Dan LeBatard is among the most unique voices on ESPN’s airwaves, on any platform. The host of ESPN Radio’s national mid-morning show regularly wades into waters that very few at the network are willing to go, and on Monday he explained why he would not “stick to sports” about the events of the weekend.
LeBatard, the son of two Cuban exiles, explained why he felt it was important to have honest discussion about issues going on in the United States that “feel hugely un-American,” and to do so without it having to relate to sports. He spoke on two different occasions in the first hour of his show about his feelings towards ESPN’s efforts to limit the discussion of Donald Trump’s immigration ban on the network’s airwaves.
Now Mike Ryan put in front of me, diligent executive producer, some sort of memo about how we’re supposed to talk about everything that happened this weekend in immigration and I don’t want to look at it. Part of the thing that we negotiated when we started on this show, more than money, more than anything, was freedom of content. I get what ESPN is afraid of here. They don’t want you talking about things in a way that calls the president an idiot who thinks that he’s smart. That’s the most dangerous kind of idiot, an idiot who doesn’t know he’s an idiot. They don’t want you doing things like that, that then opens up the portal for everybody at ESPN bashing the President in a way that doesn’t discuss the facts and is just anti-Trump and then you alienate part of your audience.
LeBatard, while understanding ESPN’s trepidation in allowing talent to discuss social issues, thinks that by not addressing it openly and insisting that any discussion of Trump’s immigration ban be about Steve Kerr’s comments or the NBA trying to figure out how it affects Luol Deng is a soft way of hiding from the issue.
I think the way that we are doing it is weak. “Hey Steve Kerr is talking about it, let’s talk about Steve Kerr talking about it.” Or “the NBA is asking the State Department what do we do about Luol Deng,” talk about it that way, through the prism of sports, stay in your lane, stay in this corner, as some things that are happening around American that feel hugely un-American have people protesting in the streets that shuts down airports. It just feels unbelievably weak to me to only talk about this through the prism when it is a story that effects the entire culture, in a dangerous time, this feels like the weakest possible way ESPN could enter this discussion, using Steve Kerr as a meat shield.
LeBatard also said the conundrum for the network is that, with everyone having their own social media, there’s no way for ESPN to keep someone from talking about this, and once one person does that, it opens the floodgates. That is exactly what happened with Sage Steele’s Instagram post, which LeBatard ripped, noting that this was exactly what the network wanted to avoid.
The genie is out of the bottle on Twitter and social media…ESPN is trying to keep this genie in the bottle by sending out a memo that keeps us from talking politics, but Sage Steele does this — did you guys see this? See what happened with her on Instagram? She is a trending topic now throughout the country because she took a picture of LAX and she wrote this: So this is why thousands of us dragged luggage nearly two miles to get to LAX but still missed our flights…
This is what ESPN is trying to prevent because once one person does it, it opens the floodgates for the rest of us because of course, I, as the son of exiles, look at this and I’m like what the hell are you talking about your travel plans were affected? What are you talking about? It’s the height of privilege. And so, once you start opening that portal, you get ESPN-on-ESPN crime, you get all of this stuff that ESPN doesn’t want to have, as people think of ESPN as “liberal” leaning. But you can’t give this a voice and then muzzle the rest of us. You can’t give Sage Steele this voice and then muzzle the son of exiles.
LeBatard’s points are all fair. Discussion of things that verge on the political realm — although, the immigration ban goes far beyond “politics” and is a social and moral issue — is something that sports outlets would prefer not to touch, as their viewership and readership are going to have a wide array of political leanings.
However, sticking to sports is almost impossible at this moment. This is a story that transcends sports and is a critical moment in American history, and someone with a background like LeBatard is understandably not willing to hold his tongue on this issue.
(h/t Deadspin)
