ESPN To Employees: Remember, No Politics

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/237042/espn-to-employees-remember-no-politics/

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN is making sure that its employees know there is not change in the network’s policy to avoid talking about politics unless it intersects with sports after radio talk show host Dan Le Batard criticized President Donald Trump and his recent racist comments and ESPN itself on the air this week.

The reminder went out Friday to all employees, including Le Batard, according to an ESPN employee who spoke on condition of anonymity Saturday because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about personnel matters.

ESPN has not spoken publicly about Le Batard’s comments, including whether he faces any disciplinary action.

Reached on Saturday, Le Batard also declined comment.

A memo Disney has placed to ESPN over politics.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

i don't blame Disney corporate from sending this memo as a reminder of the employees. with our politics divide so bad that it could trigger a war, it's best to avoid it at all cost. but it's pretty hard to do when both sides of the political spectrum are reminding you everyday of our political problems.

ESPN is not meant to be a place to talk about politics, if the sports athletes want to talk about political issues, they should just go on the news instead.

 

[CTListener]

i don't blame Disney corporate from sending this memo as a reminder of the employees. with our politics divide so bad that it could trigger a war, it's best to avoid it at all cost. but it's pretty hard to do when both sides of the political spectrum are reminding you everyday of our political problems.

ESPN is not meant to be a place to talk about politics, if the sports athletes want to talk about political issues, they should just go on the news instead.

Le Batard was not on his show on Monday. I only caught the very end of the show today, so I'm not sure if he returned. What I did hear was a lot of laughing and cackling over some pop culture topic (not uncommon for this show) and, at the very end, a quick snippet of a voice I couldn't idntify saying "America is a racist nation." or "a racist country," don't recall which. Did anyone else hear this? Did it go out over the network or was this just someone at the local affiliate opening the mic and going rogue?

 

[mississippi fan]

I am not a fans of Le Batard. I caught his show a couple of times and didn't particularly care for him or his guests.

 

[CTListener]

I am not a fans of Le Batard. I caught his show a couple of times and didn't particularly care for him or his guests.

it's full of in jokes and discussions of pop culture, but it's a pretty good sports talk show when it wants to be. The problem is that sports fans mainly follow only their local teams, but a national show like Le Barard's needs to find topics that will keep a national audience tuned in. If he devotes a segment to the baseball division/wild card races, he risks losing fans of non-contending teams, not to mention listeners who don't follow baseball. Same with talk of Clippers/Lakers or Nets/Knicks NBA drama -- what's in it for Bucks or Rockets fans? So you get talk of TV or movies or some weird news item that a broad swath of people will be interested in. Stephen A. Smith, whose show follows Le Batard's, can keep an audience engaged while talking almost exclusively about sports through his unique personality and delivery, even if the only topics on most shows are NBA and NFL. Le Batard and crew have little of that going for them.

 

[Don CT]

it's full of in jokes and discussions of pop culture, but it's a pretty good sports talk show when it wants to be. The problem is that sports fans mainly follow only their local teams, but a national show like Le Barard's needs to find topics that will keep a national audience tuned in. If he devotes a segment to the baseball division/wild card races, he risks losing fans of non-contending teams, not to mention listeners who don't follow baseball. Same with talk of Clippers/Lakers or Nets/Knicks NBA drama -- what's in it for Bucks or Rockets fans? So you get talk of TV or movies or some weird news item that a broad swath of people will be interested in. Stephen A. Smith, whose show follows Le Batard's, can keep an audience engaged while talking almost exclusively about sports through his unique personality and delivery, even if the only topics on most shows are NBA and NFL. Le Batard and crew have little of that going for them.

The Problem with ESPN Radio's national shows is that they are all over the place. I guess it works for locations that don't have local sports talk but I don't like listening to national radio guys try to talk about local topics they know nothing about. It can only work for a morning show not midday. Unless they add pop culture or current events what will there be to keep listeners interested.

 

[frankberry]

Deleted posts

I have deleted posts in this thread which had wandered totally off-topic.

 

[umfan]

ESPN needs to do this. People tune in for sports.

Taking the job and cashing the checks means employees need to follow the workplace policies. Period.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

i got a idea for ESPN where they can do talk politics while focusing on sports. how bout a weekly or daily sports politics show that focuses on a combo of the politics of sports leaugues/teams & in general politics discussions that also affects sports like race relations, politicians using sports events to gan votes, etc. that way, you can keep politics out of sportig events, talking head shows (like PTI, Around The Horn, First Take, etc) and Sportscenter aand can address politics on just one show and one show only.

 

[Syfy]

I have deleted posts in this thread which had wandered totally off-topic.

Oh more censorship of people just having a normal discussion frank i bet you are real proud of yourself.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

Oh more censorship of people just having a normal discussion frank i bet you are real proud of yourself.

you are trying to get this thread locked, at this rate, you are on your way to getting banned from posting on here. cut it out already, stop it already. you are a textbook troll.

 

[frankberry]

Kidrauhl is banned.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

Kidrauhl is banned.

thanks, he was causing most of the threads that had politics to get locked in the first place.

now back to the topic, again, as i said before the troll derailed the thread a second time and thus earning a permanent ban, i think ESPN should do a sports politics show that focus on both regular politics and the politics of sports leagues and have it be the only way the network addresses politics without it impacting the talking heads shows and sports events and Sportscenter.