ESPN 'reminds' Azinger to lay off Obama, has no problem with pro-Obama tweets

A few days ago an ESPN golf analyst Paul Azinger put out a tweet that was critical of Obama:



Then on Friday, ESPN came down on him for making political tweets.

content.usatoday.com...

On Friday ESPN 'reminded" Azinger his venture into political punditry violates the company's updated social network policy for on-air talent and reporters.

"Paul's tweet was not consistent with our social media policy, and he has been reminded that political commentary is best left to those in that field," spokesman Andy Hall told Game On! in a statement.

The problem is, they have never said anything about political tweets before that were pro0Obama or Democrat policy. They also had nothing to say when ESPN was regularly used to attack Bush.

newsbusters.org...

Even so, it came as something of a shock to observe that one ESPN personality is turning his on-screen appearances into an opportunity to promote the candidacy of a Dem presidential contender. Many sportscasters have their signature calls. From Stuart Scott's "boo-yah!" to Chris Berman's "back-back-back gone!," several of the ESPN announcers utter idiosyncratic phrases to underline signal athletic accomplishments. Fair enough. But watching ESPN's Kenny Mayne over the course of the last few days, I was surprised to notice that he has coined a new call. Home run at a crucial moment? Three-pointer to take the lead in a basketball game? "Obama!", exclaims Mayne.

Also:

bigjournalism.com... paign=Feed%3A+BigJournalism+%28Big+Journalism%29

A note for future prospective ESPN employees: You can only cheerlead Obama at ESPN. I’m not joking.

Case in point: The network’s golf analyst, 12-time PGA Tour winner Paul Azinger hit out at the President’s amount of golf games on Twitter:

So, why didn't ESPN have a problem with pro-Obama tweets? It probably has something to do with the fact Disney gave more to Obama's campaign than anyone else in '08.

reply to post by Gannicus


This is the type of reason I refuse to get a tweet accout. My friend tried to convince me and thought I was crazy when I told him twitter and facebook was monitored to the max and so many people have been arrested due to facebook its unreal. He said what does it matter I am not doing anything wrong. What is right today can be so wrong tomorrow and this stuff lasts forever. As for disney they don't get much money from me if I know they are involved I refuse to buy or use any of their products. The old fashioned boycotss worked great just like old time strikes but everybody anymore gives lip service but are to lazy to do anything constructive.

What? ESPN is acting like a private company and making its own rules?

How could that be?

Obviously what we need here is some government regulation on how ESPN tells people what to tweet and what not to tweet, right?

reply to post by Kitilani


He didn't say it was illegal for them to do, it just makes them real big ****heads and some of us would enjoy knowing that so that we could avoid watching their channel.

Originally posted by BrianC
reply to post by Kitilani

 

He didn't say it was illegal for them to do, it just makes them real big ****heads and some of us would enjoy knowing that so that we could avoid watching their channel.

When did I suggest that the OP said it was illegal?

I really do not need anyone to post a thread on ATS telling me why they do not like certain people on a television station so that I may not watch them. I am pretty capable of choosing what to watch all by myself.

Again I need to ask what the problem is here. If you do not like ESPN, do not watch it. I do not understand the point of this thread unless the OP wants something done about it, this is just a blog from a guy that is angry at a tv channel. Go ATS



Maybe you are just irony impaired. See, here on ATS there is one really loud and very vocal group of people that are upset with anything that has Obama's name in it. These are the same people that run around crying that government needs to leave business alone and let the free market rule. So what does the OP want done about ESPN?

Originally posted by Kitilani

Again I need to ask what the problem is here. If you do not like ESPN, do not watch it. I do not understand the point of this thread unless the OP wants something done about it, this is just a blog from a guy that is angry at a tv channel. Go ATS

Can you point me to a post you've made similar to this in one of the millions of Anti-Fox News threads? I'm sure its never happened.

Maybe you are just irony impaired. See, here on ATS there is one really loud and very vocal group of people that are upset with anything that has Obama's name in it.

Funny, I've always seen ATS as rabidly anti-Republican/Bush/tea part/conservative/christian. There is still a whole forum dedicated to accusing Bush of being behind the 9/11 attacks for # sake!

These are the same people that run around crying that government needs to leave business alone and let the free market rule. So what does the OP want done about ESPN?

Just exposing them for the ideological shills they are and demonstrating how this administration has even the sports media in his back pocket.

reply to post by Gannicus


Thanks for pointing this out. As with most things, though, one isolated incident doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's possible that they simply didn't catch the other tweets. However, it's documenting stuff like this and then pointing out that these cases aren't really just isolated ones that catches MSM bias.