"Even ESPN Leans Left"

by Gabe Gilson

As somebody who describes myself as a moderate in the ways of politics and as an avid ESPN viewer, a recent story on the networks show SportsCenter seemed rather out of place. Today few would disagree that the news is presented in a very liberal format; but why would sporting news have to fall under the same catagory?

SportsCenter, which is a show dedicated to giving highlights of sports related activities from the previous evening as well as sports related stories, decided to interview Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Anchorman Stuart Scott interviewed Obama about Chicago sports, the Olympics, and his love for basketball. Obama told Scott how he had grown up a fan of Julius (Dr. J) Erving, and they talked about how he loved Chicago sports teams like the White Sox and the Bulls. The story was repeated on SportsCenter for three days, meaning countless viewers saw it multiple times. It seemed rather ridiculous that Obama was interviewed while the Republican candidate John McCain was not.

This brings up quite an interesting question. Does McCain not like sports in the same way Obama does? One would think that with McCain being from Arizona, some anchor could quiz him up on his Arizona Cardinals knowledge, or talk about how Arizona Diamondback pitcher Brandon Webb is having a season worthy of the Cy Young Award. But apparently, Obama is the only Presidential candidate that is enthralled by sports enough for an interview on ESPN. The issue at hand is not McCain being a better candidate that Obama, or vice versa, it is more the fact there are people out there voting for the first time who only watch SportsCenter for their daily “news.” Once somebody who is old enough to vote only sees one person in the spotlight on their show, not to mention sees this candidate look like an outstanding person in the spotlight like Obama did, they will most likely become very partial to that candidate. It seemed as if it was not fair for SportsCenter to only interview him. Also, when watching SportsCenter, people want to see highlights and stories about real athletes at a level above the local YMCA pickup game. Maybe Barack Obama has a good jump shot for a 47 year old dude, but that does NOT make him the type of athlete people want to see a story about. It is too bad that every level of news these days has to lean to the left.