Generally I respect your posts - but on this subject - what's wrong with someone not liking a corporate establishment and therefor electing to minimize their business with said establishment? Of course ABC/ESPN/Disney will do just fine w/o us, but that isn't so much the point as the point being they (the consumer) have decided that they don't want their $ going that firm. Frankly, we do this every day as consumers - sometimes with conscientious objections to a brand and sometimes with deep seated bias that many probably don't give much thought too. The classic example would be coffee, many loathe either Dunkin or Starbucks for what they perceive the other brand stands for - whether its really true or not.
Admittedly I have mixed feelings. As I said earlier, as a CT resident & tax payer, I want ESPN to succeed very much...but as a consumer - I purposefully avoid the channel as much as possible and if I could, I would probably cut out of my sports package. Yes - I do feel - given the anecdotal evidence collected over the past 5 years of CRA that ESPN has had an active hand in forcing realignment. They have been an enabler. Partly this is the force of Adam Smith (straight economics) and partly - in my own opinion - due to bias at worst or indifference at best by ESPN beancounters & decision makers. That all said, I hope someone at ESPN pens a tell all book at CRA 30 years from now that gets the truth out there - what ever it is.
One other thought about ESPN....the channel is chock full itself and its brand. Its especially good at ignoring all other media outlets, particularly national media outlets it perceives as competition.
Bottomline - yes I am bitter about CRA and that bitterness drives me to minimize my ESPN watching (I don't watch their news/non live sports broadcasting). Silly, perhaps. Unproductive, perhaps. Do I feel a little better about myself...yes.
These days - for tv sports news coverage, I mostly watch SNY Geico Sports Night. 'Get your NY sports here.'