Deacfreak07
Ain't played nobody, PAWL!
Yes, but ESPN's politics can't be brushed aside as a nonfactor either. Red state America is gaga about sports, and they didn't particularly care about the plight of Michael Sam or Jenner. ESPN wasn't just covering those stories, but engaging in Connecticut bubble-based issue advocacy. It was absolutely a factor in people tuning out. FS1 was doing the same stupid ESPN shows without the advocacy. Of course, FS1 has been mostly terrible because it did adopt the same model, but its existence is a factor, as are all the other things you mentioned, the emergence of league networks, etc...
So how do the mechanics of this work? Rubes are cancelling their cable to boycott ESPN? Because they punish Fox News with the same action, so...