I agree with everything Ralph said. Also, I'll add that the need for ESPN kinda died with everyone having a smart phone. Now if I want to know the score of a game and some brief highlights, I can look it up on the phone and even watch a video or two. These are things ESPN used to exclusively provide in a timely manner that just aren't needed anyone.
But the point is people watch sports to get away from everyday life, politics being the main thing they don't care to hear about. Reasonable people don't want to listen to a bunch of leftists nonsense anyway, and certainly not mixed in with their favorite sports. Had they kept their talk formats to discussing the teams and players and the like, they would have kept more viewers. Start trying to tell me how evil some athletes are because they don't want to wear rainbow colors on their uniform, and normal people are going to tune you right out. ESPN chose poorly and with that comes a cost. Throw in additional competition from NBCSports, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, etc.... well, you could see it coming.
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