{"id":91347,"date":"2017-09-15T13:26:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T13:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/trump-piles-on-espn-over-latest-controversy.html"},"modified":"2017-09-15T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T13:26:14","slug":"trump-piles-on-espn-over-latest-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/trump-piles-on-espn-over-latest-controversy.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump piles on ESPN over latest controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump fired back at ESPN in an early morning tweet after the network’s tepid response to an anchor who called him a “white supremacist” on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers,\u201d Trump tweeted Friday. \u201cApologize for untruth!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trump\u2019s not-so-subtle response was a reaction to controversy surrounding host Jemele Hill,\u00a0an outspoken liberal who currently has a pair of photographs with Barack and Michelle Obama pinned atop her Twitter feed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w\/ other white supremacists,\u201d Hill, the face of ESPN\u2019s \u201cSC6,\u201d a relatively new version of SportsCenter with an urban feel, tweeted earlier this week.<\/p>\n

ESPN has terminated on-air talent in the past<\/a> for right-leaning actions on social media, but has stood by Hill despite White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders calling the rhetoric a \u201cfireable offense\u201d during Wednesday\u2019s press briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Related Image<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n

\"jemeleExpand \/ Collapse<\/span><\/p>\n

Jemele Hill’s tweet caused a firestorm<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

The network has been impacted by cord cutters dropping cable, resulting in mass layoffs earlier this year. Trump is clearly aware of the network\u2019s issues, as he mocked the fact that people are dumping the channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cCable Networks revenues for the quarter decreased 3% to $4.1 billion and operating income decreased 23% to $1.5 billion. Lower operating income was due to a decline at ESPN,\u201d the network\u2019s parent company, Disney, noted in its third quarter earnings report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the President do not represent the position of ESPN. We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate,\u201d the network said in its initial statement.<\/p>\n

Hill eventually tweeted that she had regret for painting ESPN in an \u201cunfair light\u201d but stood by her comments about the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comments on Twitter expressed my personal beliefs. My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light. My respect for the company and my colleagues remains unconditional,\u201d\u00a0Hill tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Citing \u201ctwo sources familiar with the situation,\u201d\u00a0Think Progress reported<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday that ESPN executives wanted to sideline Hill for Wednesday\u2019s show and reached out to other black hosts to fill her seat next to co-host Michael Smith. According to the website, Smith refused to do the show without her — and two African-American ESPN hosts declined to fill in. However, ESPN denied the report.<\/p>\n

“We never asked any other anchors to do last night\u2019s show. Period,\u201d an ESPN spokesperson told Fox News.<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

\t<\/i><\/p>\n

Brian Flood covers the media for Fox News.<\/p>\n

Follow him on Twitter at @briansflood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feeds.foxnews.com\/~r\/foxnews\/politics\/~3\/lwBgz7GgJWw\/trump-piles-on-espn-over-latest-controversy.html<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump fired back at ESPN in an early morning tweet after the network’s tepid response to an anchor who called him a “white supremacist” on Twitter. \u201cESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers,\u201d Trump tweeted Friday. \u201cApologize for untruth!\u201d ESPN is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-91347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}