PA-PLAYA Why Shilling and not Hill get the axe - white, conservative male vs black, liberal female. As for me, I watch/listen to Mike and Mike in the mornings and that is it for ESPN. If I want politics with my morning coffee I'll tune in to CNN, Fox or MSNBC, not really, but from a Sport and Entertainment network, that is what I want, not a political rant.
ESPN ratings decline forces network to assume DEFCON II Readiness Posture
Aren't they also cancelling Mike and Mike? I thought I heard earlier this year that Mike and Mike was in its last season.
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My random thoughts on this issue.
I dislike ESPN for other reasons, like for the way they covered Deflategate. 
They lied and then recanted after midnight when no one was watching.
As a politics junkie the politics issue is an interesting one for me. We live in a very polarizing (political) time and I understand ESPN's not wanting to get into any controversy in that regard. An employer should be allowed to tell an employee what is allowed and what isn't at the workplace.
On their personal time they should be allowed to exercise their first amendment rights however. As far as Colin Kapernick goes. If I was an NFL owner I would hire him with the understanding that he can protest issues outside of his workplace, but not inside.
I happen to agree with Hill on her opinion of Trump, but ESPN has the right to tell her that her opinion is off limits on the air. I remember when Rush Limbaugh was fired from ESPN for his comments about black quarterbacks. Disagree with Schilling's politics as well. But as I remember he made his comments outside of the workplace so their is some duplicity with how ESPN handles these situations.
However, bottom line is an employer can fire you for any reason as long as they don't violate any of the discrimination laws. They can fire you because it happens to be a Wednesday. This is for "at will' employees. Employees with contracts can be fired as long as it doesn't violate their contract. Otherwise settlements are reached.
I remember when black athletes like Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tommy Smith and other former and current (at the time) prominent black athletes asked O.J. Simson to join them in speaking out against racism and he declined just as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have done. Simpson, Jordan and Woods put their wallets ahead of equality and justice for their race.
Having a spokesperson for the President saying a person should be fired is a scary thing. However, Donald Trump when he worked for NBC (The Apprentice) called President Obama a racist. And no repercussions were brought about by NBC towards Trump. I don't remember Trump calling for his own firing. 
Trump started his political rise on a racist lie when he propagated the Birther bullshit that Obama was not born in this country.
I find myself watching more of Fox Sports 1 than ESPN. I like the Bayless and Sharp show and Colin Coherds show. They have a new show early in the morning with Chris Carter and Nick Wright that I catch some of. My favorite is with Coherd and Jason Whitlock (Speak for Yourself). Also like Katie Dolan, but they can't seem to find what to do with her.
ESPN's Mike and Mike is a good show, but Greenie is leaving that his show to have his own show.
"Trump started his political rise on a racist lie when he propagated the Birther bullshit that Obama was not born in this country."
How is this racist? Do you deem Clinton racist for using this same tact in '08?
And here we go.
ESPN pretty much jumped the shark when they started showing odd ball/obscure events that were barely a contest,
let alone a sporting event.
Hell just a couple weeks ago they had the Cornhole World Championships! WTF
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Why start this bullshit? I was simply making a claim that ESPN ratings were in the tank because of the unwanted political rhetoric that has become more and more the norm there, and how I don't wish to get involved or bogged down in the same stuff in my personal time.
Watching sports, reading about sports, discussing sports - is my personal time. And that also includes when I want to come here to enjoy thoughtful discussion about sports, or about a myriad of other topics that don't delve deeply into the political debate realm of discussion.
So I would encourage my fellow posters to honor my wish, as the original poster of the thread. That's not what was intended. Please keep topics on-point. Feel free to agree or disagree with the idea that politics does/doesn't belong in sports programming and sports news... just please keep the "well my side is better than your side because of this" bullshit out of it.
And if you can't, then I'd just prefer that you find another thread to make toxic.
I find it very newsworthy that a major sports network is encountering a fairly serious crisis because of political outspokenness, and highlighted an example of how that network is proceeding in a biased manner.
It wasn't intended to be an open thread about Clinton, Trump, Obama, or whoever else you either despise or love, or to list reasons why.
I am officially a-political, which is why I find this shit repulsive to be honest. Don't want to be subjected to it at ESPN, or Golfbuzz for that matter.
Thank you all for understanding and honoring my request. 
For those of you who commute... or (like me) who spend time making dinner in the kitchen in the evenings, while wanting to listen to something other than the same-old-same-old music playlist while you're perfecting your culinary creativeness...
I'd encourage you to download the iHeart Radio app on your smartphone, which gives you access to some really good talkshow hosts via FoxSports.
I personally like Dan Patrick the most, which comes on-air @ 9:00 a.m.
Nice that there are some reasonably good non-ESPN options available.
I will miss Mike and Mike on ESPN however. Been listening to them in the mornings for going on 20 years, it'll be weird to not have them around any longer. They were, by far, the best sports talk show hosts on ESPN for the most part of the past 15 years.
Yes, exactly. They've lost their way. In several ways, not just with the type of programming, although that is no less damning.
Like I said, you look at what ESPN was back about 10-15 years ago and compare it to what it is putting out today and you wonder how in the hell they keep the lights on at that place in Bristol, CT.
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I get a kick out of how he does his morning shows.... his co-hosts have obviously been trained to either to raise their hand or give some other callsign to speak, as to avoid talking over him when he's discussing something. Which, apparently, is something that bugged him about other radio talk show programs with the co-hosts all trying to get their own time in on radio.
"Yes, Fritzy...." is something you'll hear numerous times during his podcasts, but he keeps things neatly manageable with not allowing his co-hosts to talk over him or intrude on his conversation with the listeners.
And I guess what I enjoy most about Dan's show is that he's not just into sports.... he's into music, into entertainment, into having guests on-air from all of the entertainment spectrums. It's very interesting, and although his show is more of a hodgepodge of interests - much of it still all revolves around sports.
He has a diverse list of radio guests, and always finds the time to begin the programming with the most obvious sports-related topics of the day.
I think Dan Patrick is seriously underrated as a sports talk-show host. Then again, his FoxSports podcast regularly garners the highest listening ratings of the network.
Sneakylong you seem to be getting very cozy injecting your, what I see as, fucked up opinions, don't ya think? You think you're slick don't ya? Or should I say "sneaky"?
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This is why I've pretty much stopped interacting with society these days, outside of close friends and neighbors (and a few relatives).
Everybody wants to fucking argue and debate. Over stupid shit no less. Like one option is that much better than another. News-fucking flash - they're all fucking crooks and liars.
Maybe someday the rest of the populace will get the goddamned memo.
I regret even posting this topic now.
Lesson learned.
My apologies, Justin.
Anybody ever think that the ratings are declining because people have too many other things to subscribe too? I mean 10 years ago when ESPN was at its lofty position there wasn't Netflix, Hulu other streaming services like Kodi etc. The paycheck can only go so far. and if you have to pay a premium price for ESPN then I think that it would be one of the first to go. Sports is on everywhere. With my android box I can stream most any sporting event in the world. free...