Despite claiming that it isn’t a “political” sports network, ESPN has announced that it plans to launch a brand new morning show geared to push a far left, social justice agenda.
The new show, to be called Get Up!, will air from 7 to 10 AM and will feature hosts Mike Greenberg, Michelle Beadle, and Jalen Rose, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Apparently, ESPN is sinking big cash into this new “woke” morning show, too.
THR notes: “It’s a big, costly swing for the network, including leasing a 21,000-square-foot studio and office complex in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport and nearly $15 million in talent salaries ($6.5 million for Greenberg, 50; $5 million for Beadle, 42; and $3 million for Rose, 45, sources say).”
But, even as the new hosts insist that sports will be their focus, they also made haste to tell potential viewers that they fully intend to jump into social justice issues with both feet.
“What we need to be is flexible,” Greenberg said. “Fans of sports have different needs on different days, and we need to be all things to all people. There are days when we need to be the best news and information sports broadcast that there is; to cover a big story with the resources of ESPN.”
Executive producer, Bill Wolff, was even more on topic with social justice issues saying, “when players take a knee, then it deserves coverage and conversation.”
For his part, Rose took it even farther by congratulating ESPN on allowing him to go off into politics whenever he feels like it.
“If something political makes itself part of our world, we are dishonest and inauthentic if we don’t discuss it.” Rose added that he has “never been muzzled in any way” at ESPN. “I appreciate the fact that I’m able to talk about more than what happened in last night’s NBA game. And I think fans appreciate that. When our president tweets about sports, now he’s fair game.”
That all certainly seems to say that despite ESPN’s claims to the contrary, none of these new hosts have any intention at all of “sticking to sports.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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