After 12 years at ESPN, Jemele Hill’s time with the sports media giant is coming to a close, according to multiple reports.
James Miller, author of “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN,” reported that Hill met with ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro and that her buyout/departure was “amicable.”
The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand added that Hill’s last day at “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” will be Aug. 31.
Hill made news last year when she called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” in the wake of the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The comment led White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to call the remarks “a fireable offense.”
In October 2017, Hill was suspended for two weeks by ESPN after suggesting fans could boycott Dallas Cowboys advertisers after team owner Jerry Jones threatened to bench his players if they did not stand for the national anthem.
Trump responded the day after her suspension with a tweet stating: “With Jemele Hill at the mike [sic], it is no wonder ESPN ratings have ‘tanked,’ in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!”
Hill left the coveted 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” slot in February to pursue her “true love” of “writing, reporting and commentary” at The Undefeated, ESPN’s sub-site devoted to sports, race and culture.
Pitaro, who took over for John Skipper in March, made clear earlier this month that he does not want ESPN to be associated with politics and is trying to change the narrative that has surrounded the company and its personalities over the last few years.
“I will tell you ESPN being a political organization is false,” Pitaro said. “I will tell you I have been very, very clear with employees here that it is not our jobs to cover politics, purely.”
The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reports that Hill will work with friend and fellow Undefeated writer, Kelley Carter, on their production company called Lodge Freeway Media, which will provide more freedom with content development.
Hill recently told Detroit Metro Times that she was in no rush to leave ESPN, stating she has “unfinished business” but that her vision for her career beyond the company involved production.
“It would be foolish of me not to think of what else is possible for me beyond ESPN because of my personal desires and things I still wish to accomplish,” said Hill, who launched Lodge Freeway Media with Carter last August, according to Metro Times. “I know that whenever I kick off the next iteration of my career, it will involve me getting more deeply involved in producing original content. There are avenues opening up for women of color to provide different perspectives that’s something we really wanted to take a hard look at.”
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