ESPN Tried to Kick Jemele Hill Off the Air and Replace Her with Another Black Host
Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube
Jemele Hill is departing as co-anchor of ESPN's SportsCenter but will remain with the Disney-owned network where she is currently under a multi-year deal.
READ: ESPN Reportedly Tried To Yank Jemele Hill Off The Air After Her Donald Trump Tweets
In a report from Sports Illustrated, Hill will join the staff of ESPN vertical The Undefeated next month, although her responsibilities remain unknown. ESPN did not provide a comment on the move but sources close to the situation say that Hill's choice to move was hers, that she asked management for the switch, and she is happy with that decision.
In February, ESPN relaunched SportsCenter as SC6 with Hill and Michael Smith as its new anchors. Hill had previously found herself in the middle of controversy for referring to Donald Trump as a "white supremacist" on Twitter last year.
She ended up addressing the controversy in an essay where she previously wrote:
"Twitter wasn't the place to vent my frustrations because fair or not, people can't or won't separate who I am on Twitter from the person who co-hosts the 6 p.m. SportsCenter. Twitter also isn't a great place to have nuanced, complicated discussions, especially when it involves race…Lesson learned."
Hill then received a two-week suspension for several tweets she posted telling football fans to stop purchasing Dallas Cowboys merchandise, after team owner Jerry Jones said he would punish players that kneeled during the national anthem.
Source: Sports Illustrated
