Bob Iger says he and Jimmy Pitaro thought ESPN coverage “swung a little bit too far away from the field” to societal and...
"Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right."
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Nick Wright says much of the Jemele Hill criticism was “unfair,” adds “talking about race is not talking about politics”
"Talking about race is not talking about politics and that discussion has been hijacked. If you acknowledge race, racism, or the racial climate in this country, people say you’re talking about politics. Talking about equal rights is not political."
Jalen Rose bashes Shania Twain over Trump comments, says “Welcome to the walk of shame” in deleted tweet tagging Get Up
"And then you know what she did after that? She apologized. And apologized again. And apologized again. To the point where, I’m tired of reading her apologies."
FiveThirtyEight moves to ABC News, continuing ESPN transition away from politics and personality-focused sites
This fits in as part of ESPN's larger shifts since they launched FiveThirtyEight back in 2014.
New ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro tells employees “I do not believe that we are a political organization.”
"I do not believe that we are a political organization. ...Of course, there is going to continue to be an intersection of between sports and politics and we’re going to continue to cover that. We’re going to cover it fairly and honestly. But we are focused on serving the sports fan."
Michael Wilbon and Marc J. Spears blast Laura Ingraham’s LeBron comments, with Wilbon saying “she comes off like a bigot”
"It's interesting that all these uberconservatives talk about what stable geniuses they are, but they sound like morons when they try and dictate to other people what they should talk about, what they're smart enough to talk about. She comes off like a bigot."
Stephen A. Smith wants everyone at ESPN to stick to sports except for him
Frequent cable news guest Stephen A. Smith says ESPN should stick to sports.
ESPN calls Katie Nolan’s “f***ing stupid” remark on President Trump “inappropriate,” says “we have addressed it with her”
"We have looked into the totality of Nolan’s comments, they were inappropriate and we have addressed it with her."
Jemele Hill’s political comments on Nick Saban in NY Mag interview suggest potential ambiguities in ESPN’s new policies
"What was Nick Saban’s responsibility? Considering that one of the candidates has said some ignorant and pointed things about African-Americans, and with [Saban] having mostly black players, did he bear some responsibility to speak up?"
Does New York Times’ new social media policy create a blueprint for ESPN to follow?
Distinguishing between reporting and editorializing has become difficult territory for many media outlets in this current political climate.
Jemele Hill: Tweets about Donald Trump “were about right and wrong”
"The intersection of sports and politics is the most pronounced we've seen in decades."
Some ESPN executives believe Fox is “orchestrating attacks” against their network
"For some in Bristol, Fox News’ role in hyping these stories is an examples of a rival putting its main competitor in a poor light — going so far as to plug its sister sports network."
Jemele Hill was right, but ESPN may still need to address political commentary
Anything that buttresses the liberal ESPN narrative even remotely will cause it to flare up again.
