Sarah Sanders’ Wednesday White House press briefing may not have caused ESPN to fire Jemele Hill, but it appears to have moved ESPN to make her speak.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders addressed the issue of Jemele Hill’s tweets, in which the ESPN host referred to President Trump as a “white supremacist.” Sanders called the tweets, “outrageous,” and said they represented “a fireable offense by ESPN.”
Late Wednesday night, Jemele Hill issued a new statement via Twitter:
So, to address the elephant in the room … #Facts pic.twitter.com/RTrIDD87ut
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 14, 2017
ESPN Public Relations, then issued a follow-up to Hill’s statement: “Jemele has a right to her personal opinions, but not to publicly share them on a platform that implies that she was in any way speaking on behalf of ESPN. She has acknowledged that her tweets crossed that line and has apologized for doing so. We accept her apology.”
In Hill’s defense, she never implied that her opinions of Trump reflected those of ESPN. Now, all one has to do is look at ESPN’s recent history and the statements of their various personalities, and one can quite reasonably deduce that Hill’s comments are well-within the mainstream of company opinion when it comes to Donald Trump. However, she made the comments on her own personal Twitter account. Which makes the case that Hill was speaking for the network, much flimsier.
The other part of the equation has to do with ESPN’s acceptance of Hill’s apology. Why was Hill apologizing to ESPN? Did Jemele Hill call ESPN a white supremacist? Did Jemele Hill claim that ESPN’s rise to stardom and power was due to the ascendancy of white supremacy?
Hill not only attacked Trump, she claimed that the man who won 30 states owed his seat of power to the rise of white racism. Which, can only mean that Jemele Hill thinks that the majority voting bodies of 30 states are rabid racists. Yet, she only apologizes to ESPN? Why not apologize to the man she called a white supremacist without any factual support? Why not apologize to the millions of people she slandered as racists, simply because they voted for him?
Based on her tweets, Jemele Hill clearly believes we live in a country overrun by white supremacists. A striking belief, considering that her career and life would be impossible if we lived in the country she believes we live in. In the mother of all ironies Hill, and her success, are living proof that we don’t live in the world she imagines.
But hey, I’m glad she has respect for ESPN and her colleagues. Her level of respect for the rest of us? Not quite as high.
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