Best of Post Sports: For ESPN, remaining the worldwide leader is complicated

At a slow time in the sports calendar, one of the more prominent stories of the past week involved on-air comments made by ESPN host Dan Le Batard. On his radio show the morning after a rally held in support of President Trump, at which supporters chanted "Send her back" in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who was born in Somalia, Le Batard said the rally and chants "felt un-American" and "deeply offensive."

Le Batard was certainly not the only one to express such views, but the fact that he did so on an ESPN program was notable in light of the network's recent guidelines that politics were to be discussed only in the context of their intersection with sports.

As Post Sports reporter Ben Strauss details in his profile of ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro, the network's policy is part of a strategy that aligns with what it believes its viewers want.

It's hard to blame anyone for occasionally wanting a refuge from the partisan rancor that dominates public discourse these days. But completely separating sports from the larger world is not only impossible, it's not even preferable. Some of history's most memorable athletic events gained resonance from the world in which they took place, such as Jesse Owens dominating the Berlin Olympics during the rise of Nazi Germany and the U.S. hockey team beating Russia at the height of the Cold War. Even Irishman Shane Lowry's victory at last week's British Open was amplified by the fact that the tournament was being held in Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years.

Ignoring such background would be short-sighted, and to be clear, Pitaro is not suggesting ESPN should. The network not only covers the social outreach of prominent athletes, it addressed in its Women's World Cup coverage Megan Rapinoe's verbal sparring with President Trump.

But distinguishing what's a political distraction from what's appropriate context is a nuanced process that no single policy can address sufficiently. And in terms of serving audience, most folks have a much broader tolerance for political expression when the views align with their own. ESPN's position is further complicated by the fact that it is essentially in the entertainment business with the leagues it covers, which adds both additional interests to satisfy and another lens through which perceptions are formed.

Any customer-oriented business aims to focus on "giving the people what they want." That can be a challenge when — much like the audience for a Yankees-Red Sox or Duke-North Carolina game — whatever happens, only half the crowd is cheering.

— Matt Rennie, deputy sports editor