ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro talked a big game about making the network less political and focusing on the power of sports to unite people. But ESPN has remained the same cesspool of liberal politics under his watch that it was before he took over in 2018.
ESPN’s Sarah Spain declared all Christians to be bigots after players from the Tampa Bay Rays declined to wear a rainbow logo for the team’s “Pride Night.” Spain said that religious exemptions are “BS” in healthcare and other areas and that people who claim religious exemptions are “trying to be bigoted.” “They are trying to use religious exemptions to affect the opportunities, services, and available resources for people who are LGBTQ+,” Spain said.
Yesterday @espn’s Sarah Spain said on air that Tampa Bay Rays players who don’t wear a pride flag are bigoted and using BS religion. Imagine turning on sports and getting this loony left wing insanity on your TV. Embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/Z0B9KzSS1k
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) June 8, 2022
This is the sports analysis ESPN thinks people want to see from the “worldwide leader in sports.”
When ESPN personalities aren’t declaring millions of Christians to be hateful bigots, the network is chasing irrelevant stories. ESPN staff writer John Keim wrote about Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio calling the Jan. 6 riot a “dust-up.” His story was promoted on Twitter by ESPN insider Adam Schefter, who has nearly 10 million followers and is one of the biggest names in sports media.
Why are these the stories ESPN is covering in the first place? Who cares what any NFL assistant coach thinks about a riot he was not involved in or any other political issue for that matter? Why is it that ESPN programming is hosting full segments on Rays players wearing the team’s normal logo and not a rainbow version of it? These stories have nothing to do with sports and are of no interest to the average baseball or football fan.
When Pitaro took over ESPN, he tried to narrow the network’s political stories. He almost immediately failed. ESPN radio and television host Dan Le Batard declared that “there’s a racial division in this country that’s being instigated by the president, and we here at ESPN haven’t had the stomach for that fight,” as if that network’s purpose was to oppose President Donald Trump. ESPN employees have used the network’s airwaves to complain about Florida’s parental rights law, declare that white people can’t be hired by or picked to play on basketball teams without racism, and excuse China’s genocide of the Uyghurs, among other things.
ESPN’s political bent hasn’t changed with the change in leadership. Pitaro either doesn’t care much about getting ESPN out of the political game, or he simply doesn’t have the stomach to commit to it. Liberal partisanship and toxic racial politics are baked into the network’s analysis and its “news” operation, and there is no sign that it will be changing any time soon.
