Writer Claims Sports Media Members ‘More Political’ Because of Trump

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Senior writer for The Big Lead, Ty Duffy, opines why sports writers have a penchant for “liberal” thinking.

Reacting to a piece by Bryan Curtis at The Ringer, Duffy claims Donald Trump declaring war on the media is one of the reasons sports writers are “more political.”

Wut?

The reason Trump rallied 31 states to vote for him in November was driven, to a great extent, by Trump echoing long-held beliefs of the common man: that the establishment media—which includes sports entertainment vehicles like ESPN and myriad online sports websites— is a left-wing propaganda machine.

Duffy gives another reason sports writers are more Liberal: “A major difference between sports media now and 30 years ago is that there’s a greater diversity of opinion. Black, Hispanic, Women, LGBTQ and other voices are in media, in an opinion-driving capacity.”

Wut?

I don’t know who Duffy has been listening to on sports-talk radio or reading in his local paper, or what online sites he peruses, but for this sportswriter the opposite is true. There may be more diversity in skin color and ethnic backgrounds in sports, but there is less diversity of opinion.

For example, ESPN fired legendary MLB pitcher Curt Schilling for espousing conservative ideas and writing on Facebook that males don’t belong in the ladies’ restroom.

When Mike Ditka called President Barack Obama the “worst” U.S. president ever — on WABC’s Bernie & Sid morning radio show, he was suddenly dropped from ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown and reduced to SportsCenter contributor. If Ditka said, instead, that Donald Trump was a racist and a homophobe, ESPN would have awarded him a one-hour prime time daily show. 

So much for diversity of thought.

Duffy hits the nail on the head, however, when he argues that the major broadcasting companies are located in liberal-leaning cities. He writes: “National outlets are located in the largest of the most major cities along the costs, specifically in New York and Los Angeles. A significant portion live or have lived in the same few leafy blocks in Brooklyn. These are some of the most hyper-liberal places in the country.” Naturally, employees living in those areas will be well indoctrinated with leftist ideologies.

Duffy correctly points out sports coverage skews more conservative in parts of the country that are more interested in sports “such as college football or NASCAR, where there isn’t that geographic factor, the composition of the media covering may not be as liberal.”

Although Duffy mentions that sportswriters and media members lean left because they tend to have college degrees, he doesn’t explain that those colleges are inundated with leftist professors who vote Democrat at rates exceeding 90 percent.

A study conducted by Econ Journal Watch concluded that:

An investigation of faculty at 40 leading U.S. universities in the fields of Economics, History, Journalism/Communications, Law, and Psychology. We looked up 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic and 314 Republican, for an overall D:R ratio of 11.5:1.

And that is the rub. When all the “highly educated” coming out of colleges and J-school have been indoctrinated by Democratic professors, who outnumber Republican professors by 12 to 1, it is no big secret that sports stories bend significantly to the left.

Not so surprising that Donald Trump said after his November victory and many times during his 2016  presidential campaign, “I love the poorly educated.”

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