An ESPN anchor found herself in a political Twitter argument that led to her ranting about how President Trump is supposedly a white supremacist.
It all started when Jemele Hill, who co-hosts ESPN’s Sportscenter, disparaged Kid Rock for displaying the Confederate flag at his concerts. Her tweet received numerous replies, prompting her to tangle with a Twitter user over Trump.
This is where it started to go off the rails:
That last tweet in particular is a major slap in the face to all the people who voted for Trump, as some felt that he was better than the alternative, Hillary Clinton, and others felt like the Democrat Party had left them behind.
Hill continued to double down that Trump is a white supremacist without providing evidence:
Hill proceeded to completely tear into the Twitter user for supporting Trump; she dismissed Benghazi with whataboutism:
Even ESPN had to distance themselves from Hill’s comments.
“The comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the President do not represent the position of ESPN,” the sports network said in a statement. “We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate.”
You may recall that ESPN fired Hank Williams Jr. in 2011, who sang ESPN’s Monday Night Football theme song, for saying that Barack Obama playing golf with John Boehner was the equivalent of Adolf Hitler and Benjamin Netanyahu playing golf since they’re “mortal enemies.” The network also fired Curt Schilling after he made social media comments critical of transgender bathrooms and radical Islam. And yet it doesn’t seem like Hill is going to face anything more than a slap on the wrist.
ESPN has recently been in hot water for removing college football announcer Robert Lee from announcing a University of Virginia game due to the Charlottesville protests.
Hill’s Twitter screed reflects how sports is becoming more and more politicized, which is driving people away. For instance, a number of people tuned out the NFL in 2016 due to Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest. Sports includes events that people turn to as a release from the stress of daily life, and blending them with politics takes away that enjoyment.
ESPN had to distance themselves from Hill or else risk facing more people tuning out the network, but by refusing to punish her, their left-wing bias is illuminated again.