On Tuesday morning, ESPN – which has been in a losing battle to keep its subscribers – issued a new set of guidelines “recognize[ing] connection between sports, politics.” ESPN public editor Jim Brady acknowledged the oddity of releasing guidelines after a presidential election, but said, “we are living in unique political times…which explains the revised guidelines for discussion of political and social issues.” According to ESPN vice president Craig Bengtson said that Trump’s election was the essential factor behind the new guidelines.
The first part of the guideline is a recommitment to “objective” journalism: “our audiences should be confident our original reporting of news is not influenced by political pressures or personal agendas.” Of course, that’s not going to help much: CNN believes the same, and their reporting is slanted heavily to the left. The left’s version of objectivity states that a story, once decided upon, must not be overtly political; this ignores selection bias, which decides which stories are important to cover. ESPN’s heavy focus on Caitlyn Jenner, for example, pushes a political agenda through selection bias.
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