It is not difficult to understand why cable news channels attract certain audiences.  Conservatives flock to FOX News because it is right-leaning and liberals to left-leaning MSNBC and CNN, but sports are supposed to be apolitical and transcend politics.  ESPN should be attracting sports fans of any and all political persuasions, but that is not the case. Instead, ESPN has strayed from sports into the political arena by making social issues a network cornerstone and by giving liberal political slants to sports stories. Viewership and ratings have dropped significantly and will continue their downward spiral unless or until ESPN leadership wises up and gets back to what it once did best – sports.