ESPN

I watched a video this morning about the rise and fall of ESPN. It was interesting and covered all the broad points, talked about how they changed their model from a financial standpoint (moving from a cable model to streaming), how the studio shows and hosts changed with the times (more discussion, and more social-media focused), and how they've paid more to get rights to games. 

Honestly, I thought it was pretty even in the way they laid it out.

However, there were a series of comments attached to the video that explained in MAGA-related terms why ESPN failed! 

In summary:

• They are "woke" (yeah, this was a comment on several times)
• They went away from just focusing on the scores of games, and have too many "stories"
• They are actively engaged in politics 
• "Disney" (several comments related to how Disney messed it all up)
• They cover non-mainstream sports
• They try to fan the flames of this, that, or the other 

I'm thinking to myself that it's interesting that Dan Le Batard was at one point the most popular host on the network, and he talked about politics a lot - he got  admonished for it, and was later removed by Disney in spite of his popularity. So I think you can simply ignore that line of reasoning.  Disney has its faults (no doubt!) but they're running it like a sporting behemoth should, I think.  Lots of content that appeals to very many people, and (as much as I hate it), including information about betting because its what people want. (and to be fair, their price point for the streaming service is absurd, but they are giving viewers lots of sports)

And as to the other stuff?  Well of course "woke" is just a word like "idiocy."  But what became clear was that commetors didn't like the fact that there are women and african american hosts! (the horror!). They didn't like the fact that they talked about anything related to race or a general sort of equity *in the context of the story*.  And they didn't like the fact that they're covering things like the WNBA. Racism and misogyny on full display!

Because, according to the context, their love of sport is about their team, and those gladiators.  I would summarize the general thought as athletes need to "just shut up and dribble." 

Its wild to see things through their eyes sometimes.