Author Jim Miller said that it is "very clear" that the only reason ESPN President John Skipper cancelled "Barstool Van Talk" was "because of pushback from ESPN employees, led by Sam Ponder's tweets," according to Jimmy Traina of SI.com. Miller appeared on SI.com's "Off The Board" podcast and was asked about how many ESPN employees complained about Barstool. Miller said, "Some of the people I heard from were complaining and they called asking me to write something about it and I asked [if they] had gone to management yet and they had not. So let’s break that down into groups like Sam, that were very very vocal both internally and externally about the issues they had. To get to a number, there was a second group that was very, very upset with it, but had not gone to management as of yet." Miller said if Skipper "hadn’t pulled the plug when he did, you would’ve seen, I believe there was at least one attempt to start a letter amongst employees." Miller added there was "some effort to reach out to people in advance of the actual announcement to say, 'Look, we understand that this might look problematic, but we have these assurances about the podcast and the show and we want you to know we have secured them and that’s not gonna be part of the larger brand.'" Miller: "On the one hand, they did anticipate the problem. I think what ultimately became the bigger problem. ... I just didn’t think they were gonna be able to navigate keeping the show and the podcast distinct from the larger brand" (SI.com, 10/26).
TURNING A BLIND EYE? Skipper in his statement announcing the cancellation said that ESPN "realized it couldn't distance itself from Barstool’s brand." In Boston, Chad Finn writes this suggests that ESPN "hadn’t done its due diligence." A "willing suspension of disbelief is required to buy that." Barstool has become a "huge brand in the demographic ESPN covets." Barstool has "expanded with savvy since the Chernin Group’s investment, but it’s not as if the site was low-profile." ESPN "knew exactly what it was getting into and who it was dealing with." The strong suspicion is that ESPN management was "well aware of Barstool’s history with some of its employees and forged ahead anyway." The belief is that when Disney "became fully aware, that’s when it all fell apart." If this is the end, both sides "look bad, though ESPN gets it worse." The network's "quest -- desperation, really -- to attract a younger demographic backfired embarrassingly." Barstool has to "wonder whether its crude past is going to be a barrier to further growth" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/27).
