Amid a conversation about Pablo Torre and how his reporting can feel like it is coming from the yacht club at times, Dan Le Batard expounded on the difficulty of likability. Tony Reali, his former colleague at ESPN with whom he has been friends for two decades, is someone who emits such a trait, which is something Le Batard refers to as his greatest gift. Tim Kurkjian is another former colleague of Le Batard’s at ESPN, and he views him as a rare media entity in that no one has anything bad to say about him. The dichotomy in this situation, however, is in his recognition that most people at the top of the proverbial food chain in terms of fame may not directly correlate to high levels of likability.
Quoting award-winning satellite radio host Howard Stern, Le Batard recognizes that people who do not like you often listen more than those who do. This eventually led Le Batard into recapitulating his opinion that Shannon Sharpe will not return to ESPN after temporarily stepping away from his duties at the company amid being sued for sexual assault and battery.
“I thought all of what Shannon did was carefully staged in order to make it look like that was his decision, and he did ESPN a favor by making it look like all of that because I don’t think ESPN wanted to make any of that worse than it already was by firing him, suspending him or even commenting on any of what’s happening there,” Le Batard said. “So Shannon can exist doing the stuff that he’s doing on the stuff he owns, but the stuff that other people own, he cannot do whatever he wants.”
The argument against that, he explained, is that Sharpe produces ratings, but he has not seen this instance in his lifetime result in a person returning to The Walt Disney Company. At the same time though, he recognizes how the company is operating in a different media landscape in which it has licensed other shows and given them platforms while granting them independence. Because of these circumstances, Le Batard could evince that he may have it wrong in this instance.
“I don’t think we’ll see Shannon Sharpe on ESPN again, but maybe ESPN needs whatever it is that Shannon Sharpe is doing because he is actually one of the few needle movers, but it’s not because of likability, and I like him, but it’s not because of likability,” Le Batard said. “It’s because he gives opinions, and the two things almost, I would say, can’t coexist to be done the very best way that returns ratings given that you’re trying to do something that appeals to the broadest net of people, and therefore you’re going to have people who watch it because they like your cruel.”
Sharpe has primarily appeared on First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith, who Le Batard explained has also become “more performative and wrestling” than ever in his judgment of people. Amin Elhassan, who co-hosted Thursday’s edition of Le Batard’s program, admitted that it relates back to the point made by Stern, but he could see Sharpe returning to ESPN down the road if he is successful. Later in the segment, Jeremy Taché, a producer for The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, admitted that it is difficult to give opinions and remain likable, and people such as Ernie Johnson and Scott Van Pelt host and set up other people.
“People don’t like journalism and they don’t like journalists, and so all of that makes it a difficult thing to overcome if you don’t have any respect for journalism,” Le Batard said. “And on top of that, journalism has been so distorted that what Stephen A. Smith or Emmanuel Acho or whoever it is or Colin Cowherd, whoever it is that’s in the audience acquisition business, you see the compromises that end up getting made in search of that audience. And as the competition grows stronger, that’s only going to get worse and worse — like, you have to keep up.”
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