The sports world has passed the Jemele Hill story by for a much bigger controversy sparked by Donald Trump, but Hill herself is still dealing with the fallout of the White House calling for her job.
The ESPN broadcaster and journalist wrote an article for The Undefeated explaining her view of the controversy she started when she tweeted that Donald Trump is a “bigot” and “white supremacist” earlier this month. The tweets drew ire from the president and some in the media that accused ESPN of being a liberal company that had a double standard for employees who were seen as liberal.
Part apology and part explanation, Hill writes that the incident is a “lesson learned” for her. Hill said she cried in her meeting with ESPN president John Skipper because she “felt like I had let him and my colleagues down.”
Hill said seeing people like Clay Travis and Curt Schilling rally against ESPN because of her was difficult.
“Since my tweets criticizing President Donald Trump exploded into a national story, the most difficult part for me has been watching ESPN become a punching bag and seeing a dumb narrative kept alive about the company’s political leanings.
If we’re keeping it all the way real, that narrative is often pushed by the folks in the media who benefit most from that notion and all the attention that criticism of ESPN brings.”
It wasn’t all apology, though. Hill also explored the fraught world of covering and talking about sports these days and said the tone and actions of the Trump administration is far from normal.
I also can’t pretend as if the tone and behavior of this presidential administration is normal. And I certainly can’t pretend that racism and white supremacy aren’t real and that marginalized people don’t feel threatened and vulnerable, myself included, on a daily basis.
Yes, my job is to deliver sports commentary and news. But when do my duties to the job end and my rights as a person begin?
I honestly don’t know the answer to that.
She gets at the heart of the problem in that there currently isn’t an answer.
So much of what has happened over the last year or so, in many different areas, is unprecedented. We’re all trying to catch up and figure out where the new lines are. Some felt Hill crossed those lines what feels like months ago now but was only about a fortnight in the past. Everyone — ESPN, it’s viewers and other media types — have simply been trying to catch up since.
