Layoffs have affected every corner of the media world for years, but few are as emotional or as impactful as Greg Cote’s departure from the Miami Herald.
The longtime sports columnist was laid off this week after 54 years at the newspaper, one of the longest and most decorated tenures in modern media history. Dan Le Batard’s wife, Valerie Scheide, broke the news in a video on Cote’s social media page, while Le Batard was heard audibly screaming and swearing in the background.
While the video and the news broke in a way only the Dan Le Batard universe could, the host gave a much calmer breakdown of his thoughts when his program returned to air this week.
Le Batard condemned the paper for the “immoral” and “cold” way it severed ties with its legendary columnist. He also said it’s yet another example of private equity destroying local journalism and harming local communities.
“Editorial has to be separate from the money, otherwise none of it works.” – Dan Le Batard on Greg Cote and journalism in America pic.twitter.com/tZf3ApZEp5
— The Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) September 15, 2026
“Now the most corrupt of cities doesn’t have a newspaper to fight against that corruption. Greg Cote didn’t do much of that fighting. He worked in the toy department. But he did so with grace for 54 years. And in the end, the way they got rid of him was beyond cold. It was wrong the way it was done, immoral, with no thought to what a company owes someone who has given more than 50 years of service to it,” Le Batard said.
“He will not say it. I will say it on his behalf. It’s not the Miami Herald‘s fault. It’s the fault of everything that happens in this country that makes it so the hedge funds have to make their profit margins wherever they are. It does not matter what gets trampled. In journalism, editorial has to be separate from the money. Otherwise none of it works. Greg Cote’s gone now, and the career ending is sh*t. The punctuation is sh*t.”
Greg Cote talked about his emotions and his final week with the paper he wrote for over 50 years. But while he has kept some distance from talking about the paper and his personal circumstances, his longtime friend and partner has no issue saying it is a symbol of what’s gone wrong in the media world.
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