If those who feel that the reason ESPN is sliding off the cliff is their insistence for waxing political while ignoring sports needed ammunition, they’ve got it now: a famed ESPN host who has served the network for 25 years agrees with them.
On Thursday, SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn admitted that the huge staff reductions announced this week are a result of the network’s penchant for broadcasting politics instead of sports.
Appearing on 77 WABC’s Bernie and Sid Show, Cohn said one reason for the cutbacks was the political nature of the network’s programming. She stated, “That 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.”
When asked if ESPN’s coverage of athletes such as Colin Kaepernick and Caitlyn Jenner was a factor in the network’s plunge, Cohn agreed. The issue of Jenner’s 2015 ESPY Arthur Ashe Award surfaced, raising the question of why Jenner was chosen instead of basketball player Lauren Hill from Mount St. Joseph University, who battled cancer before dying three months before the ESPY ceremony and was honored with the cover of Wheaties cereal before she died, or marathoner Noah Galloway — who lost an arm and a leg in the Iraq War.
Cohn said defensively, “You know, when you work for a big company, you have to follow in line, you have to pay the bills. But you just kind of look in the mirror and do what you think is right no matter what else is going on around you. And that’s what I always tried to do.”