Stephen A. Smith Reignites Debate With Cari Champion and Jemele Hill

The back-and-forth surrounding Stephen A. Smith’s three-hour interview with Cari Champion and Jemele Hill appears far from over.

Smith recently sat down with his former ESPN colleagues on their “Flagrant and Funny” podcast, and all three addressed their disagreements.

The interview followed criticism Smith received from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), which accused him of a “recurring public pattern of disparaging commentary directed at prominent Black women across politics, sports, and media.”

Smith rejected the criticism before accepting an invitation to discuss the situation with Champion and Hill.

During a special Sept. 6 edition of his “Straight Shooter” podcast, the media personality said he wanted to address comments being made in the “aftermath” of the podcast interview.

Smith took issue with Champion saying she was unsure if the conversation benefited the “Flagrant and Funny” platform.

“When I showed up at that show the other night, they had 9,000 subscribers,” he said on his podcast. “Their largest video was about 35,000 [views]. Once I sat down with them, they picked up over 30,000 subscribers. They’ve had over a million views… but Cari Champion is saying she doesn’t know if it did any good. A simple thank you would have sufficed.”

Smith also complained that the video version of the interview was edited after his team was “promised” the entire conversation would be posted online.

“Somebody on their team assured somebody on my team that it would be unedited because I didn’t want any edits,” he said.

The interview was uploaded to the “Flagrant and Funny” YouTube channel in two parts, totaling over two hours.

Smith wants the full interview posted on the platform and the comments section left open.

He said he’s a “busy guy,” although he has continued to criticize the editing of the interview on social media.

Hill responded on X, Sept. 7, saying she wanted to address a “false narrative” spreading on social media about the sit-down.

“The FULL interview is out on iHeart, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and has been that way from the beginning,” she wrote.

Hill said a post-production “mistake” led to some of the footage being removed, but she insisted Smith’s team was informed about what happened and received a complete transcript.

“Cari and I don’t have anything to do with the video — and that is why there is some video footage unaccounted for,” she wrote.

She also pushed back on suggestions she and Champion are hiding something, saying the missing footage did not contain any bombshells.

“Trust me, there is no smoking gun in the unseen video footage,” Hill stated. “The 20 minutes that is alleged to be missing is ALL there in the audio version.”

As for Smith, he said he’s setting new rules for future interviews.

“Because of this kind of nonsense that I have to deal with, I’m not doing any more interviews on YouTube without folks agreeing to make sure that it is completely unedited, that the comments section remains open, and that I get a copy — a video copy — of the interviews that I do,” he said.

Smith shared additional grievances, but we’re busy too, and tired. You can watch his full 30-minute response here.