Former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling responded to ESPN and Disney’s handling of host Jemele Hill’s Twitter rant in which she accused President Trump, his White House and many of his supporters of being “white supremacists.” Schilling, who was fired for posting an “anti-transgender” meme, smacked ESPN and its parent company for its double standard.
“She didn’t get fired ‘cau[s]e [D]isney and ESPN are fine w/liberal racism vs conservative logic,” Schilling tweeted Wednesday.
Schilling was responding to a series of tweets posted by Hill on the anniversary of 9/11 that accuse Trump of being a white supremacist and having “largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.” The only reason he was elected, she suggested, is widespread racism. Ignoring Trump’s alleged white supremacy, she added, is the “height of white privilege.”
Here’s the text of Hill’s tweets (which she has not deleted) in paragraph form:
Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists. The height of white privilege is being able to ignore his white supremacy, because it’s of no threat to you. Well, it’s a threat to me. Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period. He is unqualified and unfit to be president. He is not a leader. And if he were not white, he never would have been elected
In response to the inflammatory posts, ESPN’s parent company, Disney, simply issued a vague statement distancing itself from the “inappropriate” comments but saying that the situation was dealt with internally. In other words, she would not be significantly disciplined like conservatives Schilling or Linda Cohn.
As Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro noted, ESPN’s response to Hill’s comments contrasts with its recent response to Cohn. When Cohn criticized ESPN’s obsessive focus on politics, she was reportedly suspended:
Schilling has been outspoken in his criticism of ESPN since he was fired in April 2016 for posting the following meme at the height of the transgender bathroom debate:
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“A man is a man no matter what they call themselves,” Schilling added. “I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.”
That didn’t go over so well at the strongly pro-LGBT Disney and ESPN. He was quickly fired.
Another former ESPN employee who was reportedly fired for her political views is Britt McHenry, who says she was axed simply for being a Trump supporter and openly conservative.
While some on the Right are calling for Hill to be fired, others are defending her — and Cohn, Schilling, Mike Ditka, Chris Broussard, and the others fired or disciplined for espousing political views ESPN and Disney don’t like. Here’s how Shapiro puts it:
Some on the Right, angry with Hill, have called for her suspension or firing. That would be understandable for business reasons — ESPN would have every right to take the position that Hill had alienated half of their audience, and thereby undercut their revenue model. But on principle grounds, Hill shouldn’t lose her job: she’s a sports anchor who sounded off on politics, and she’s been given a mandate by the brass to talk politics in precisely the way she did. Other ESPN hosts have spoken out in similar fashion. She and her equally uninspiring co-host, Michael Smith, speak politically routinely, which is one of the reasons their show is nearly unwatchable.
Which means that the same should hold true for Cohn. Cohn hasn’t been nearly as political on television. She has kept her opinions largely to herself, other than speaking out in interviews on ESPN’s increasing politicization. If ESPN is willing to let Hill off the hook, it should certainly leave Cohn alone.