ESPN went full-woke and alienated a good chunk of their subscriber base. It's something that longtime fixture of the network Linda Cohn mentioned, which landed her a brief suspension. It was nonsense. All she said was that maybe ESPN's political dabbling caused people to cancel their packages. There was chatter that the trajectory in the drop in revenue could lead to the sports network not being able to afford the rights to Monday Night Football. There were also stories of staffers who had to pretend to be liberals just to keep their jobs. So, should we be surprised that the network decided to throw one of their own into the brig for questioning the COVID vaccine mandates? Nope.
Sage Steele has been yanked off the air for questioning the company's stance on the matter. She also said something about Barack Obama's racial makeup. Both of which would cause the front office to reach for the muzzle (via Fox News):
On ESPN’s vaccine mandate, Sage Steele said mandates are “sick” and “scary,” but wasn’t “surprised it got to this point with Disney, a global company.” pic.twitter.com/SoBabFgldF
— Resist Programming ?? (@RzstProgramming) October 3, 2021
ESPN's "SportsCenter" host Sage Steele is being pulled off the air following remarks she made knocking her employer's vaccine mandate as well as comments made about former President Obama.
"At ESPN, we embrace different points of view — dialogue and discussion makes this place great. That said, we expect that those points of view be expressed respectfully, in a manner consistent with our values, and in line with our internal policies," the network told Fox News. "We are having direct conversations with Sage, and those conversations will remain private."
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Last week, on former NFL player Jay Cutler's "Uncut" podcast, Steele suggested she was forced to get the COVID vaccine or jeopardize her employment.
"I didn’t want to do it. But I work for a company that mandates it and I had until September 30 to get it done or I’m out," Steele told Cutler.
"I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is, um, sick," Steele said. "And it’s scary to me in many ways. But I have a job, a job that I love, and frankly, a job that I need, but again, I love it. I’m not surprised it got to this point, especially with Disney, a global company… but it was actually emotional."
In another exchange, Steele spoke about filling out the U.S. Census form and how she expressed wanting to include multiple races instead of just one.
"If they make you choose a race, she's like ‘What are you going to put?’ And I go, ‘Both.’ And she's like, ‘Well, you can’t,'" Steele said. "She goes, 'Barack Obama chose Black and he's biracial.' And I'm like, ‘Congratulations to the president. That’s his thing. I think that's fascinating considering his Black dad was nowhere to be found and his White mom and grandma raised him, but hey, you do you. I'm gonna do me.'"
Now, of course, there's nothing wrong with anything she said. That's a given, and the whole Obama-biracial thing has been a quiet debate, but it's not the first time someone has brought that up in a conversation. Then again, this is Disney. This is ESPN. Steele spoke her mind—and she got punished for it.
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