When you make jokes that the politically correct don't like....

It only matters if you give a shit.

"ESPN head to staff: ‘ESPN is not a political organization’"

Via Instapundit:  ESPN's chief is defending the network after intense backlash this week, including a stream of White House criticism over anchor Jemele Hill calling President Trump a "white supremacist."

"We have issues of significant debate in our country at this time," ESPN president John Skipper wrote in a memo to staff on Friday reported by multiple media outlets.

"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," he continued, noting, "ESPN is about sports."

"ESPN is not a political organization. Where sports and politics intersect, no one is told what view they must express," he said.

"At the same time, ESPN has values," Skipper continued, writing ESPN is "committed to inclusion and an environment of tolerance where everyone in a diverse work force has the equal opportunity to succeed."

The White House continued to hammer ESPN on Friday, calling it "hypocritical" for what it deems a double-standard in how the network handles conservative and liberal employees.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the daily briefing that ESPN once suspended longtime anchor Linda Cohn while distancing itself but not firing Hill this week.

(Link to more)

"ESPN broadcaster Robert Lee taken off UVA game due to name"

Via Twitter:  ESPN broadcaster Robert Lee will not work Virginia’s season opener because of recent violence in Charlottesville sparked by the decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

A spokeswoman for ESPN says Lee has been moved to Youngstown State’s game at Pittsburgh on the ACC Network on Sept. 2. The network says the decision was made “as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name.”

ESPN feared people would not be able to tell them apart.

Good News Sports Fans!

ESPN is taking on water and fired 100 people. Mostly on air talent. The on air talent that was spouting politically correct garbage. They didn't fire any conservatives or populists because none of them remain at that network. So many people cut cable that they are hemorrhaging subscribers. Recently I was reviewing my old cable bills. I was paying nine dollars a month as a sports surcharge. Now I didn't have any special packages like MLB or the NFL. So why should I have to pay nine clams a month to subsidize ESPN?

ESPN has totally alienated a huge segment of it's viewers. Most sports fans are lunch pail blue collar guys. Not millennials. Not tofu eating social justice warriors. Shot and a beer guys who like a bratwurst or a meatball hero. They spit in our eyes. So we cut the cord. I know I did.

What is funny is all the tweets that these guys are sending out. Their whole gig is telling us that this guys should get cut and that coach should get fired. Now it's their turn.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

ESPN is losing subscribers at an astonishing rate and they don't care because their SJW agenda is more important than money!

The Cost of SJW Convergence by Vox Day August 6. 2016
ESPN is paying it, having lost 4 million subscribers and $350 million in the last year:

In the past five years ESPN has lost 11,346,000 subscribers according to Nielsen data.

If you combine that with ESPN2 and ESPNU subscriber losses this means that ESPN has lost over a billion dollars in cable and satellite revenue just in the past five years, an average of $200 million each year. That total of a billion dollars hits ESPN in the pocketbook not just on a yearly basis, but for every year going forward.

It's gone forever.

That's not just bad, this is downright cataclysmic.

And it's getting worse.

In the past year ESPN lost 4.159 million subscribers, that's another $350 million in lost revenue across the ESPN family of networks.

Past Espys (1998)

I believe this kind of humor is practically dead in mass media. Is that a good thing, bad thing or indifferent for American culture? Discuss.

"ESPN Fires Baseball Analyst Curt Schilling After Anti-Transgender Facebook Post"

Schilling wrote in his blog Tuesday that he does not care about a person's race, gender or sexual orientation, but added, "There are things I have deeply held beliefs in, things I have that are core to who I am, things I am passionate about. If you ask me about them it’s likely I’ll give you a passionate answer, whether you like that answer or not is completely up to you. I am not going to give you answers to make sure you like what I say, let the rest of the insecure world do that."

Schilling was previously suspended from ESPN's baseball coverage for the remainder of the 2015 regular season and the wild-card playoff game after posting a tweet comparing Muslims to Nazis. 

At that time, the sports network said Schilling's tweet was "completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective." 

That time ESPN aired a ROCK PAPER SCISSORS Tournament.

Link to video

"Warning Isn't Blame"

"In most facets of life, we understand intuitively that there are things we can do to reduce the likelihood of bad things happening to us. If we lock our doors, we are less likely to have things stolen. If we avoid walking alone late at night in bad parts of town, we are less likely to be mugged. And if we choose whenever possible not to associate with people who have shown themselves to be violent, we are less likely to get hurt."

Yet, increasingly it appears that discussing steps women could take to reduce the chances of bad things happening to them is out of bounds in our society. I am here to respectfully suggest that, for all their good intentions, the actions of people concerned about “victim blaming” are ultimately making women less safe.

Saying that some behaviors make me more vulnerable to assault is simply not the same as saying those behaviors “justify” the person who assaults me. We teach our children not to talk to strangers. Does anyone believe that doing so transfers blame away from the person who commits a crime like kidnapping? Of course not. A person who harms a child is at fault, full stop. Nothing about the child’s behavior changes that. So why is it that telling young women that they can do things to decrease the likelihood of something awful happening to them is viewed as transferring blame from aggressor to victim? (read more via US News & World Report)

Talking about the likelihood of something awful happening to a woman got ESPN's Steven A. Smith suspended from the highly rated sports network. Here is the video of his talk that got him in trouble... and what have you... failing to put his finger on the problem... and what have you.

Mike and Mike