Jemele Hill Reportedly Parting Ways With ESPN
Aug 27, 2018, 12:00 AM | Updated: May 23, 2024, 10:02 am
Jemele Hill’s has been with ESPN for 12 years, and according to multiple reports, her time with ESPN is coming to an end, per The Washington Post.
James Miller, author of “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN,” reported that Hill met with ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro and that her buyout/departure was “amicable.”
Hill’s last day at the network will be Aug. 31, according to The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand.
Hill made news last year when she called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” in the wake of the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va. The comment led White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to call the remarks “a fireable offense.”
Jemele Hill was suspended for two weeks by ESPN in October 2017 after suggesting fans could boycott Dallas Cowboys advertisers after team owner Jerry Jones threatened to bench his players if they did not stand for the national anthem.
Trump responded the day after her suspension:
With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have "tanked," in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2017
Hill left the coveted 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” slot in February to pursue her “true love” of “writing, reporting and commentary” at the Undefeated, ESPN’s sub-site devoted to covering sports, race and culture.
The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reports that Hill will work with friend and fellow Undefeated writer Kelley Carter on their production company called Lodge Freeway Media, which will provide more freedom with content development.
Hill recently told Detroit Metro Times that she was in no rush to leave ESPN, stating she has “unfinished business” but that her vision for her career beyond the company involved production.
“It would be foolish of me not to think of what else is possible for me beyond ESPN because of my personal desires and things I still wish to accomplish […] I know that whenever I kick off the next iteration of my career, it will involve me getting more deeply involved in producing original content. There are avenues opening up for women of color to provide different perspectives that’s something we really wanted to take a hard look at.”