Since roughly around the summer of 2016, when Colin Kaepernick’s protests coincided with the election of President Donald Trump, ESPN has faced constant criticism from both sides of the political aisle over its coverage of wider political and social issues around sports.
While talent leads that debate on air and therefore receives the bulk of the criticism, management behind the scenes often dictates coverage far more than individual hosts. And for many years, ESPN EVP David Roberts was looked at as one of the driving forces advocating for addressing the intersection between sports and politics.
As Roberts steps into retirement this year, ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro and content head Burke Magnus have reimagined the network’s output to focus more directly on sports and be more celebratory in tone. Roberts’ departure could be seen as a further indication that ESPN will distance itself from “outside-the-lines” commentary.
In an interview this week on the Higher Learning podcast, Roberts gave his thoughts on the current dynamics facing talent who want to speak out, and how management can sometimes get in the way.
“I was always unafraid to challenge within the organization that especially nothing drove me crazier than, ‘Well, you know, we don’t mix politics with sports, and covering issues like that is crossing the boundary of politics into sports,'” he said.
Some may see talent as stepping out of line to address certain hot-button issues, but Roberts seems also to blame executives who will not support them.
“It’s a problem when you have executives who want to fall behind the ‘well this is sports’ mentality,” he said. “And that’s just never been me, because that’s not reality.”
Under previous ESPN president John Skipper, the network was thought to embrace social commentary and political conversation on air actively. Many hosts who were figureheads for that regime, including Dan Le Batard, Bomani Jones, Jemele Hill, Sarah Spain and Will Cain, have left since new chair Jimmy Pitaro took over.
Now, Roberts says, the mandate for hosts is to be selective about when they discuss social and political issues.
“I think the edict is to make sure that there is a connection to sports,” he explained.
That ultimately leaves more of the judgment up to the host. Moreover, even when hosts attempt to keep their personal views wrapped inside their own social media channels, audiences still often attach such commentary to the company.
Roberts acknowledged that personal views can be “mischaracterized,” though sometimes this is certainly intentional from bad actors, as emblematic of what ESPN or Disney’s corporate position is. In 2017, Hill was suspended for calling Trump a “white supremacist” on X (then Twitter), and later was punished for encouraging a boycott of NFL corporate sponsors.
These days, Roberts coaches talent to be strategic in when and how they throw their punches.
“My guidance to them is that you have to be strategically ahead of the game,” he said. “You have to pick your battles. I’ve had to learn that over the course of my 48 years in this business.”
Many talent agree that the network may not always be the proper place to entertain broader conversations, and have gone on to create platforms for themselves that are more effective.
The interview was done before ESPN laid off Ryan Clark, one of the more politically outspoken hosts left at the network. If anything, that move may be a further indicator that Roberts’ viewpoint has diminishing support inside the walls of the Worldwide Leader as he departs.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.