Michael Wilbon on Bruce Pearl Credit: Pardon the Interruption on ESPN
By Sam Neumann on

Craig Carton would know a thing or two about being taken off the air.

The longtime New York sports radio host-turned-FS1 personality saw the third iteration of his morning show on the network canceled by Fox Sports earlier this year. Breakfast Ball has promptly been replaced by Wake Up Barstool, which hasn’t exactly been killing it from a ratings standpoint, but that’s not the point.

The point is that Carton, who was previously convicted of orchestrating a Ponzi-style ticketing scam, has since taken his talents to a conservative podcast network under the Fox umbrella and is doing his best to endear himself to the right.

That came this week when he suggested that Michael Wilbon should be pulled off the air for saying that now-former Auburn men’s basketball coach, Bruce Pearl, was divisive.

“He had become a divisive person, it seems to me, intentionally. And I hope there was pressure to get him out,” Wilbon said of Pearl.

Carton took exception to the Pardon the Interruption star’s characterization of Pearl, who frequently appears on Fox News and previously teased running as a United States senator to potentially replace Tommy Tuberville, who appears destined to enter the Alabama Governor’s race.

The former WFAN host claimed there was no proof that Pearl had said anything divisive, pointing out that Pearl, a Jewish-American, was merely using his platform to advocate on behalf of the hostages in Gaza. Carton went as far as to state that Wilbon sounded like an antisemite for his remarks, which did nothing more than imply that Pearl was a divisive person who said divisive things.

“That’s a negative. That’s putting a guy down,” Carton said on his eponymous show earlier this week. “That’s taking a shot at a guy… What [Pearl] did was, he wanted to use the platform of an NCAA press conference to make people want and encourage people to remember that there were still hostages in Gaza. Bruce Pearl’s a Jewish American. Obviously, there’s a greater sensitivity for Jews based on what’s going on out there. And he said, ‘I want to make sure everybody remembers Edan Alexander,’ an Israeli American, who at the time was being held hostage. ‘And I made sure my team was OK with it. I asked their permission.’ Period. Stop. That’s the only thing this is about.

“So, Michael Wilbon finds that to be divisive. Well, shame on you, Michael Wilbon. I don’t know that you’re an antisemite, but you sure sound like one. Am I being responsive if I accuse you of being one, since you said that a head coach using his platform to remind people of hostages being held in a foreign land is divisive? When he took the temperature of his own locker room, first, and asked his players for permission. How is that divisive? Just come out and say it. You hate [Donald] Trump. He loves Trump. So he’s being divisive to your way of thinking.”

@craigcartonshow @craigcarton thinks Michael Wilbon is divisive. #espn #pardontheinterruption #brucepearl #disney #auburn ♬ original sound – The Craig Carton Show

Except Wilbon never said or insinuated that it had anything to do with his comments about the hostages in Gaza.

It’s also worth noting that Pearl, while coaching at Auburn, claimed that former President Barack Obama himself was “divisive” and responsible for the current state of the country in 2025. He bemoaned Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy by denigrating her “socialist, woke progressive beliefs.” And just before he retired, Pearl cheered on FBI Director Kash Patel and his “friend” Dan Bongino, for their efforts to “make America safer with way less politicization than the Biden Administration.”

Those are only a few examples, but you get the point. A quick scouring of Pearl’s timeline on X and maybe a few clips of his frequent Fox News appearances would tell you all you need to know, and why someone with so much clout in the sports media industry would refer to him as “divisive.”

But Wilbon merely saying that Pearl tended to cause disagreement or hostility between people — with no mention of Israel, Gaza, the hostages, or Pearl’s Jewish identity — was enough for Carton to suggest that he should be taken off the air, like Jimmy Kimmel.

“If ABC is pulling people off the air, like Jimmy Kimmel, maybe they should consider pulling Michael Wilbon off the air,” said Carton, seemingly not realizing that Disney is the parent company of both ABC and ESPN. “Because what Michael Wilbon did [Monday] on PTI, in my opinion, as gross as what Jimmy Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk was, what Wilbon did is worse. Because it’s unchecked. There’s no context to it. And you’re talking about a man who has dedicated his life to educating and coaching young people, predominantly African-Americans, who happen to play basketball.”

“We collectively as an audience deserve better than you,” Carton continued. “You are not, even though you want to be, the self-appointed czar of morality in broadcasting and sports. Get off your high horse and look in the mirror once in a while.”

Wilbon made a straightforward comment about Pearl being divisive without mentioning politics, religion, or foreign policy. That Carton immediately jumped to antisemitism accusations and termination demands suggests he’s looking for controversy where none really existed.

But that’s where Carton is now, as he attempts to endear himself to the right as he (again) looks for his next sports media venture in trying to talk in a medium where his voice is no longer one that people resonate with.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann