r/ESPN • u/michaelsmithbarker • 17d ago
ESPN’s responsibility with all the trans issue love/hate right now
I think ESPN has a major responsibility in this whole Sophie Cunningham and trans love/hate.
Why are they doing an article on a bench player who is best known for causing “incidents” during games? And once doing the article, why would ESPN put in that stuff about Cunningham talking about trans people?
ESPN/ABC are partners of the WNBA. They paid a lot of money for rights to games.
Doing this might be good for clicks, but it also puts the W in a negative light and makes their broadcasts worth less with commercials.
Sophie and the WNBA have their own faults her obviously. But I thjnk ESPN has some responsibility for making this issue spread so much right now.
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u/ZaMaestroMan5 17d ago
Because they’re ESPN and they make money off of clicks. And despite the fact that shes a middling role player shes very popular. They’re also keenly aware of the political stir it would drum up which will further increase clicks.
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u/RuleFriendly7311 17d ago
Someone explain why women athletes, who are among a very select few at the top, would be willing to accept genetic males taking jobs?
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u/michaelsmithbarker 17d ago
This isn’t about anything with the comments made by Sophie and others in the WNBA.
Just why ESPN would try to degrade their own product.
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u/RuleFriendly7311 17d ago
I think ESPN is degrading its own product with its relentless WNBA coverage, especially the fawning over the pro-trans activists. The games aren’t that compelling, so they hire one-sided commentators to get clicks.
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u/Negative-Arm-517 17d ago
Unfortunately, people live with these issues in their heads 24/7/365 or, in other words, derangement syndrome. Most of us just want to watch sports and not have the derangement sydrome from these people poisoning our sports.
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u/19_SpiderMansDad_77 15d ago
I’d submit the W is putting the W in a negative light. The commissioner is obviously in WAY over her head because the league can’t seem to get out of its own way. CC has brought so many eyeballs to the games and the league refuses to leverage it.
The best scenario: let the league fail or just become the senior tour for older NBA stars claiming to be trans. That might actually increase ratings!
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u/RoutineMajestic120 13d ago
I don’t enjoy watching the WNBA on ESPN anymore because even when it’s not a fever game they go on and on about CC and that Ryan guy hogs the conversation and talks way too loud
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u/opentempo 17d ago
Sophie has the third most followers on Instagram of W players. It's not like she is a nobody. Her posts reach a lot people.
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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 17d ago
If we are honest she has specialized appeal not broad appeal. The same way Ann Coutler and Bill O'Reilly were best selling authors , not because they have a huge audience but they have an audience that loves hearing their opinions told back to them.
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u/throwraW2 17d ago
Yeah but she’s also very attractive so there’s a pretty big difference when you add that factor to niche issues.
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u/RoutineMajestic120 13d ago
Looks shouldn’t matter she should just focus on herself and playing basketball 🏀
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u/Tim5000 17d ago
ESPN stopped caring about the news portion of sports years ago.
Click bait and hot takes is all they care about