ESPN tried to switch Jemele Hill with another black host

A black ESPN television personality whom the White House demanded be fired for calling President Donald Trump ‘a white supremacist’ was nearly removed from the air by the network in favor of another African American journalist who refused to replace her, it was reported on Thursday.

The Disney-owned all-sports network wanted to keep Jemele Hill, 41, from co-hosting the nightly SportsCenter at 6pm on Wednesday as she does every night alongside Michael Smith, 38, according to a report by ThinkProgress.

But when the network’s plans became known, Smith, who is also black, refused to go on the air with Hill’s replacement.

ESPN management then reached out to two other black sports journalists – Michael Eaves and Elle Duncan – and asked them to fill in for both Hill and Smith.

But when the network’s plans became known, Smith, who is also black, refused to go on the air with Hill’s replacement. Smith (far left), Hill (center), and Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo are seen during a taping of SportsCenter in Oakland on June 1

ESPN management then reached out to two other black sports journalists – Michael Eaves (right) and Elle Duncan (left) – and asked them to fill in for both Hill and Smith, but they refused. Instead of putting two white reporters on the air, ESPN asked Hill and Smith to go on

After it became clear that Eaves and Duncan refused to go along with the plan, Hill and Smith were on the air.

Sources told ThinkProgress that ESPN was not ready to deal with the public backlash that would inevitably erupt if they were to put two white journalists on the air to replace Hill and Smith.

ESPN is denying the report by ThinkProgress.

‘We never asked any other anchors to do last night’s show. Period,’ an ESPN spokesperson told ThinkProgress.

On Wednesday evening, Hill tweeted a photo of herself posing with five other sportswriters, all of whom are members of the National Association of Black Journalists. One of the men in the picture is Eaves (second from right), an anchor on SportsCenter

Later that evening, Hill tweeted an apology for the stir her tweets about Trump caused and the awkward position in which it placed her employer

On Wednesday evening, Hill tweeted a photo of herself posing with five other sportswriters, all of whom are members of the National Association of Black Journalists.

One of the men in the picture is Eaves, an anchor on SportsCenter.

‘Love that my @NABJSports brothers came to check on me,’ Hill tweeted on Wednesday.

Later that evening, Hill tweeted an apology for the stir her tweets about Trump caused and the awkward position in which it placed her employer.

‘My comments on Twitter expressed my personal beliefs,’ she said in a statement she posted on Twitter on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, during a White House briefing on hurricane relief, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said she thought Hill’s ‘outrageous’ remarks should be a ‘fireable offense’

Hill ignited public controversy on Monday when she tweeted that Trump was a ‘white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself [with] other white supremacists’ and that he was ‘an unfit, bigoted, incompetent moron’ who is ‘unqualified and unfit to be president’

‘My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light. My respect for the company and my colleagues remains unconditional.’

Hill ignited public controversy on Monday when she tweeted that Trump was a ‘white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself [with] other white supremacists’ and that he was ‘an unfit, bigoted, incompetent moron’ who is ‘unqualified and unfit to be president.’

‘[I]f he were not white, he never would have been elected,’ she tweeted.

On Wednesday, during a White House briefing on hurricane relief, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said she thought Hill’s ‘outrageous’ remarks should be a ‘fireable offense’.

‘I’m not sure if he’s aware but I think that’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make,’ Sanders said. 

‘And certainly is something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN.’ 

The channel itself distanced itself from the host’s remarks on Tuesday when its ESPN PR Twitter account tweeted: ‘The comments on Twitter Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN’

The channel itself distanced itself from the host’s remarks on Tuesday when its ESPN PR Twitter account tweeted: ‘The comments on Twitter Jemele Hill regarding the president do not represent the position of ESPN. 

‘We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate.’ 

Just weeks ago, Hill was slammed for comparing police officers to the ‘slave patrols’ that enforced discipline on pre-Civil War plantations. 

Hill made the remarks in late July on Twitter again, echoing comments made by the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. 

Hill was lamenting that Kaepernick, who has struggled to find a new contract after making repeated headlines for his protests against the treatment of non-whites, had not been signed by the Baltimore Ravens.