Time will be the test to see if new ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro can rescue the sports network from the social-justice oriented quagmire it’s been in for the last couple of years, but his decision to give host Jemele Hill her walking papers is a step in the right direction.
Hill’s commentary about President Trump, the NFL anthem protests, race, and other political hot button issues was an embarrassment to the network and had no place on a platform dedicated to the objective coverage of sports. She was a race-baiting leftist who will no doubt plunge headfirst into racial politics now that her stint with ESPN is over. The network made little use of her over the past few months, and ESPN is already improved for having her off the payroll.
The New York Post reports that Pitaro is on a mission to remove politics from the ESPN brand, and that conflicted with Hill’s desire to inject more politics into her commentary, both on the network and on social media.
“Pitaro has made it clear ESPN is a sports network and does not want to be associated with politics, so he agreed to a buyout with Hill, according to sources,” reported the Post. “ESPN had no use for Hill on any of its programs after her ill-fated 6 p.m. ‘SportsCenter’ with her former partner, Michael Smith, failed to deliver ratings. She first left Smith behind by quitting the show before the executive in charge of the program, Norby Williamson, had a chance to replace her. She would have been removed.”
Hill became the latest quasi-celebrity to ride Trump hatred to greater notoriety last September, when she called Trump a “white supremacist” on her Twitter account. ESPN admonished her for drawing politics into her social media account, but Hill was not formally reprimanded or suspended. This led Hill to believe she could do whatever she wanted, including starting political action against an NFL team. After Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones said that his players would not be kneeling for the national anthem, Hill wrote: “Change happens when advertisers are impacted. If you feel strongly about JJ’s statement, boycott his advertisers.”
This was obviously not what ESPN needed their anchors to be doing on social media; the network’s contract with the NFL and their relationship with teams like the Dallas Cowboys is worth, oh, roughly a trillion dollars more than their employment of Jemele Hill. The network suspended Hill for two weeks and got her to cough up an apology.
Nonetheless, her social media accounts have been hotbeds of leftist, racial politics ever since, and it was only a matter of time before ESPN sent her packing. Good riddance, say we.
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