Whitlock: Malika Andrews will learn ESPN’s matriarchal culture kills women, men, and merit

Soon, the relentless social media attack on ESPN broadcaster Malika Andrews’ competence and reputation will be inaccurately blamed on the misogyny of black men.

Wednesday, Andrews trended across Twitter as users criticized her airing of new Celtics Coach Joe Mazulla’s decade-old criminal indiscretions and her failed attempt to publicly scold Stephen A. Smith over the Celtics’ handling of Ime Udoka’s inappropriate sexual relationships.

Andrews, the latest woman king to sit atop ESPN’s diversity, inclusion, and equity Iron Throne, found herself in the same crosshairs that abruptly ended the dynasties of Michelle Beadle, Rachel Nichols, Jemele Hill, Maria Taylor, Cari Champion, and Sage Steele.

Conventional wisdom says sexism explains why the Worldwide Leader in Sports can’t support a woman king the way the network backed Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, and Stuart Scott and now backs Smith.

Conventional wisdom is wrong.

The arrows slung at Andrews are a consequence of ESPN completely abandoning the meritocracy in favor of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Andrews isn’t a victim of male sexism. She’s a victim of toxic feminism’s creation of woke beta males and a reduction in professional standards.

Andrews is the ceiling-shattering Marine who was required to do two pull-ups, complete 10 push-ups, and run the mile in less than eight minutes.

She’s unqualified for her job and everyone knows it. She’s an unproven reporter with a resume that qualifies her for an associate producer role at ESPN and a reporting gig at a station in Des Moines, Iowa. On a positive note, Andrews’ resume is more impressive than the one Beadle used to land a job at ESPN, and it beats Katie Nolan’s bartending work.

Andrews, the 27-year-old host of "NBA Today," got her plum assignment as a result of the catfight between Taylor and Nichols and because she checks every box in the diversity, inclusion, and equity Olympics. She’s half-black, half-Jewish, and plays the love-the-fruit-hate-the-tree dating game. She went to an elite boarding school and worked at her Jewish grandmother’s law firm.

Andrews was born on third base but sits on TV acting like Derek Chauvin spoiled her blind date with George Floyd. ESPN is so enamored with its Blewish princess that the network hired her 24-year-old sister, Kendra, to cover the NBA as a reporter.

Malika and Kendra are the Lonzo and LaMelo Ball of broadcasting.

More likely, they’re Kim and Khloe Kardashian. The Ball brothers earned their NBA contracts. The Andrews sisters are receiving the rewards of Blewish privilege. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

ESPN can’t properly cultivate, develop, and support female broadcasters because the network’s culture is hostile to merit. The animus to merit took root in 1996 when Disney purchased ESPN and blossomed during John Skipper’s 2012-2018 reign as company president.

Skipper oversaw the final transition of ESPN culture from reflecting the values of the sports world to reflecting the values of the Hollywood entertainment industry. Sports reward merit and authenticity. Hollywood rewards scripted diversity, scripted outcomes, and the casting couch.

Nothing has damaged sports more than Disney’s acquisition of the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

It’s why competition has been deemphasized and narrative has been prioritized. Magic Johnson wanted to compete against Larry Bird. LeBron James wants to win a fictional narrative war with Michael Jordan. Competition left the courts and moved to TV debate studios, where broadcasters and jocks cast themselves as groupies and superfans for a particular athlete, team, or city.

Beta males dominate sports media. They cry on air. They feign offense at every slight. They mask their intellectual deficiencies and lack of courage with claims of racism. They’re as passive-aggressive as teenage girls. They’re slaves to the matriarchy.

The weakness and emasculation of men explain the blacklash to Malika Andrews. She would never have called in to "First Take" to scold Stephen A. Smith if Smith hadn’t surrendered his mind to ESPN’s matriarchal culture.

Smith irked Andrews because he complained the Celtics did not reveal and discipline the woman or women involved in a sexual relationship with Udoka.

Smith believes in equality. He thinks the Celtics should hold a six-figure behind-the-scenes female employee to the same standard as a male multimillion-dollar front-facing leader. Kendrick Perkins, another ESPN talking head, argued the same thing on Andrews’ show.

The Celtics justifiably disagree with Smith and Perkins. Perhaps Boston owner Wyc Grousbeck and team president Brad Stevens are real men possessing a biblical worldview. Maybe they read the Bible.

“But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” –Luke 12:48

American culture is in chaos and collapse because men have surrendered their role as leaders. Women and children are suffering because of our cowardice and irresponsibility.

Thanks to ESPN’s guidance, the sports world, where men have dominated, has followed the lead of the secular entertainment world. Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins sound no different from rocker Lenny Kravitz.

Kravitz posted a picture of himself on social media Wednesday holding a sign that read: “It’s time to turn it over to women! Men have had their chance to run the world and look where we are…”

Men who feared God constructed a world that rewarded merit. That’s a world I want to live in. This new world, the one run by matriarchs, simps, beta males, and atheists, rewards whatever it chooses on a given day.

No one survives long in that world. Just ask Michelle Beadle, Jemele Hill, Sage Steele, Rachel Nichols, Cari Champion, Katie Nolan, and Maria Taylor.