Jemele Hill knows something about controversy at ESPN, but she wants it to make sense for everybody. With the recent drama surrounding Aaron Rodgers and his beef with comedian Jimmy Kimmel, Hill busted a shot at her former employer and then threw another parting shot at Rodgers himself.
“The Pat McAfee show with Aaron Rodgers is what conservatives thought the SC6 was,” Hill posted on X with a laughing emoji.
She followed that up with, “Every week when you see Aaron Rodgers on Pat McAfee’s show it’s like you’re watching Newsmax.”
Newsmax TV is an ultra-conservative outlet.
Rodgers On Rodgers
Rodgers has been a consistent guest on “The Pat McAfee Show” and is one of the reasons it is highly rated. Often, Rodgers uses the platform to discuss his personal views on everything from psychedelic drug use to his anti-vax stance.
The release of about 950 pages of court documents from disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public last Wednesday, with the document identifying his associates. Rodgers took a poke at comedian Jimmy Kimmel ahead of the document release.
Last week, on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers said, “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, that are really hoping that” Epstein’s list wouldn’t be released. The statement prompted a hard response from Kimmel who threatened to sue if Rodgers continued to allude that he may be an associate of Epstein.
Rodgers never retracted his statement or apologized but amended it by saying, “I don’t think [Kimmel] is a P-word,” Rodgers said, referring to a pedophile. “I’m not stupid enough to accuse [Kimmel] of that — even though he thinks I’m an idiot — with absolutely zero evidence,” Rodgers said on Tuesday’s “Pat McAfee Show.”
Conservative Privilege
For Jemele Hill, what she labels the “conservative” nature of ESPN should have warranted an issue for Rodgers and McAfee similar to her opinions on Trump. However, there have been no consequences aside from McAfee’s personal beef with an ESPN executive that he feels is attempting to sabotage his show.
Hill began with ESPN as a columnist in 2006, and then she began co-hosting the “His & Hers” podcast with Michael Smith in 2011, which converted into an ESPN2 show in 2013. By February 2017, both Hill and Smith were promoted to “SportsCenter” evening anchors, also known as SC6.
In September 2017, Hill called Trump a “white supremacist” in a series of tweets, which prompted ESPN to issue a clarification that Hill’s views “do not represent the position of ESPN.” By 2018, Hill had left her role as co-host of SC6.
“The Pat McAfee Show” is part of the trend of former and current professional athletes who have created their own media platforms. What started online is now part of ESPN, and McAfee represents a non-traditional style for ESPN.
Whether the show relates to the conservative audience is debatable, but, to Hill’s point, the same nuanced accusation by any other host might have led to the same self-cancellation as Hill’s. Ironically, Rodgers is now suspended from appearing on the show for the rest of the season.
Jemele Hill knows.
