Clay Travis, the journalist who broke the story about ESPN's reassignment of play-by-play football announcer Robert Lee from a University of Virginia football game, said Wednesday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" that ESPN "lies a lot."
The "Worldwide Leader in Sports" has sent out multiple statements to explain its decision to move Lee due to the similarity of his name to Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va. ESPN chief John Skipper sent out a memo Wednesday to employees that Lee was moved because he could be exposed to social "hectoring," stating Lee himself expressed "trepidation" about the assignment.
Another statement to reporter Yashar Ali stated that ESPN executives "raised with him the notion" of switching games during the protests in Charlottesville. In a first statement, ESPN told Travis and others they "collectively made the decision." ESPN has insisted the move had nothing to do with political correctness.
"ESPN ... said this had nothing to do with political correctness and nothing to do with race. Am I missing something or is that just like a lie?" host Tucker Carlson asked.
"It's a lie, ESPN lies a lot," Travis said.
"When you put out an initial statement and then you have to follow it with another statement and then you have to follow it with a third statement, what you're realizing is that everybody is calling you on your BS and you are continuing to follow it with more BS and so by the time you get to the third statement, the first statement is probably the most reliable," he said.
Travis proceeded to argue that the behavior displayed through the episode is why viewers of ESPN are leaving the network.
"This is what ESPN does. This is why fans on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum have been abandoning the network. Because they aren't trustworthy and because they are MSESPN. They are using their ability to reach people through sports as an opportunity to become a left-leaning sports network," Travis said.
Travis, who runs the site Outkick The Coverage, has frequently criticized ESPN for having a liberal bias and imposing its agenda on viewers who would rather focus on sports.