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ESPN Memo Tells Reporters to Lay Off the Politics
Mediaite ^ | 1/21/16 | Alex Griswold

Posted on 01/21/2016 10:46:22 AM PST by jimbo123

As the 2016 election looms, ESPN sent employees a memo telling them to avoid making any political or partisan comments.

"At ESPN, our reputation and journalistic credibility are of paramount importance - and that extends to our coverage of the Presidential Election, candidates, issues and the intersection of sports and society," the memo reads, which was also posted to ESPN's website two weeks ago. "Our audiences should be confident that political pressures or personal interests do not influence our news decisions."

(Excerpt) Read more at mediaite.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: espn; media; sports
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1 posted on 01/21/2016 10:46:22 AM PST by jimbo123
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To: jimbo123

ESPN tells reporters to hide their liberalism in this political climate as it now impacts negatively on revenue.


2 posted on 01/21/2016 10:48:18 AM PST by Norm Lenhart (Existential Cage Theory - An idea whose time has come)
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To: jimbo123

Does this mean no Obama interviews on SuperBowl Sunday?


3 posted on 01/21/2016 10:49:11 AM PST by grania
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To: jimbo123

“At ESPN, our reputation and journalistic credibility are of paramount importance.....”


And yet you hired and rehired Keith Obermann how many times???


4 posted on 01/21/2016 10:49:29 AM PST by TMA62 (Al Sharpton - The North Korea of race relations)
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To: jimbo123
Somebody at ESPN is starting to get it. I stopped watching that network mostly for this very reason.
5 posted on 01/21/2016 10:50:35 AM PST by Major Matt Mason (Those that can, do, those that can't, work in the Beltway.)
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To: jimbo123

I’m afraid the towel boys at ESPN aren’t smart enough to realize that every time they open their mouths about politics they alienate at least half their audience.


6 posted on 01/21/2016 10:51:51 AM PST by skeeter (Nasty Conservative for Cruz)
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To: Major Matt Mason

No they arent. They are simply trying to figure out a way to keep their viewers and forward the agenda at the same time.

They are run and entirely staffed by liberals. There will be no getting it, ever.


7 posted on 01/21/2016 10:53:21 AM PST by Norm Lenhart (Existential Cage Theory - An idea whose time has come)
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To: jimbo123

Would love to have seen the ratings on this one.


8 posted on 01/21/2016 10:53:41 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: jimbo123

“At ESPN, our reputation and journalistic credibility are of paramount importance - and that extends to our coverage of the Presidential Election, candidates, issues and the intersection of sports and society,”

I didn’t know ESPN was covering the presidential election.

Here’s a clue for the ESPN flying monkeys. We watch sports because we want a break from society.


9 posted on 01/21/2016 10:53:45 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: TMA62
“At ESPN, our reputation and journalistic credibility are of paramount importance.....”

In other words, "the Liberal choices this election cycle are so bad promoting them hurts us enough to notice on the bottom line"

10 posted on 01/21/2016 10:53:54 AM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: jimbo123
One of the factors in deciding to cut the cord was the % of my cable bill that was going to ESPN...'course the rest of the junk called "entertainment" helped also.

Happy to have done my small part, wish I'd done it years ago.

11 posted on 01/21/2016 10:54:30 AM PST by RckyRaCoCo (Political Correctness is a kool-aid drinking suicide cult)
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To: Norm Lenhart

There are very few conservative sports journalists.


12 posted on 01/21/2016 10:54:43 AM PST by wideawake
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To: Major Matt Mason
You are exactly correct.
How difficult is it to simply discuss baseball, soccer, basketball, football, auto racing, cycling, golf, and a multitude of other SPORTS and simply bypass inserting politics into the discussion? Good grief.


13 posted on 01/21/2016 10:54:45 AM PST by Blue Jays (Rock Hard, Ride Free)
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To: jimbo123

Talk about closing the barn door after the horse gets out!!!


14 posted on 01/21/2016 10:56:22 AM PST by pgkdan (Trump/Cruz 2016!)
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To: wideawake

It used to be the bastion for conservative writers/journos. But they were hunted to extinction by publishers and editors with leftist agendas.


15 posted on 01/21/2016 10:57:04 AM PST by Norm Lenhart (Existential Cage Theory - An idea whose time has come)
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To: skeeter

Agreed. Goes for any entertainment industry or entertainer too. They just don’t seem to get it, opening your mouth on politics alienates half your audience, either way - liberal or conservative.


16 posted on 01/21/2016 10:59:48 AM PST by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing consequences of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: Moonman62
We watch sports because we want a break from society.

I love watching sports.


17 posted on 01/21/2016 11:00:09 AM PST by PROCON (Proud CRUZader!)
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To: jimbo123

. . . or maybe they just go back to broadcasting sports events and highlight shows.

freaking espn jumped the shark years ago. they need to blow the place up and start over again.


18 posted on 01/21/2016 11:07:30 AM PST by JohnBrowdie (http://forum.stink-eye.net)
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To: Major Matt Mason

Sports journalism as a vehicle for “social justice” is the reason I gave up my Sports Illustrated subscription in 1981 and my Sporting News subscription in 1990. Like you, it is also the reason I stopped watching any ESPN show that was not a live broadcast of a sports event. All of the “talking heads” shows are nothing but Bolshevik Agitprop. And I’m not the only one who has noticed, because ESPN is bleeding money. The executives who look at the bottom line are capitalist enough to know red ink is bad, so the red propaganda has to stop.

Of course the “journalists,” who were indoctrinated at the finest communist run journalism schools, are now baffled. Without the Party Line to spout, they don’t have anything to say.


19 posted on 01/21/2016 11:12:02 AM PST by henkster (Hillary Clinton's supporters are beginning to realize they are fettered to a corpse.)
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To: jimbo123

At ESPN, our reputation and journalistic credibility are of paramount importance


20 posted on 01/21/2016 11:18:27 AM PST by MarvinStinson
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