Pushback: Sports anchor sues ESPN for punishing her for expressing opinions on her own time
ESPN: Proud censor of free speech
They’re coming for you next: Sports anchor Sage Steele last week filed a lawsuit against her employer ESPN for punishing her in 2021 when she expressed strong public reservations — on her own time — about the company’s mandates requiring employees to get COVID shots and boosters or lose their jobs.
In comments last September on a podcast hosted by former National Football League quarterback Jay Cutler, Ms. Steele touched on political and social topics, questioning Covid-19 vaccine mandates and former President Barack Obama’s decision to identify as Black instead of biracial.
After Ms. Steele’s remarks drew criticism in the press and on social media, ESPN forced her to issue an apology and temporarily benched her, according to the suit, which was served in Connecticut, where the network is based. ESPN also retaliated by taking away prime assignments and failing to stop bullying and harassment by Ms. Steele’s colleagues, the suit alleges.
The complaint says ESPN’s handling of Ms. Steele’s situation was an example of selective enforcement of a network policy that bars news personnel from taking positions on political or social issues. ESPN has “violated Connecticut law and Steele’s rights to free speech based upon a faulty understanding of her comments and a nonexistent, unenforced workplace policy that serves as nothing more than pretext,” according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
You can read the lawsuit here [pdf]. It cites numerous examples of other ESPN anchors making public very partisan political statements, on air and while working for ESPN, with no consequences. It also describes in detail the network’s ugly treatment of her– including taking her off prime assignments and forcing her to issue an apology she did not write — all based on this kind of non-research:
On the evening of Sunday, October 3, 2021, while she was quarantined, Steele was contacted by Rosetta Ellis, the head of the ESPN talent department, who began the conversation by asking whether Steele was “okay,” apparently referring to her mental state. Ellis then asked Steele questions about Steele’s comments on the podcast. When Steele asked Ellis if she had listened to the podcast, Ellis admitted she had not.
…The day before Steele’s return to broadcasting, she had a conversation with Jill Fredrickson, senior vice president of SportsCenter, who said that some of Steele’s coworkers were “hurt” by her comments on the podcast (though Steele later learned that Fredrickson had been fishing for this response by asking employees directly if they were hurt). When Steele asked Fredrickson if she had listened to the podcast, Fredrickson demurred, saying the podcast was too long. [emphasis mine]
No need to review the evidence. Steele was obviously guilty because she didn’t bow to the left’s narrative on COVID and racial politics, and must therefore be punished!
The lawsuit also documents the malfeasance of the mainstream press, which repeatedly either misquoted what Steele had said, took it out of context, or simply slandered her.
According to the lawsuit, ESPN violated numerous state laws as well as its contract with Steele. Whether Steele can win however is unknown. Though it is clear she was punished for daring to express wrong-think — not kow-towing to the leftist narrative about both the COVID shots or its modern belief that any criticism of any minority is racist — the evidence against the network is vague enough that it might not stand up in court.
The biggest irony of this story however is that though Steele had reluctantly complied with the company’s COVID shot mandates, getting the jab plus booster when required, she still got COVID. Advocates of the shots have repeatedly claimed that these jabs protect you from COVID. Steele’s experience is just another example of many showing that this claim is not only wrong, it is a lie.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
ESPN: Proud censor of free speech
They’re coming for you next: Sports anchor Sage Steele last week filed a lawsuit against her employer ESPN for punishing her in 2021 when she expressed strong public reservations — on her own time — about the company’s mandates requiring employees to get COVID shots and boosters or lose their jobs.
In comments last September on a podcast hosted by former National Football League quarterback Jay Cutler, Ms. Steele touched on political and social topics, questioning Covid-19 vaccine mandates and former President Barack Obama’s decision to identify as Black instead of biracial.
After Ms. Steele’s remarks drew criticism in the press and on social media, ESPN forced her to issue an apology and temporarily benched her, according to the suit, which was served in Connecticut, where the network is based. ESPN also retaliated by taking away prime assignments and failing to stop bullying and harassment by Ms. Steele’s colleagues, the suit alleges.
The complaint says ESPN’s handling of Ms. Steele’s situation was an example of selective enforcement of a network policy that bars news personnel from taking positions on political or social issues. ESPN has “violated Connecticut law and Steele’s rights to free speech based upon a faulty understanding of her comments and a nonexistent, unenforced workplace policy that serves as nothing more than pretext,” according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
You can read the lawsuit here [pdf]. It cites numerous examples of other ESPN anchors making public very partisan political statements, on air and while working for ESPN, with no consequences. It also describes in detail the network’s ugly treatment of her– including taking her off prime assignments and forcing her to issue an apology she did not write — all based on this kind of non-research:
On the evening of Sunday, October 3, 2021, while she was quarantined, Steele was contacted by Rosetta Ellis, the head of the ESPN talent department, who began the conversation by asking whether Steele was “okay,” apparently referring to her mental state. Ellis then asked Steele questions about Steele’s comments on the podcast. When Steele asked Ellis if she had listened to the podcast, Ellis admitted she had not.
…The day before Steele’s return to broadcasting, she had a conversation with Jill Fredrickson, senior vice president of SportsCenter, who said that some of Steele’s coworkers were “hurt” by her comments on the podcast (though Steele later learned that Fredrickson had been fishing for this response by asking employees directly if they were hurt). When Steele asked Fredrickson if she had listened to the podcast, Fredrickson demurred, saying the podcast was too long. [emphasis mine]
No need to review the evidence. Steele was obviously guilty because she didn’t bow to the left’s narrative on COVID and racial politics, and must therefore be punished!
The lawsuit also documents the malfeasance of the mainstream press, which repeatedly either misquoted what Steele had said, took it out of context, or simply slandered her.
According to the lawsuit, ESPN violated numerous state laws as well as its contract with Steele. Whether Steele can win however is unknown. Though it is clear she was punished for daring to express wrong-think — not kow-towing to the leftist narrative about both the COVID shots or its modern belief that any criticism of any minority is racist — the evidence against the network is vague enough that it might not stand up in court.
The biggest irony of this story however is that though Steele had reluctantly complied with the company’s COVID shot mandates, getting the jab plus booster when required, she still got COVID. Advocates of the shots have repeatedly claimed that these jabs protect you from COVID. Steele’s experience is just another example of many showing that this claim is not only wrong, it is a lie.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Such things make future hiring decisions, and Last-Will-in-Testament decisions, exceedingly easy to make. Naming just two ways to “filter” transactions between expectant people and the unimpressed ones.
Historically; competition between those who “want access to the water hole, and those wielding rocks”.
Clark & Kubrick weren’t the very first to notice.
I only watch espn for College Football – everything else is simply LEFTIST propaganda! I hope she wins and whoever punished her is FIRED!