ESPN has completely given in to wokeness.
Left-wing politics is now inextricably linked with the sports network.
And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death angered one ESPN host for a surprising reason.
According to the Left, everything must be political, and that includes sports coverage.
ESPN has embraced this line of thinking hook, line, and sinker.
Now Rachel Nichols, host of basketball show The Jump on ESPN, is rankled because the league didn’t perform a grand tribute for Justice Ginsburg:
Why wasn't Ruth Bader Ginsburg honored by the NBA this weekend? In a league that absolutely holds equality as a core value, the icons of that equality can’t only include those who helped the men we see on TV, but those who paved the way for the women who work right alongside them pic.twitter.com/UiTktdFr5w
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 21, 2020
Considering the new political paradigm that’s been established, Nichols has a point.
If NBA players are going to refuse to play a playoff game because alleged rapist Jacob Blake got shot by the police while resisting arrest, a tribute to “The Notorious RBG” seems like a small gesture.
Of course, this only cuts in one direction.
There won’t be any NBA tributes when Justice Clarence Thomas dies some day.
In fact, some Democrats in Georgia have tried to have his name removed from buildings.
Nichols’s gripe has legs because ESPN and the professional sports leagues opened the door to embracing “woke” leftist politics.
This was a huge mistake for both the network and the league commissioners.
People watch sports to escape from politics and other stresses of everyday life.
Doubling and tripling down is only going to damage business more than it already has.
The NBA’s playoff ratings are abysmal at a time when people are starved for content.
It certainly doesn’t help when ESPN analysts are screaming about the Breonna Taylor case in the middle of a broadcast, or crying on air in response to the Kentucky Attorney General not pursuing murder charges against the officers.
ESPN has made it clear that they adhere to a left-wing party line, and if fans don’t like it, they can take a hike.
And that’s what fans are doing.