As you splendid readers undoubtedly know, ESPN lightning rod Jemele Hill has been handed a two-week suspension by the cable sports network for, yes, reckless tweeting.
Via CNN Money:
ESPN suspends Jemele Hill over NFL tweets
ESPN has suspended host Jemele Hill for two weeks due to “a second violation of our social media guidelines,” the network announced Monday afternoon.
Hill “previously acknowledged letting her colleagues and company down with an impulsive tweet,” ESPN said in a statement. “In the aftermath, all employees were reminded of how individual tweets may reflect negatively on ESPN and that such actions would have consequences. Hence this decision.”
Hill’s second-strike tweet referred to Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones’s statement that any Cowboy player who “disrespects the flag” won’t be allowed to play for his team.
Hill subsequently tweeted that “Just so we’re clear: I’m not advocating a NFL boycott. But an unfair burden has been put on players in Dallas & Miami w/ anthem directives.”
No matter – the corn was off the cob by then.
But the hardworking staff believes that it was really her previous “impulsive tweet” that got Hill suspended, albeit in slow motion.
Once White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called that tweet a fireable offense, ESPN’s tepid response to it – Robert Iger, chairman of ESPN parent Disney Co. said he supported the right of ESPN on-air talent to speak out on social issues – upped the ante for the network.
And so Jemele Hill is just like John Garfield’s Frank in The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Frank: Then, then what’s gonna happen to me is not because I killed [Cora]?
Sackett: No, laddie. For killing Nick.
Frank: You know, there’s somethin’ about this that’s like, well, it’s like you’re expectin’ a letter that you’re just crazy to get. And you hang around the front door for fear you might not hear him ring. You never realize that he always rings twice.
Sackett: What’s that?
Frank: He rang twice for Cora. And now he’s ringing twice for me, isn’t he?
Sackett: That’s about it.
Frank: The truth is, you always hear him ring the second time, even if you’re way out in the back yard.
Jemele Hill is now officially way out in ESPN’s back yard.
