LAYOFF DAY: WHY HAS ESPN FALLEN?

Wednesday morning, in an effort to cut costs yet again at ESPN, the network quietly laid off nearly 100 employees in what has been alternatively described as a "bloodbath" and a "dark day" for sports media.

ESPN, the sports titan, still is the sports titan in the Americas. (Note that ESPN layoffs are not limited to its main U.S. stations.) The fact the network has gone about its cuts is because they have to pay for their obscenely pricey NFL and NBA rights, as well as to prepare to re-up for a slew of future sports rights in the coming years.

However, that's not hot news. Populists will chalk ESPN's moves to two pet projects of scorn:

• A declining subscriber base (due to)
• Being overly political.

While some ESPN personalities have been very unshy about their progressive political stances on social media, the idea that the network is somehow on a social-justice-warrior trip is misguided. The U.S. conservative media is known to be two things: incendiary and populist; to stroke the fears of ESPN by painting the channel as super-leftist fires up their base, but ultimately this is nothing more than hot smoke. While many people do believe this theory, and even have quit ESPN for sportsmen's political stances aired on its networks, the hype about the politicization of sports fracturing ESPN is largely hearsay.

The declining ESPN subscriber base has been ballyhooed as a rebuke of the SJW-infusion that said right-wing media has gleefully pounced on. Again, fake news. Cable channels everywhere -- including brands like Fox News and Disney Channel -- have seen their numbers sink as the broadcasting world has digitized. Individual sport league channels and strong home-team media, among other factors have fractured the entire TV market. Some people have gradually given up on individual sports teams, sports, leagues or even networks as they hyperfocus on the things they care about most.

Gone are the potpourri of TV channels that provided news, sports and scripted programming on rigid time blocks. Even millennials have chopped down enough that they largely only watch sports at bars, online or through bare-bones cable subscriptions. Netflix and other streaming services have changed the game, often for the better.

ESPN is still very robust on the digital sphere, but the fact that people lost interest in First Take-style programming or don't care for, say, Colin Kaepernick's national anthem stance doesn't mean ESPN has taken the piss in terms of turning left. While there is a level of foolishness in sports personalities being openly political (no matter how unprecedented Trump is), the point is this: fans like small, individualized and local -- and they're getting closer to it.