ESPN Anchor Says Overt Liberal Leanings Partly to Blame for Tough Times at Network

Even those who are not devoted sports fans surely heard about last week���s bloodbath over at ESPN, where nearly 100 staffers lost their jobs. While the layoffs affected personnel at all levels, prominent among those shown the door were on-air personalities very recognizable to regular viewers, including NFL analyst Trent Dilfer, NFL reporter Ed Werder, and popular baseball analyst Jayson Stark.

Because ESPN has adopted a decidedly liberal orientation over the course of the last few years, evidenced in a variety of ways, including the selection of transgender Caitlyn Jenner (the former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner) as the recipient of its ESPY ���Courage��� award a few years back, many observers are firm in the belief that it is this decidedly leftward turn that is at the root of the networks troubles; that viewers who tune in to ESPN for ���just sports��� had decided enough was enough, and that their abandonment of the network prompted the need for the layoffs.

Although that opinion has been strongly disputed by a number of people close to ESPN, with most touting the party line that the rise of Internet media and the monies paid to secure the broadcast television rights to high-profile sports leagues and events conspired to wreak the financial havoc with which the company is now dealing, one ESPN notable, Sportscenter anchor Linda Cohn, actually thinks the network���s new obsession with liberal politics may have played some material role in causing the financial turmoil.

As reported by Newsbusters.com, Cohn appeared last week on the Bernie and Sid Show on 77 WABC Radio in New York City, and said about the influence of viewers dissatisfied with the network���s political bent that it ���is definitely a percentage of it. I don���t know how big a percentage. But if anyone wants to ignore that fact, they���re blind. That���s what I meant about the core group that made ESPN so successful.���

Cohn���s last sentence was a reference to an earlier statement she made during the radio appearance in which she indicated that the ���core��� sports fan who was largely responsible for the network���s rise���has felt very out of place at ESPN in the wake of the network���s embrace of liberal politics.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large