COMMENTARY: ESPN, MGM putting brands at risk by embracing leftist politics
ESPN offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of Las Vegas casino executives damaging or destroying their brands by offending their core customer base. But more importantly, this is a danger to the entire Las Vegas brand.
ESPN has committed suicide through its obsession with liberal, progressive, politically correct beliefs. Vegas’s core audience is exactly the same as ESPN’s and has three key demographics.
■ Middle America. Overwhelmingly this group voted for Donald Trump.
■ Conventioneers. This group comprises business owners, executives and white-collar employees. Many in this group voted for Donald Trump.
■ Casino and sports gamblers. Sports and casino gamblers are overwhelmingly male, white, macho and patriotic. These are the people who always stand for the national anthem. Overwhelmingly, this group voted for Donald Trump.
ESPN’s President John Skipper is a big-time liberal. He has damaged his brand and ruined his revenues with his arrogance and ignorance about his own audience. ESPN is dying. Cable subscriptions are dramatically down. Ratings are dramatically down. Revenues are in the toilet.
ESPN has awards shows that define “courage” as athletes who used to be men transitioning to female. ESPN has anchors who call President Trump a “white supremacist.” ESPN officials removed a football broadcaster named Robert Lee because they were afraid his name would offend black people. He’s Asian. ESPN fired Curt Shilling for his conservative politics. Outspoken Republican and former NFL great Jason Sehorn was told “to stay away from politics” when he worked for the network. ESPN suspended Linda Cohen for saying that liberal politics had damaged ESPN’s ratings.
But ESPN says nothing when liberal hacks such as Jemele Hill and my old TV co-host Max Kellerman outrage viewers with their radical leftist views. Kellerman recently opined that it’s a “disgrace” that not one white NFL player has knelt for the national anthem.
Skipper has poisoned his brand. He has offended his own customer base. Sports fans tune in to watch sports, not to be lectured on Trump, racism and climate change.
I hope the board of MGM Resorts International is paying attention. CEO Jim Murren is a John Skipper clone. Just like ESPN, there is a mutiny brewing at MGM. Many MGM employees have contacted me. Some have anonymously called my talk radio show. One came to my home to hand deliver the latest company policy on transgenders. Like ESPN employees, conservatives at MGM feel discrimination, intimidation and intolerance. They fear for their jobs.
Many MGM employees are outraged and sickened by Murren’s actions and statements. They oppose his promise to match employee donations to the Council on American Islamic Relations — an organization tied to Muslim terrorism and called by experts “a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.” They oppose his donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that recently put three of America’s most famous military bases — Fort Bragg, Fort Hood and Fort Benning — on its list of “confederate monuments” that must be taken down. But some of Murren’s employees are most outraged over his “transgender policy” announced only a month ago. They believe their CEO is putting the lives of female guests and their children at risk. They predict there will be a tragedy at an MGM property because of this policy.
If 45 million Vegas tourists start to understand MGM supports Muslim terror co-conspirators … backs a radical leftist group waging a campaign against U.S. military bases … and bans employees from questioning 300-pound men who walk into women’s bathrooms … Vegas will go the way of ESPN.
Be very careful, MGM. Jim Murren is putting your brand at risk. And by association, he is putting the entire Vegas brand at risk.
Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com. Hear or watch the nationally syndicated “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now and at 5 p.m. on Newsmax TV.
