Trump-Hating Jemele Hill Leaving ESPN, Still Getting Huge Multi-Million Buyout - Report
Much like CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta, ESPN’s sports commentator Jemele Hill is no stranger to being in headlines. Going beyond reporting stories, both have arguably shown a penchant for creating controversy.
Now word has broken that Hill may be out at ESPN. The reason, according to Variety, is possibly that her political commentary just was not a fit with the company.
Citing a meeting between ESPN President James Pitaro and reporters earlier this month, Variety wrote that Pitaro was not happy with political commentary taking place on the network.
“The executive emphasized that ESPN’s role is to cover sports news without any particular political bias. While ESPN reporters can certainly cover the ways in which sports intersect with politics, he said, he would prefer that the company’s journalists and commentators not offer their own opinions on political matters.”
Hill has not shied away from sharing her political opinions. One of her more controversial comments was shared on Twitter in 2017:
Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
On the same day, she made another tweet along the same line. This one also did not go over well with much of the public:
He loves black people so much that he pandered to racists by using a flag that unquestionably stands for dehumanizing black people. https://t.co/ukbl3RodoP
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
Days later she took to Twitter again. This time she addressed “the elephant in the room”:
So, to address the elephant in the room … #Facts pic.twitter.com/RTrIDD87ut
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 14, 2017
However, just the day before ESPN had put out its own tweet on the matter. The network made it clear even then that they had a problem with her political commentary:
ESPN Statement on Jemele Hill: pic.twitter.com/3kfexjx9zQ
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 12, 2017
According to Fox News, that was far from the only time she raised controversy. “The next month, ESPN suspended Hill for two weeks after she posted a tweet suggesting that viewers boycott advertisers of the Dallas Cowboys. She was voicing disagreement with owner Jerry Jone’s comments on NFL players’ protests during the playing of the national anthem.”
That suspension, according to Fox News, was later followed by her being “reassigned to ESPN’s ‘Undefeated’ website, which covers the intersection of sports and racial issues.”
In January 2018, Hill had told Variety that, “So much of my career at ESPN – almost exclusively at some points – has been in commentary. They hired me as a columnist. I’ve been giving my opinion since day one.”
Earlier this moth, Hill told the Detroit Metro Times that she was “in no rush to leave ESPN — she says she has ‘unfinished business’ there.” She went on to hint about future plans, down the road.
“It would be foolish of me not to think of what else is possible for me beyond ESPN because of my personal desires and things I still wish to accomplish. I know that whenever I kick off the next iteration of my career, it will involve me getting more deeply involved in producing original content. There are avenues opening up for women of color to provide different perspectives that’s something we really wanted to take a hard look at.”
This fits well with a report on Twitter regarding her future. It’s been reported that she has her own production company:
As first reported by @JimMiller, @jemelehill is leaving ESPN. She approached management. Hill and @KelleyLCarter have a production company — Lodge Freeway Media — so that will be part of her post-ESPN world. She leaves ESPN in September after wrapping up some stuff.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) August 26, 2018
But that’s not all. The New York Post wrote that Hill’s “reported $2.5 million per year contract” has been bought out.
Her last day with ESPN is slated to be Friday, September 7, according to what sources told the New York Post.
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