasn’t for Jones. The Right Time recorded the lowest ratings in ESPN Radio history.”
He talks about Jones’s failed ESPN show High Noon and the departures or demotions of other personalities such as Katie Nolan, Sarah Spain, and Pablo Torre. ESPN’s most prominent woke departure was, of course, Jemele Hill, who has become just another race-obsessed political pundit.
But ESPN’s left-wing turn still has some residual effects. Broadcasters now feel comfortable tying any interaction between coaches and players to racial injustice. Network faces, such as Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman, are still around to spout ridiculous opinions about race and politics (though Smith just had Kellerman removed from the pair’s show First Take, ironically enough).
The only question that remains is whether ESPN can revert to a more sports-focused, politically neutral version of itself, or whether its progressive bent has become baked into the network like other institutions. ESPN may be walking away from its most explicit social justice activism right now, but it seems only to be slowing its embrace of political fanaticism rather than reversing it.
