ESPN Tried to Fire and Replace Jemele Hill

ESPN Tried to Fire and Replace Jemele Hill

The White House has been calling for ESPN to fire Jemele Hill since she took to Twitter to (rightfully) call President Donald Trump a white supremacist and an unqualified, unfit, ignorant and offensive president. At first, it seemed that Hill continued to anchor her daily SportsCenter show without incident. Now it turns out ESPN was actually well on its way to submitting to the White House’s demands.

In a story broken by ThinkProgress, while it may seem like Hill was allowed to continue on with her show, ESPN reportedly made multiple attempts to kick her off it and replace her with another black host.

First, ESPN tried to keep Hill off the air but otherwise continue with the show normally. But Hill’s co-host, Michael Smith, wouldn’t do the show without her. Apparently, this did not deter ESPN’s producers: According to ThinkProgress story, they then reached out to Michael Eaves and Elle Duncan to replace both hosts. Only when Eaves and Duncan refused did ESPN reportedly give in and allow the show to continue on without replacing anybody. ESPN, however, refutes this account, saying it always wanted Hill and Smith to stay on the show.

Hill, meanwhile, has not deleted her offending tweets. And she shouldn’t.

 
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