President Trump addressed the latest ESPN controversy on Twitter. Recently, SC6 co-anchor Jemele Hill called the President a white supremacist on Twitter. This morning, the President tweeted:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/908651641943003136
While it is true that ESPN is seeing unprecedented subscriber loss, it is due to households dropping all of cable, including ESPN. It is not possible, at this time, to subscribe to ESPN directly and it is included in nearly all cable packages so it is unlikely that anyone could dump ESPN, even if they wanted to, without dumping all of cable.
Wheter those that receive ESPN are choosing not to watch due to a perceived political imbalance is harder to determine. While ESPN has seen ratings decline, it appears to be in line with the percentage of households that have cut their ties to cable.
Neither ESPN nor Hill have commented on the President’s tweet.
UPDATE:
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders addressed the controversy during her White House Press Briefing. While she would not say wheter ESPN should fire Hill, she did believe it was a fireable offense given ESPN’s disciplinary history.
ESPN’s Public Editor Jim Brady had a long post where he addressed the nuance of the situation where he concluded by saying this:
I still stand by what I wrote late last year: If you consume as much of ESPN’s content as I have for the past 22 months, it seems clear the company leans left. I don’t think anyone ever made an executive decision to go that route as much as the personalities the network has promoted into high-profile positions tend to be more liberal, and as their voices are amplified, the overall voice has shifted with it.
But I still think it’s a problem that needs to be addressed if ESPN plans to better navigate the intersection of sports, politics and culture, and if it wants to hold onto a larger share of its audience in these days of unbundling. Bringing back Hank Williams Jr. for Monday Night Football isn’t the answer; the answer is improved ideological diversity in ESPN’s overall products.
UPDATE 2:
ESPN head John Skipper sent a memo to his team regarding voicing political opinions at ESPN:
I want to remind everyone about fundamental principles at ESPN.
ESPN is about sports. Last year, we broadcast over 16,000 sports events. We show highlights and report scores and tell stories and break down plays.
And we talk about sports all day every day. Of course, sports is intertwined with society and culture, so “sticking to sports” is not so simple. When athletes engage on issues or when protests happen in games, we cover, report and comment on that. We are, among other things, the largest, most accomplished and highly resourced sports news organization. We take great pride in our news organization.
We have programs on which we discuss and even debate sports, as well as the issues that intersect with sports. Fans themselves love to debate and discuss sports.
ESPN is not a political organization. Where sports and politics intersect, no one is told what view they must express.
At the same time, ESPN has values. We are committed to inclusion and an environment of tolerance where everyone in a diverse work force has the equal opportunity to succeed. We consider this human, not political. Consequently, we insist that no one be denigrated for who they are including their gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexual identity.
We have issues of significant debate in our country at this time. Our employees are citizens and appropriately want to participate in the public discussion. That can create a conflict for our public facing talent between their work and their personal points of view. Given this reality, we have social media policies which require people to understand that social platforms are public and their comments on them will reflect on ESPN. At a minimum, comments should not be inflammatory or personal.
We had a violation of those standards in recent days and our handling of this is a private matter. As always, in each circumstance we look to do what is best for our business.
In light of recent events, we need to remind ourselves that we are a journalistic organization and that we should not do anything that undermines that position.
We also know that ESPN is a special place and that our success is based on you and your colleagues’ work. Let’s not let the public narrative re-write who we are or what we stand for. Let’s not be divided in that pursuit. I will need your support if we are to succeed.