ESPN's public editor wrote Jemele Hill had made a "mistake" with her tweets calling President Donald Trump a "white supremacist" this week, saying Friday she had violated network guidelines about making public political pronouncements.
Hill, a SportsCenter anchor, ignited controversy last week with a series of tweets attacking Trump, particularly two that called him a "white supremacist" and his rise to power a "direct result of white supremacy. Period."
"Let’s dispense with the suspense: I think Hill made an error in judgment in those tweets," public editor Jim Brady wrote. "And, no, it's not specifically because of what she said; she is, of course, entitled to her opinions, and Hill’s opinion of President Trump is a mystery to precisely no one who has ever read her Twitter feed."
Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
Trump is the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime. His rise is a direct result of white supremacy. Period.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017
Calling Trump a white supremacist was an opinion, not a fact, Brady wrote, and "she erred by ignoring company guidelines."
ESPN released rules this year about political discussions, writing "the topic should be related to a current issue impacting sports. This condition may vary for content appearing on platforms with broader editorial missions -- such as The Undefeated, FiveThirtyEight and espnW. Other exceptions must be approved in advance by senior editorial managements."
"But here’s the thing: In newsrooms, guidelines exist to serve as a backstop for common sense," Brady wrote. "These were not tweets that served her or her employer well. And that’s why -- as someone responsible for judging decisions like this through a purely journalistic lens -- I think she made a mistake."
ESPN initially released a statement that her tweets were inappropriate, although Brady wrote that its initial response "made almost no one happy."
"To those who felt Hill should be fired for her comments, it was a mealy-mouthed half-apology with no real-life consequence," he wrote. "To those who supported Hill, it was ESPN caving in to those angered by Hill speaking what her supporters considered indisputable truths about the president."
Hill did not retract her comments, but she did ultimately issue a statement regretting putting ESPN in an "unfair light," and ESPN released another statement that Hill had apologized for appearing to speak on behalf of the network.
In his column, Brady addressed the belief by Hill's defenders that her Twitter account wasn't ESPN's business.
"The tweet that Hill was responding to when she wrote her most noteworthy comments had nothing to do with sports," he wrote. "And for those who say that Hill’s personal Twitter account isn’t ESPN’s business -- and I have seen a few suggestions to that effect -- ESPN made it clear when I asked back in April that it considers social media accounts of its public-facing talent part of that policy."
In response to the controversy, ESPN chief John Skipper wrote a memo to employees Friday to remind them the network was not a "political organization."
Brady wrote that he still felt what he had concluded last year: the company has a clear left-wing tilt.
"As to the larger question of ESPN’s overall political climate, I still stand by what I wrote late last year: If you consume as much of ESPN’s content as I have for the past 22 months, it seems clear the company leans left," he wrote. "I don’t think anyone ever made an executive decision to go that route as much as the personalities the network has promoted into high-profile positions tend to be more liberal, and as their voices are amplified, the overall voice has shifted with it."
The White House ensured the controversy would remain a top news story this week when press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Hill's remarks a "fireable offense" and Trump himself tweeted that he deserved an apology.