This is my favorite story of the day.

From James Kratch at our sister site ESNY:

Some wild news out of Syracuse today: Brent Axe, who hosted the local ESPN Radio affiliate’s afternoon drive program, has been canned because he was too negative about the Orange.

No, really. The station bigwig actually said this out loud.

From Syracuse.com:

Galaxy President and CEO Ed Levine said he fired Axe because he believes the content of Axe’s show had become too negative toward Syracuse University sports.

(…)

“I had a problem with the content of the show,” Levine said. “I’m an SU fan. I’m sorry, but I bleed Orange. I’m not going to apologize for that, and I think a fair reading of the Orange is appropriate. I understand (Galaxy has) a business relationship (with Syracuse), that coach (Jim) Boeheim and I are personal friends and he’s an investor in my company.“ I understand and acknowledge all of that. We’ve called it pretty fair, and I would argue we’ve been tough on SU when the on-field or off-field events warrant it. I just think over the past six months it took a different tone and became overly dark and negative. I don’t think that’s what Syracuse fans want to hear.”

That’s wild. This would be like 94 WIP firing Angelo Cataldi for being too negative about the Eagles. It probably works in the exact opposite way down here. You’d likely get promoted for being a Negadelphia dickwad.

This guy Brent Axe was an ESPN Syracuse host going back to 2014 and is also a columnist in the area. Galaxy Media happens to have the Syracuse broadcast rights, and Boeheim has an ownership stake in the company, so it all amounts to this web of interconnected bullshit.

Another Philly example would look something like this:

  1. the Phillies own a portion of NBC Sports Philadelphia
  2. Michael Barkann is too critical of the Phillies during the postgame show
  3. the Phils go to NBC/Comcast and say “we want Barkann gone”
  4. Barkann gets fired

That’s more or less what happened here.