ESPN is drawing criticism after announcing a partnership with Barstool Sports for a new late night cable show, even though its founder once launched an attack on ESPN host Sam Ponder’s “ugly kid” and laughed at an article calling her a slut.
With the announcement that Dan Katz of Barstool Sports will host a show called Barstool Van Talk on ESPN2, Ponder jumped to Twitter to offer a sarcastic “welcome to ESPN” message. In which she referenced a sexist blog post where Katz called Ponder all sorts of names:
Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly) pic.twitter.com/AzgfdDx2FK
— Sam Ponder (@sam_ponder) October 16, 2017
Ponder was a bit confused, though, as the offensive article was not written by Katz but by Barstool blogger Feitelberg and Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. After Katz pointed this out, Ponder tweeted a correction of sorts:
I was wrong in thinking @BarstoolBigCat wrote that article & called me a slut repeatedly. He just continuously laughed along. It was the PRESIDENT of @barstoolsports who said these things. Happy to clarify.
— Sam Ponder (@sam_ponder) October 17, 2017
Still, Ponder was none too happy that her employer was now working with Barstool. In yet another tweet she slammed Barstool for calling her a slut.
And if he wants me to change the tweet to ALL of @barstoolsports sure. I’ll concede that it’s a whole company thing. But he also deleted his tweet to me & they removed the “she’s a slut” rundown. 🏼♀️
— Sam Ponder (@sam_ponder) October 17, 2017
Indeed, as For The Win noted, there is audio of the name calling at Ponder’s expense.
Here's the deleted audio clip Ponder is talking about from 2014 pic.twitter.com/4YZFFeDTGD
— Downwbstool (@bstoolhitjob) October 17, 2017
A potion of the transcript reveals Ponder being called “slutty” and her child being called “ugly.”
I know for a fact that every day at ESPN, all the suits and all the lawyers, they have their annual – not annual, daily – their daily 9:15 coffee meeting on how can we fire Sam Ponder without being sued for like discrimination. Because she is the worst. No person watching GameDay wants to see a picture of her and her ugly kid. Nobody cares Sam Ponder. We want to see you sex it up and be slutty and not see some prude [expletive] jerk who everybody hates and who’s married to the worst quarterback who wears the ring and “God first” and this and that. Shut up. That’s not what you’re there for. And ESPN just can’t find out how to fire you. Because they hate you. Because everyone who watches you hates you. Because all you do is talk about your little rat kid that nobody wants to hear about.
Ponder has refused to back off her criticism tweeting, “Don’t feel sorry for me. I have a voice.”
Don’t feel sorry for me. I have a voice. & even though it can be scary to use it sometimes, (as all my DMs right now confirm) if those of us who have a platform don’t use ours, those without one may not use theirs either. 💪🏼
— Sam Ponder (@sam_ponder) October 17, 2017
ESPN’s Burke Magnus,the executive vice president for programming and scheduling, issued a statement to The Washington Post chastising Barstool for its attacks on Ponder.
“The comments about Sam Ponder were offensive and inappropriate, and we understand her reaction. She is a valued colleague and doing a great job for us,” Magnus told the paper. “As stated previously, we do not control the content of Barstool Sports. We are doing a show with Big Cat and PFT, and we do have final say on the content of that show.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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