During Tropical Storm Irma and my first week at Turner, a former colleague of mine came under fire for tweets.
The Ringer’s piece was accurate.
Though I left ESPN a little over a month ago, I have a lot of solid connections and met great people. Despite never having a personal conversation with Jemele Hill, she and Michael Smith spoke to the interns at the Intern Symposium in late June. They kept it real, much like Hill did in the Ringer piece. They talked about how they have fans and those that hate-watch SC6, the pressure of having the SportsCenter brand on your show, politics and sports touching like food groups on a plate, addressing Twitter trolls, and being confident in being yourself on air.
Yours truly (third row, 6th from left) and ESPN Summer 2017 interns with Michael Smith (front, center, blue shirt) and Jemele Hill (second row, center, yellow shirt). ESPN.
I do believe a lot of the criticism of Michael and Jemele comes from the critics’ feeling that they are too black for SportsCenter.
It wasn’t always cool for Stuart Scott to say “Boo-Yah” on air, but his ability to cross over while being himself helped make him a legend. If you ever visit DC-2, “Boo-Yah” is the phrase that stands out the most on SportsCenter’s wall of famous anchor phrases. Speaking of, Robin Roberts has a couple phrases on that wall, too. It’s hard nowadays to find old articles documenting the struggles she undoubtedly faced as a black woman anchoring SportsCenter.
It was cool when Chris Berman made references to rock songs. It’s cool if SVP ties in pop culture. But Michael and Jemele tying in spades and Mobb Deep? It leaves audiences that don’t get it well…shook.
The most vocal viewers–the critics–fear what they do not relate to.
And of all the black SportsCenter anchors–including Michael Eaves, Elle Duncan, Cari Champion, Sage Steele, and Jay Harris–Michael and Jemele make the most references to black culture. The intro has a hip hop beat. A pair of Jordans and Prince are in the background. They have a segment from His and Hers called Doin’ Too Much, the sports version of The Breakfast Club’s Donkey of the Day and the Tom Joyner Morning Show’s Bama of the Week (Week! Week! Week!). They appeal to a young audience interested in sports, music, movies, and culture, and how all that intersects.
There isn’t nearly as much criticism with Bleacher Report, Complex, or the NBA making references for the culture as there is with ESPN having not one, but TWO black anchors making the blackest references on a sports network.
Thus, these vocal viewers have called for The Six’s cancellation since it hit TV after the Super Bowl. It was cool to have Phife on the show when it was His and Hers. But now they’re apparently messing with tradition on a 6pm block that has the hardship of old highlights and waiting for the primetime action. A tradition that Twitter and other social platforms have severely maimed more than two hosts could ever do.
Much of ESPN’s audience is traditional, mid-American, older white men. Of course it’s going to clash with younger minorities who broke the mold by simply being themselves. “We just want highlights” isn’t the only issue. If you look at the business of television, “just highlights” isn’t making money. Again, I can find a highlight in a tweet. Authenticity makes money. Original content makes money. Storytelling with personality makes money. Drawing in a young audience that likes to feel heard and represented makes money. It’s why social media is referenced on every show of every major network. It’s why there is marketing geared toward millennials–we may be broke, but we’re cool, and we heavily influence the market because social media. Like a Prince song, it’s a sign o’ the times.
There is always going to be pushback when something new breaks tradition, but call it what it is. A lot of the criticism is that Michael and Jemele are too black for SportsCenter. Call the spade a spade.
And because of that, critics have waited for one of them to create controversy so they can be fired.
It’s also no secret that plenty of figures have been vocal against a leader who ironically tweets his own views on the daily. Even magazines like the Economist featured the President yelling through a Klan hat after the Charlottesville terror attack.
But what sparks the most uproar is a string of tweets from an unapologetically black sports anchor breaking the mold of ESPN’s Crown Jewel.
Not TIME. Not Ms. Texas. Jemele Hill.
The outpouring of support from ESPN colleagues of hers does not surprise me. Michael Smith, Michael Eaves, and Elle Duncan attempting to not do the show without her is what I expected, especially from Michael Smith. The black employees at ESPN look out for each other. Eaves, Duncan, and Jay Harris were friendly faces and checked in on me every now and then. Adrienne Lawrence and Treavor Scales taught me about life on-air. I shadowed people like Terrika Foster-Brasby, Galen Gordon, and Shadeed Sharpe. And, despite already having a friend at ESPN in Jarren Gary (🙌🏽), I made quite a few friends, including graphic designer Tiffany Middleton, Undefeated writer Maya Jones, ESPN International’s Kadidjha Traore, and Eva Delacruz from creative services. It made my few months in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut a lot more fun, and put me at ease.
Black talent at ESPN also know that only so many get to be on television at the network, and it’s hard replacing someone of the same color as you and feeling the guilt that there can be only so many minorities on television. And replacing someone like Jemele would not only be painful and awkward, and not only would the chemistry have oodles of tension, but there would also be backlash as bad as the Fantasy Football Marathon “Player Auction” and the removal of Robert Lee as an announcer for a UVA game.
Moreover, the network risks feeding into a political subject. The very thing critics don’t want ESPN to be is politically involved, but the very thing critics want ESPN to do is fire Jemele Hill for not sticking to sports. What they don’t realize is that firing Hill would be a politically motivated fire, creating a contradiction.
I see ESPN riding this wave out and keeping Hill on staff, unless another controversy occurs. Corporate talked to her, hence her statement. To fire her days later as a result of being uncomfortable with negative press is like giving a kid at school an expulsion after he served his suspension (which I have seen before, and it did not go over well).
All they can do is wait. It will pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass.
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