ESPN just caved to Trump

The petition to ESPN reads: “With a white supremacist in the White House who is actively trying to undercut the power of the media, media outlets must do everything it can to defend its reporters, especially when they are fighting back against Trump’s racism and hate. Apologize to Jemele Hill for suspending her and publicly commit to protecting your journalists’ First Amendment rights.” Add your name:

ESPN’s suspension of “Sportscenter” host, Jemele Hill, is a win for white supremacy and a threat to free speech. When African-American journalist, Jemele Hill, called Donald Trump a white supremacist, Trump’s fascist regime immediately tried to discredit her and called on ESPN to fire her.1 When Hill called out Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, for threatening to bench players protesting police brutality against African-American people, ESPN caved to pressure from pro-Trump NFL owners and suspended her for two weeks.2 Trump is using the White House to crack down on any member of the media who criticizes his bigoted administration – and ESPN helped him silence one of its own journalists. Jemele Hill just got back from suspension, but it is still important that we hold ESPN accountable. Add your name now to demand that ESPN apologize to Hill and publicly commit to defending its journalists from Trump’s attacks. Tell ESPN: Apologize to Jemele Hill and commit to protecting her First Amendment rights. Click here to sign the petition. ESPN is making an example of Hill to appease racist sports fans and pro-Trump NFL owners like Jerry Jones. Jones wants to keep African-American football players in their place. He is the only NFL owner who has publicly threatened to bench his players for exercising their right to free speech by protesting racial injustice during the national anthem. This is a clear attempt to keep African-American football players from using their influence and power to lift up and fight against the crisis of police terror, brutality and killings in the African-American community. It’s an attack rooted in white supremacy. Trump has called white supremacists and neo-nazis “very fine people,” and African-American football players protesting racial injustice “sons of bitches.” He has stacked his administration with white nationalists who are undermining the voting rights, civil rights and civil liberties of African-American people and other people of color daily. ESPN’s failure to defend the First Amendment rights of its African-American employees when they call out racism actively legitimizes and aids Trump’s bigoted attempts to quash dissent and uphold white supremacy. That is dangerous and unacceptable. Under Trump’s fascist administration, everyone must make a choice, including executives at sports media outlets like ESPN. Will they side with a racist bigot and his craven base of supporters, or will they stand up to Trump’s hate and fiercely protect African-American journalists? Tell ESPN: Apologize to Jemele Hill and commit to protecting her First Amendment rights. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/standwithjemele?t=7&akid=25673%2E3130208%2ENl_Vm6 - Nicole Regalado CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: 1. David Nakamura, "White House: ESPN’s Jemele Hill should be fired for calling Trump a ‘white supremacist’," The Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2017. 2. Frank Pallota, "ESPN suspends Jemele Hill over NFL tweets," CNN, Oct. 9, 2017.