Tony Kornheiser Suspension Reaction Spans Media Spectrum

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You know a story is really big when a sports figure like Tony Kornheiser gets mentioned in the mainstream news media following his suspension from ESPN.

When the Web site The Big Lead broke the story of ESPN suspending Pardon The Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser over comments he made regarding SportsCenter co-anchor Hannah Storm, the Internet reacted to the news.

The Huffington Post, Mediate, and The Daily Beast all ran articles on their sites about Kornheiser’s suspension.

When political commentary sites weigh in on a sports based story, you know it’s big news.

The Huffington Post had well over 1300 comments posted on their article at the time I viewed it on Wednesday morning, with opinions tending to be in Kornheiser’s favor.

Personally, I could care less about Kornheiser or ESPN, but what I find most troubling is how a network that used to be about reporting sports news has become a politically correct, nansy-pansy corporate conglomerate that I deeply despise.

Unless their airing a game I want to watch, I don’t bother with ESPN anymore.

Much like most mainstream media outlets, ESPN has become more show than substance.

ESPN has the viewer focusing on the theatrics of their personalities, like Lou Holtz, Stuart Scott, Dick Vitale and Lee Corso.

If I want to see a bunch of clowns, I’ll go to the circus. But ESPN has become a circus act of its own, even though they don’t realize it.

Rather than doing what the network was originally designed to do, we get opinion instead of insightful analysis. Instead of a news source, we get a bunch of Boo-Yahs.

And we’re supposed to be impressed?

ESPN suspending Kornheiser over comments he made on his own radio show adds to the growing number of sports fans that have grown weary of their tired act.

ESPN could have suspended Kornheiser countless times for the mindless drivel he uttered while being part of the Monday Night Football telecasts.

Those early ESPN MNF telecasts were so awful that if the game were worth viewing, you did so with the sound muted for fear it might cause your head to explode listening to Kornheiser and Joe Theisman.

But the network bosses decided they should act because Hannah Storm’s red go-go boots might become offended.

Or perhaps the real reason was Kornheiser’s subliminal remarks in reference to Chris Berman’s weight.

Regardless of their reasoning, ESPN has reached a point where the only people who can work for them are corporate ninnies.

It appears ESPN is on a path with the rest of mainstream media, where opinion supplants news and political correctness is more important than common sense.

If that’s what they want, that’s fine with me, but they’ll have one less viewer as a result.