ESPN has been going downhill lately faster than Jean-Claude Killy. In March, I explained that ESPN had to fire staff, according to Deadspin:

Over the last several years rights fees have skyrocketed, with ESPN now paying over $3.3 billion annually just to broadcast the NFL and NBA. Simultaneously, ESPN’s subscriber count and viewership—the fabled dual revenue stream that has made it the most envied television company in the country—have tumbled. While the loss of 12 million subscribers over five years is mostly due to generalized cord cutting, and not subscribers specifically dropping ESPN, it doesn’t really matter: It still amounts to losing almost a billion dollars annually. The status quo is unsustainable, and with rights fees already locked in for several years, salaries are one of the biggest areas available to cut expenses.

In October 2015, ESPN laid off 300 employees behind the scenes. Then Sports Illustrated announced that ESPN had to get rid of their the on-air talent as well:

SI has learned that ESPN will have significant cost-cutting over the next four months on its talent side (people in front of the camera or audio/digital screen). Multiple sources said ESPN has been tasked with paring tens of millions of staff salary from its payroll, including staffers many viewers and readers will recognize. Those with contracts coming up would be particularly vulnerable, sources said. The company is also expected to buyout some existing contracts, which is something rare for ESPN historically beyond a few NFL talents. The cuts are expected to be completed by June.

Conservatives are not surprised by the fact that ESPN is going down the tubes. The network began that trajectory long ago. When businesses value identity politics over their actual business, things usually don't go well for them. Sportswriter Clay Travis has been writing about ESPN's demise for quite some time, and he believes their business model is just plainly broken. After losing the trust of much of your fanbase, there's no way to fix it now. However, he really nailed it when he wrote:

“Middle America wants to pop a beer and listen to sports talk, they don’t want to be lectured about why Caitlyn Jenner is a hero, Michael Sam is the new Jackie Robinson of sports, and Colin Kaepernick is the Rosa Parks of football. ESPN made the mistake of trying to make liberal social media losers happy and as a result lost millions of viewers.”

Though it is a very sad day for the employees of ESPN, I think most of America is hoping we can one day serenade the network with the same song Notre Dame sang to Michigan:

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