Sports Listeners Do Not Want To Hear About Politics

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At The Crossing Board Kevin Kinkead wrote about a June ESPN poll he ran across that asked fans for feedback about politics crossing over to sports. Kinkead posted a tweet that included some of the results from the poll including the stat that 74% of fans prefer not to hear about politics on any of its platforms.

And that was bi-partisan. 69% of the Democrats and 84% of the Republicans felt that way. The Kinkead story also includes a comment from an ESPN viewer which said people come to ESPN to get a break from politics. “There are so many places where I get news about politics and I don’t need it on ESPN.” The politics on ESPN issue came up again recently when syndicated radio host Den Le Batard went on a rant against President Trump. He took a little time off and returned without facing any discipline from the network.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I am so done with ESPN radio. I listened faithfully for years, but got fed up with their liberal agenda. Haven’t tuned in in over a year and much rather listen to audio books than deal with them preaching their politics!

  2. I totally agree with the findings of this study.

    The cited ESPN viewer has it exactly right, that it is sports — and other hobbies and fun activities — that we turn to, precisely to help take the edge off the serious and stressful aspects of our daily lives, including the (no pun intended) hardball rhetoric that today defines our politics. If listeners want to indulge or immerse themselves in political talk, they can turn to a news/talk station for that, and not have politics forced on them from what is supposed to be a sports station.

    And, the sports teams better get a clue on that separation between politics and sports, as well. The NFL, in particular, has lost millions of fans because of the political antics of players like Colin Kaepernick. Americans very clearly and definitively demand that separation.

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