Jemele Hill scolds ESPN for ‘soft’ coverage of its business partner, UFC president Dana White, slapping wife

Former ESPN host Jemele Hill scolded her former employer for "soft" coverage of the viral video of UFC president Dana White slapping his wife, suggesting the Disney-owned sports network’s "huge financial stake in UFC’s success" is the reason for the lack of outrage. 

White was caught on video slapping his wife, Anne, while the two were ringing in the New Year at a nightclub in Cabo San Lucas. The UFC president told TMZ Sports he and his wife had been drinking but it was no excuse for his actions. 

Footage of the incident quickly went viral, but Hill believes Disney’s ESPN hasn’t given the incident the attention it deserves. Hill penned a column for The Atlantic titled, "The Sports Scandal Almost Nobody Is Talking About," that noted "White faces almost no consequences" for publicly slapping his wife.

"When the head of a major sports organization is caught on video slapping his wife multiple times, his career should be in jeopardy. But other than a few days of remarkably mild criticism, Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White appears to be avoiding any real professional consequences," Hill wrote. 

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"White has not been subject to an avalanche of media coverage or nonstop discussions about whether he should be fired, fined, or otherwise. His behavior hasn’t been condemned by UFC’s parent company, Endeavor, or UFC’s biggest television partner, ESPN, which reached a five-year, $1.5 billion broadcast-rights deal in 2018 to air mixed-martial-arts events and then, in 2019, extended the arrangement to make ESPN the sport’s exclusive pay-per-view provider," Hill continued. "These major stakeholders in the UFC are best positioned to hold White accountable, but they don’t seem particularly motivated to get involved."

Hill wrote that she reached out to her former network but a "spokesperson declined to elaborate on network officials’ coverage decisions" and instead provided examples of ESPN’s scant coverage. 

"The issue isn’t that ESPN has ignored White’s situation entirely. It’s just that the coverage of the incident has overall been pretty soft," Hill wrote. "Having worked at ESPN for 12 years, I know intimately the difference between cursory coverage and a nonstop national conversation fueled by the massive sports-media machine."

Hill pointed out that Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving recently became "a daily fixture in ESPN’s news coverage and commentary" when he landed in the news for sharing the link to an anti-Semitic film but White has not received such treatment. 

Hill pointed out that ESPN writer and editor Jeff Wagenheim "essentially confirmed" that the network is "intentionally going easy" on the UFC boss.

"We’ve been told to not write anything incendiary on social media about the Dana White situation, and I understand why and have abided by that. I just ask y’all to understand that some of us at ESPN do not have as soft a take as this on domestic violence," Wagenheim tweeted to accompany an article about ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith calling White a "friend." 

Hill then noted that Wagenheim later backtracked, claiming there was "no edict from ESPN bosses regarding the White situation" but "we are strongly discouraged from incendiary posts on social media, and with a business partner things are sensitive." 

"Given ESPN’s huge financial stake in UFC’s success, Wagenheim’s revelation is hardly surprising. Because ESPN is a business partner of virtually every major sports league in the country—the NFL, the NBA, college sports, and professional soccer, among others—the network’s journalists face a difficult balancing act when major players of those leagues behave inappropriately," Hill wrote. 

Hill feels that Black athletes rarely get the favorable treatment that the UFC boss has received 

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"They usually face harsher responses," Hill wrote, noting that former Baltimore ravens running back Ray Rice never played in the NFL again after footage of him slapping his fiancé went viral in 2014. The Rice incident dominated ESPN at the time. 

"Obviously, UFC is not nearly as popular as the NFL and therefore does not receive the same level of media attention. Mixed martial arts also remains slightly outside the circle of the major mainstream sports, and part of the attraction for many fans is that the sport is more freewheeling than other major sports entities," Hill wrote. "But White is the face of UFC and one of the most recognizable names in sports. He has sought to make his sport a mainstream staple, and with that comes a high level of responsibility. I can’t imagine the commissioner of any other prominent sports organization being in White’s position and not facing official punishment." 

ESPN essentially dismissed Hill’s criticism when reached by Fox News Digital. 

"We have been covering the story on our platforms since it broke and will continue to do so," an ESPN spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The spokesperson also provided a list of times ESPN has covered the story, which included segments on multiple platforms. 

Hill, who was scheduled to have a show on CNN+ before the streaming service was shut down roughly one month after it launched in 2022, emerged as a household name among media consumers in 2017 when she called then-President Trump a White supremacist. 

"Donald Trump is a White supremacist who has surrounded himself with other White supremacists," Hill famously tweeted. 

Hill’s tweet caught the attention of the White House and then-press secretary Sarah Sanders, who said she considered the rhetoric a "fireable offense." Trump also got involved, mocking Hill and ESPN’s lackluster ratings. 

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ESPN initially declined to punish Hill but then sidelined her for two weeks in October 2017 after she violated the company’s social media guidelines again. The second violation occurred when she called on fans to boycott the Dallas Cowboys’ advertisers after owner Jerry Jones told players they would be benched if they did not stand up during the national anthem.

Not long after returning from her suspension, ESPN reassigned Hill from its flagship "SportsCenter" to a role at The Undefeated, the company’s site that covers the intersections of sports and race. She eventually left ESPN and joined The Atlantic, where she covers race, sports, politics and culture.

In her piece about ESPN’s "soft" coverage of White, she disclosed the breakup with Disney’s sports network. 

"I left the network several years ago amid a dispute with its top management—a matter that I and others have written about extensively," Hill wrote. 

Hill has continued to be outspoken on social media, even calling all prospective Trump voters "racist" in 2020. 

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report. 

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