Last week, ESPN radio and TV personality Dan Le Batard directly challenged ESPN’s new policy that barred political commentary when he delivered an impassioned rebuke of the racist “send her back” chant at a Trump rally. In doing so, he also called out ESPN’s “cowardly” approach to covering the intersection of politics and sports.
Le Batard was not publicly disciplined by the network, but the policy remained intact.
Evidently, though, that no-politics policy — instituted by ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro — went beyond simply an effort to appease criticism from conservative media. According to ESPN’s polling, an overwhelming majority of viewers on both ends of the political spectrum wanted ESPN to avoid politics entirely.
Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand got a hold of that data, which showed that 74 percent of fans preferred “zero politics” on every ESPN platform.
Nearly 70 percent of Democrats polled also wanted ESPN to “stick to sports,” and one viewer noted that they go to ESPN as an escape from the heavily politicized news cycle.
This data wasn’t the sole reason behind ESPN’s policy, but it did show the thought ESPN put into the rule — and why it won’t be going away in the near future.
Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill was suspended for her anti-Trump tweets and eventually left the network. According to Ourand, Le Batard will be back on all his shows come Monday. He voluntarily skipped Monday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show, but he was back on TV for Highly Questionable.
On Monday, Le Batard opened his TV show with a nod to that policy.
