ESPN’s huge wave of layoffs back in April and May, caused many former employees of the Bristol-based sports giant to scramble for other jobs in the sports industry. However, one former ESPN employee took the layoff as a chance to get away from sports entirely.
Britt McHenry, formerly a reporter with ESPN, has recently sounded a lot more like a future conservative political debate show panelist, than a sports reporter. Unhindered by her liberal overlords at ESPN, McHenry has become far more politically outspoken, both on social media and on her blog.
McHenry told the Washington Post: “What’s attractive to me right now is more than just sports,” she said. “And there aren’t a lot of women who are not afraid to express their opinion, like I have been, on the Right side. And so again, does that limit outlets? Yeah, but I think if you hate me, or if you love what I’m saying, it’s true to what I think. I’m not making it up. … I feel like a weight’s lifted off my shoulders, that I can say what I believe.”
With that weight lifted, McHenry indicated where she wants her career to go, during an interview with The Federalist Radio Hour: “I’d rather do something that I believe and love than just take a job reading copy or doing a sideline report. I feel like I’ve done that already. I want to enter a new arena.”
McHenry also discussed ESPN’s political disconnect with “middle America.” A disconnect she witnessed personally, while reporting from NFL stadiums in cities across the country: “I think there’s a disconnect to the viewers — and I was on the road all the time, I’ve been in these stadiums, I’ve had fans come up to me — I think a lot of middle America isn’t necessarily acknowledged. I think that when you go on too much of a pioneering social justice stand — if that’s what you believe in, that’s great, good for you — but sports fans just want to watch sports. You can’t ignore that intersection of social issues with athletes and games.”
It certainly sounds like McHenry has found her conservative voice:
When you find the best kind of backdrop… #conservative pic.twitter.com/gLRVd9PXCS
— Britt McHenry (@BrittMcHenry) July 15, 2017
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