Political cosplay at ESPN has worn out its welcome

The past eight years have proven one thing when it comes to corporate sports media: It is impossible to be a courageous truth-teller and dutiful company man at the same time.

This is one of my takeaways from Jason Whitlock’s crusade against some of the most popular names in sports, including Stephen A. Smith. Smith had social media buzzing after recording a profanity-laced response to questions Whitlock raised about the face of ESPN’s new memoir.

I hope sports personalities like Smith finally start to realize that their days of LARPing as a cross between Huey P. Newton and Howard Cosell are over.

The revolution has been corporatized, and even Stevie Wonder can see that on-air commentators have partisan limits on what they can say.

ESPN has been involved in politics and cultural movements for a long time. The network gave Bruce Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPYS for “coming out” as a transgender woman named “Caitlyn.”

A steady stream of athletes and analysts spent years trying to convince viewers that Colin Kaepernick was a freedom fighter after he started kneeling in 2016 to protest racial injustice during the national anthem.

It is still far easier for someone in corporate sports media to call a Republican a “white supremacist” than it is to call Lia Thomas a man.

Social and political commentary from ESPN personalities and other sports media figures amped up considerably in 2020 after the death of George Floyd and the spread of COVID-19.

Jemele Hill appeared on MSNBC to talk about racism in NASCAR after a rope found in Bubba Wallace’s garage was described as a “noose” and investigated as a hate crime by the FBI.

As a sign of how quickly the winds of culture can change, Orlando Magic power forward Jonathan Isaac had to explain in 2020 why he chose to stand during the national anthem.

Malika Andrews facilitated an on-air therapy session for two former NBA players after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder charges.

Stephen A. Smith tried to lead a national conversation on race after a Duke volleyball player accused BYU fans of hurling racial slurs at her during a game.

Elle Duncan criticized the state of Florida on the air in March 2022 for a bill to prevent elementary school teachers from talking to young children about sexual orientation and gender identity. She later posted an ESPN-produced clip to Twitter asking why more “girl dads” weren’t standing up to ensure their daughters could abort their grandchildren.

Mina Kimes took to “Around the Horn” to support natal males in girls’ sports. The show’s host, Tony Reali, ended the clips with the familiar slogan “trans rights are human rights,” before walking off the set.

Transgender ideology shows just how compromised corporate media mouthpieces truly are. People who make a living dissecting the performance of highly skilled athletes go blind, deaf, and mute when it comes to physical differences between men and women. Even though ESPN distanced itself from Jemele Hill in 2017 after she criticized President Trump on Twitter, it is still far easier for someone in corporate sports media to call a Republican a “white supremacist” than it is to call Lia Thomas a man.

This is one reason ESPN trotted out a veteran female anchor last year to celebrate the Penn swimmer who saw himself as the “Jackie Robinson of trans sports.”

This was no coincidence. The worldwide leader in sports has repeatedly used its time, talent, and treasure to promote progressive political propaganda — all while claiming to speak truth to power.

Sports media personalities have gotten high on their own supply. They thought a working knowledge of athletics made them experts on other complex topics. But mastering the intricacies of a Cover 2 defense and understanding the goals of Karl Marx are not the same thing. They also believed predictable takes on racial issues would fool the masses into thinking they stand for truth no matter the cost.

COVID-19 shattered that illusion.

A long list of influential voices in sports — including Michael Wilbon and Charles Barkley — use their platforms to chastise Kyrie Irving and other athletes who didn’t want to take the COVID shots. Wilbon’s command to “put a shot in your arm!” must have made the executives at both ESPN and Pfizer beam with pride.

Despite his righteous indignation, neither Wilbon nor any other sports media figure could speak to the long-term side effects of the COVID shots. But ignorance has never stopped the arrogant before.

None of ESPN’s social justice commentators could have predicted that Kaepernick was a police and prison abolitionist. None ever asked why Black Lives Matter’s co-founders wanted to destroy the nuclear family. None ever explain why a man who thinks he is a woman should be accepted as one in a female-only locker room.

Compare the network’s promotion of its most dutiful script-readers to how it treated Sage Steele. The former ESPN personality was told to stop tweeting about Lia Thomas and supporting female athletes like Riley Gaines. Why? Because some of her colleagues felt uncomfortable with her publicly acknowledging the most basic facts about human biology. Steele left ESPN last year after she settled a lawsuit she filed against the company.

This is the way it works in the influence industrial complex. If there is one thing I’ve learned from being married to a woman with a green thumb, it’s that plants grow toward the sun. Corporate media is no different. The people who obey their overlords can cosplay as revolutionaries while capitalizing on attention and opportunities. Those who don’t play along are ostracized internally and ridiculed publicly. It’s a cruel game, but at some point, everyone has to decide whether sacrificing truth is worth the payday.

Editor's note: This article has been corrected. ESPN did not suspend Jemele Hill for a tweet criticizing President Trump but suspended her for other reasons.