After ESPN radio host and Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard put up an array of tongue-in-cheek billboards reading, “You’re Welcome, LeBron. Love, Miami.” his ESPN higher-ups apparently didn’t find his brand of humor quite as funny and suspended him until Monday.
The Worldwide Leader suspended Le Batard from his radio show for two days, the Miami Herald notes.
The billboards will be up for a month in the Akron/Cleveland area, and there is an event today officially welcoming LeBron back home after he announced he was joining the Cavs in free agency this summer.
“Dan will be off the air for two days, returning Monday,” ESPN said in their statement about the suspension. “His recent stunt does not reflect ESPN’s standards and brand. Additionally, we were not made aware of his plans in advance.”
The producer of Dan’s ESPN show, Mike Ryan, was going to be in Akron today to report on the homecoming and make light of it as entertainment. But today’s show has obviously been canceled and Le Batard, Ryan and co-host Jon Weiner will be unable to make light of James’ return.
Le Batard texted Herald colleague Greg Cote about the suspension, saying, “I guess ESPN didn’t find it all quite as funny as I did.”
Dan’s ESPN show, Highly Questionable, wasn’t supposed to air on Thursday or Friday, but will return on Monday along with his radio show on ESPN affiliate 790 The Ticket. According to Le Batard, ESPN has never tried to censor his content on the radio since he started in October last year.
Barry Jackson of the Herald asked Maureen Lesourd, the general manager of 790 The Ticket, whether the suspension was unfair or ESPN had overstepped their bounds.
“I don’t feel I should comment one way or the other. Am I happy I don’t have Dan’s show on today? Of course I’m not happy. I love Dan. He’s a great contributor to the station,” she said. “The fans were offended, so for The Ticket it was a brilliant local promotion and meant for fun, but I have to respect stunts like this don’t work for a national outlet like ESPN.”
Le Batard, for his part, didn’t mean to offend, saying the billboards were “all meant in fun — which, of course, will turn into Cleveland people getting filled with rage, poison and irrational hostility and want to use those billboards as a guillotine. Sports are so great, the more irrational the better. This is a publicity stunt disguised as a movement… It’s just fun anarchy.”
We wrote this yesterday, but four years after Cleveland fans burned jerseys, wrote comic sans letters personally attacking James and genuinely acted like children throwing a temper tantrum, it’s not inconceivable Miami might do something similar after they were left LeBron-less. Le Batard was actively trying to stir up trouble and the suspension just augments the story further.
Was it fair for ESPN to suspend Le Batard for the billboard stunt?
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