ESPN has been under fire for years after the network started adopting woke policies like naming Caitlyn Jenner their Woman of the year in 2015.
According to former on-air anchor Sage Steele, she was told by network executives to stop commenting about trans swimmer Lia Thomas because she was offending other employees of the network.
So @espn told @sagesteele & @samponder not to comment on Lia Thomas, a man pretending to be a woman in women’s sports, because some other ESPN employees were offended by their opinions?! This is a flat out unacceptable position for any sports media company to have. Light them up.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 27, 2023
From the New York Post:
Thomas swam for the University of Pennsylvania as a male before transitioning to female, ultimately setting various records and winning a 2022 national championship in the women’s 500-yard event.
Eventually, Steele and ESPN “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Sam Ponder tweeted their opposition to Thomas and other biological males competing in women’s sports.
This week, Steele appeared on OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls” with Riley Gaines — a former Kentucky swimmer who competed against Thomas, and was taken aback when the two tied but the trophy was given to Thomas — and mentioned that there was internal backlash at ESPN.
“I was asked to stop tweeting about it. I was asked to stop doing anything, saying anything about it on social media because I was offending others at the company. I made sure I sent up another tweet that night after I received that email because like, no,” Steele told Gaines.
Sage Steele says ESPN told her to stop talking about Lia Thomas – a man destroying women in the pool – but she refused to comply.
Incredible bravery from @SageSteele. pic.twitter.com/wh9CyHESrd
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) December 27, 2023
“And it’s, let’s stop living in this lie. And once again, oh, you’re going to you’re to silence me and Sam. She was told the same thing, for this issue, but they were going to let everybody else talk about all these other things that are not even related to sports on our sports programing.”
“I already had the lawsuit going. I didn’t know what how it was going to end. But I literally said, this is the hill I will die on 100 percent because it’s facts. This is not even my opinion about a vaccine mandate or whatever, these are facts. This is science, this is biology. This is all of the things. Come at me. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me to stop supporting women. Go ahead, tell me.”
I still refuse to accept that women have to be silent about supporting other women, silent about speaking the truth — even if our employers are the ones trying to silence us. https://t.co/U9dIE0mXCz
— Sage Steele (@sagesteele) December 27, 2023
An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment on Steele’s claims when reached by The Post.
Steele and ESPN parted ways earlier this year after the two sides settled a lawsuit brought by Steele alleging that the company infringed upon her free speech rights when she criticized parent company Disney’s vaccine mandates.
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