At nearly midnight on Wednesday evening, Jemele Hill took to Twitter to address “the elephant in the room.” Of course, that would be the controversy stemming from Hill referring to President Trump as a “white supremacist” on Twitter. “My comments on Twitter expressed my personal beliefs,” Hill wrote. “My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light. My respect for the company and my colleagues remains unconditional.”
In “Deep Six: Jemele Hill and the Fight for the Future of ESPN,” The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis chronicles the dilemma Hill, the new co-host of ESPN’s SC6, has before her, writing: “This tension — between being the fearless opinion-slinger ESPN hired and honoring the legacy of a venerable franchise — isn’t just the kind of thing that’s on Jemele Hill’s mind. It’s the very dilemma of the network she’s trying to help reinvent.”
Hill had a right to her opinion—which was wellarguedinaseriesofsubsequenttweets she posted—then and now. However, with respect to what if any discipline was due to Hill for daring to be both an employee and a Black woman with political opinions, the decision should only be made by ESPN. No outside influence, be it racist, antagonistic trolls or someone working for the administration of a man Hill rather astutely sized up ought to have a say in the matter.
Unfortunately, one White House official felt otherwise, using a gross abuse of power to try and sway a major network on how to deal with its employees.
Standing before the White House podium, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared that Hill’s criticism of the president was a “fireable offense by ESPN.” In past months, we’ve learned of Trump aides complaining to media executives about anti-Trump commentators, but this was done in public during a press event covered by several news networks, and thus before an audience of millions. This administration is largely fueled by anomaly, but Sanders’ actions are as despicable as they are frightening.
A White House press secretary standing before a podium with the White House emblem to call for the firing of an individual citizen is not a tenet of democracy. It is yet another example of the Trump administration behaving as if we all live in an autocracy in which a large orange glob of stupidity and bigotry is the supreme ruler whom we dare never challenge. Furthermore, Sanders seems to believe the rest of us are as forgetful as she is.
