In the latest ESPN controversy involving liberal bias and double standards, Jemelle Hill, who co-hosts ESPN’s flagship program, Sporstcenter, went on an unprovoked tweet storm, calling President Trump, and his supporters, “White Supremacists.”
Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
The height of white privilege is being able to ✌?ignore✌?his white supremacy, because it's of no threat to you. Well, it's a threat to me.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
Ironically, this meltdown came just a few months after Hill laughingly claimed that conservative accusations of liberal bias were due to ESPN hiring more women and minorities, and not the actual bias of the content.
“I just had noticed the correlation between us being called more liberal as you see more women in a position on our network… as you see more ethnic diversity, then all of a sudden ESPN is too liberal. So I wonder, when people say that, what they’re really saying,” said Hill.
Clay Travis, who runs the popular sports blog ‘Outkick the Coverage,’ appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss the viral story line.
During the interview, Carlson, who used ESPN’s acronym to describe the Connecticut-based outfit as “Endless Stupid Political Nagging,” asked Travis about Hill seemingly getting off with barely a slap on the wrist (no apology, no suspension).
Originally, .@espn stood for Entertainment & Sports Programming Network. Today, it may as well mean "Endless Stupid Political Nagging" pic.twitter.com/U3tHwIp2oH
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 13, 2017
“It means that nothing actually happened because Jemele Hill is saying what the higher-ups at ESPN believe,” Travis replied. “Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, follows 59 people on Twitter. One of them is Jemele Hill, and I think what has happened is Disney and ESPN have decided ‘we want to be a left-wing sports network.'”
ESPN Statement on Jemele Hill: pic.twitter.com/3kfexjx9zQ
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 12, 2017
Travis said that these fans just want to watch a ball game as an escape.
“They’re alienating their core audience, which is guys and girls who just want to pop a beer and watch a football game,” said Travis. “They don’t want to hear that Colin Kaepernick is a modern-day Rosa Parks. They don’t want to hear, Tucker, that someone like Caitlyn Jenner is a hero that everyone should aspire to be or that Michael Sam, because he likes to sleep with men, is a modern-day Jackie Robinson. Those are things that ESPN wants to sell. That’s why I call them “MSESPN” (referencing MSNBC).”
Travis noted Michael Jordan’s famous apolitical branding strategy, “Republicans buy sneakers too.”