Jemele Hill Reportedly Leaving ESPN in September

Jemele Hill (Credit: YouTube)

Jemele Hill will soon say goodbye to ESPN, according to published reports.

Hill and the network agreed to a contract buyout that will take effect Sept. 1., author and journalist James Miller first reported Saturday evening on Twitter.

“Coming 9/1 an amicable departure / buyout for @jemelehill from @espn Been a long time coming,” Miller tweeted.

In a follow-up post, he said Hill’s departure was decided after she requested a meeting with new ESPN President James Pitaro.

Read MoreNABJ Calls Out Fox News Over False Claim Jemele Hill Is ‘Unemployed’

As she became a trending topic Sunday morning on Twitter, Hill jokingly tweeted: “Live look at my mentions,” along with a GIF of a fire.

Hill has openly shared her views on race and politics with viewers. But Pitaro, who became ESPN president in March, said last week he wants less politics on the sports network.

“If you ask me is there a false narrative out there, I will tell you ESPN being a political organization is false,” he said. “I will tell you I have been very, very clear with employees here that it is not our jobs to cover politics, purely.”

Hill joined ESPN in 2006 as a columnist, and over the years appeared on several of the network’s programs including Outside the Lines and SportsCenter with Michael Smith.

She left her role as co-anchor of SportsCenter in January after making national headlines for calling President Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter.

 

Shortly after she posted a series of tweets criticizing Trump in September, the White House called for her firing.

Several athletes offered Hill their support, including former NFL player Colin Kaepernick. The sportscaster later apologized for how her tweets reflected on ESPN.

The network suspended her for two weeks in October over “a second violation” of its social media guidelines, after she took to Twitter to call for an advertiser boycott of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who said he would bench players who “disrespect the flag.”

Hill’s current position is as senior correspondent and columnist for The Undefeated, ESPN’s online vertical focused on race, sports, and culture.

Earlier this month, the National Association of Black Journalists honored Hill as the organization’s journalist of the year.

One thought on “Jemele Hill Reportedly Leaving ESPN in September

  1. A vibrant woman of color fired simply because of the color of her skin. Why are reich-wingers afraid of an intelligent, articulate African-American woman? Manning/Hill @ 2020!

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