Posted on 06/23/2026 7:38:51 AM PDT by WhiteHatBobby0701
ESPN has made significant progress in toning down its political and social rhetoric in recent years. This was a point for which Colin Cowherd credited ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro last week during a discussion with OutKick.
However, one can't help but wonder how dedicated ESPN is to serving fans and focusing on sports following a recent announcement. Last week, the company announced it had re-signed David Dennis Jnr.
The network says Mr. Dennis will now cover the "NBA, music, and black culture" across Andscape and ESPN television shows.
The obvious first question is why, in 2026, ESPN would pay someone to cover music and black culture on television. However, more pressing is the message that ESPN just sent to its employees.
The network is reportedly considering mass layoffs this year following its acquisition of NFL Network. Undoubtedly, those cuts would affect talented and hardworking people both on air and behind the scenes. Yet while employees face losing their jobs, ESPN has chosen to reinvest in Mr. Dennis, a character who has spent much of the past few years embarrassing the network.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
No, it's about watching his woke activists while telling people who aren't black you have no right to truth, just the woke activism of a Mouse. I've tagged them Mouseheads because of their blindness to Disney. They think watching WWE updates instead of live news is relevant.
MTV turned into soap operas. ESPN turns into MTV. Full circle.
This is simply the other shoe dropping. It wouldn’t matter if ESPN got rid of all politics and focused 100% on sports. Cable is dying. Amazon is bidding on sports and will pick off the best events. The B and C list events will go to YouTube. ESPN will get ripped apart from both directions. The hosts who remain will get worked to death like the Inside the NBA crew joked at one point - you’ll see the host at 11 PM and then you’ll wake up and see the same host at 7 AM doing a show. They’ll work them like dogs and not pay them.
You make good points here. I don’t know how some of these channels stay in business. You see the same shows over and over again. I think they are staying in business by old people who like the familiar programs and the networks having medical/pharmaceutical commercials on all the time.
... music, and black culture”
And just what does that have to do with ‘sports’?
I tune in to eSpn for sports, not music, not black culture.
If I want music there’s music on MTV classic and If I want ‘black culture’ there’s BET.............
Amazon is being attacked by NASCAR fans for deliberately ignoring Secretary of War Hegseth on the MS NOW produced San Diego 250.
Yep, looks like ESPN is going back to its roots of Australian Rules Football and Kickboxing like in the early 80’s when it had no major sports packages but was still on 24/7.
“ESPN turns into MTV”
It might be that ESPN is finally morphing into what the network was originally going to provide.
ESPN stands for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network which was its original name created in 1978. That was shortened to ESPN in 1985. It was originally set up to work in Plainville, CT, in 1978, but because of a shortage in satellite dishes it was postponed until 1979. And the Rasmussens, the original owners, used the word “Entertainment” as a throwaway addition to make the network sound more appealing. But it did open the door for the network to stray away from sports in some investments and content.
Surprisingly ESPN owns and operates regional channels in Brazil, Caribbean, Latin America, Netherlands, Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa. In Canada, ESPN is a minority owner of The Sports Network (TSN) and the French-language Réseau des sports (RDS). ESPN also has a minority stake in J Sports in Japan. And their network is used to stream HULU and Disney+.
ESPN has also expanded its digital presence across major social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok, where it distributes highlights and engages audiences through short-form content. ESPN moved into the sports betting scene in November 2023 with plans to launch their sportsbook app “ESPN Bet” on November 14. And don’t forget the parks. Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a 260+ acre multi-sport venue located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. It features a 9,500-seat stadium, multiple professional-level fields, and indoor arenas that host amateur, collegiate, and professional sporting events.
So seeing them wander into a number of areas is not surprising as it is just working within it’s original parameters.
wy69
Then there is ESPN 8 The Ocho. LOL.
ESPN 8 The Ocho covered the ADAA (American Dodgeball Accociation of America) Dodgeball Invitational in Las Vegas a while back. If it’s almost a sport they have it there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8414uArsBOs
Colin Cowherd is awful, and knows nothing about football.
Then football will die. Because kids won’t be able to watch football, and will never learn about it once it’s gatekept behind expensive services.
ESPN. My understanding is that espn stood for every sports network. Now they going to focus on the NBA, music, and black culture.
Nice move there ESPN. Piss off your viewers.
Go woke, go broke works every time it’s tried.
Ehhhh, cowherd is on Fox, and this is about espn, so where is the connection?
He looks soft
NBA, NFL, CFB, CBB (M and W). That’s it. And some WWE.
He’s the first person mentioned in the article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.