Come on man, tennis and golf more popular than running and soccer? 2 elitists sports vs. 2 everyman sports. Look at the participation numbers here in America. Although people look at both sports as "European," they still have huge numbers.
The sports networks may have unwarranted increased coverage for tennis and golf because of advertising, sponsorship, etc. in specific high-dollar markets, geared toward those viewers in the Northeast. Very, very few people play, never mind care about tennis, and golf is at the very least a white-collar sport, and even then a niche sport in that social class.
Unfortunately, running coverage just isn't that exciting, so not shown unless it's the Olympics. Soccer competes with football, and quite frankly could possibly be a concerted effort by the powers that be to keep in in its place (as an import sport) by not covering it.
Even ESPN news or sportcenter, whatever they want to call it, is not an objective source for sports news. It is completely subjective, and often demeaning of athletes and fringe sports. ESPN is better compared to infomercials, TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, or Access Hoolywood, than to objective news.