Last week, Fox Sports stayed busy.
On Monday, the network shocked the sports ecosystem by announcing that it was canceling three shows- “Breakfast Ball,” “The Facility,” and “Speak.”
That meant it was parting ways with Joy Taylor, Emmanuel Acho, Paul Pierce, Michael Irvin, Keyshawn Johnson and others.
Then on Thursday, the network announced a partnership with Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Sports platform, where Portnoy and other Barstool personalities will join Fox’s college football pregame show Big Noon Kickoff beginning this August. Barstool will also provide the network with a two-hour daily morning sports studio show that will fill the void made by the cancellations last week, bring its Barstool College Football Show on the road, and also contribute to Fox Sports’ college basketball coverage.
“We’re excited to welcome Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports to the Fox Sports family,” said Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks in a statement. “Dave has built a one-of-a-kind brand that connects with a new generation of sports fans—authentic, bold, and original. Their unique voice and loyal fanbase makes them a natural fit for our evolving multiplatform content strategy.”
That content strategy is a very specific one that caters to a specific audience, and that should raise the eyebrows of everyone not in the “Bro”, MAGA, or generally insensitive, arrogant and ignorant crowd.
That’s why Black media, especially independent Black media, is needed now more than ever.
And to be even more specific, credible, professional and knowledgeable Black media.
With the addition of the Barstool Sports platform, Fox is aligning itself with an owner known for misogyny, sexism and other forms of negativity.
And they don’t care because that group loves those views like a fat kid loves cake (thanks 50 Cent).
Fox is running the risk that ESPN faced during its ill-fated, one-episode partnership with Portnoy and the Barstool Van Talk program in 2017.
“While we had approval on the content of the show, I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content,” said ESPN’s John Skipper at the time after canceling the partnership after that single episode and admitting the risk he took of coming too close to the Portnoy brand.
Yet instead of setting Barstool back, the abrupt cancellation ended up fueling the company’s growth.
After unleashing a tirade at ESPN, Portnoy rallied his audience and grew the brand to where he eventually sold it to Penn Gaming for $500 million before buying it back for $1 after Penn entered a $1.5 billion sports betting partnership with ESPN.
Now he’ll be seen every Saturday on Fox Sports.
This was the goal for those aligned with talking heads like Jason Whitlock and Clay Travis, and Fox’s new partnership signals that sports media has shifted to the right, aligning with the political power in the white house.
