Former First Lady Michelle Obama likened ESPN’s current programming to reality TV, specifically comparing it to the Real Housewives of Atlanta and calling it “sociological drama” due to its shift from sports highlights to argumentative talk shows.
Speaking on her scantly listened to IMO podcast with her brother, Craig, Obama expressed nostalgia for ESPN’s earlier days when it focused on game highlights and replays. Now, it’s an endless sea of vapid talking heads.
She criticized the network’s evolution into what she described as a platform filled with yelling, screaming, and forced drama.
“There’s drama in sports. If I listen to ESPN for an hour, it’s like watching the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ you know?” Obama lamented.
“It’s the same drama, and they’re yelling at each other, and they don’t get along, you know? I mean, Stephen A. Smith, he’s just like every other talk show host.”
Michelle Obama Serves up Reality Cold to ESPN
Man, I wish she had explored that last sentence a little more. Stephen A. is just like every other talk show host. And he’s paid like some of the top entertainers in that genre. We know he’s little more than a dramatic actor, elevated by his oratory gifts despite having little knowledge behind his thoughts and little grasp of the actual language.
Smith is an entertaining addition to the ESPN commentary lineup, but he’s just that – entertainment. He is a character actor with a gimmick, much like a WWE superstar. What he brings to the sports analysis game is minimal.
He is, as the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick writes, “a stereotypical holy-rolling preacher man but with conspicuous grammatical deficiencies.”
It’s the kind of drama Michelle Obama is railing against here.
“So that’s why I’m like, ‘what’s the difference?’ It’s just, you know, it’s just sociological drama,” added Obama. “I mean, the fact that people over seasons of working still can’t get along. They still have the same arguments, you know, and it’s not just women.”
“But this happens in sports, too. I find it fascinating.”
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It’s an Industry-Wide Problem
Michelle Obama’s comments were part of a broader discussion about the state of sports media and its cultural impact.
Obama suggested that the current format of ESPN prioritizes entertainment and controversy over substantive sports analysis.
The network, though, has been living under that mantra for years now.
Colin Kaepernick, for example, was little more than a backup quarterback who opted out of his contract to become a free agent and was somehow elevated by ESPN to mythical proportions, and a man whom the NFL blackballed over his political stance.
Fabricated entertainment to get clicks and views. Nothing more, nothing less.
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