Jemele Hill suspended from ESPN following tweets promoting Dallas Cowboys boycott
SportsCenter co-host Jemele Hill was suspended for two weeks beginning Monday for a second violation of ESPN's social media guidelines. "[Hill] previously acknowledged letting her colleagues and company down with an impulsive tweet," the network said in a statement.
Hill responded to the news that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told players they would be benched if they kneeled during the national anthem by tweeting Sunday that "change happens when advertisers are impacted" and urging a "boycott."
She also tweeted, "If only Greg Hardy had kneeled," citing the defensive end who was found guilty of assaulting his ex-girlfriend in 2014 and whom the Cowboys signed in 2015.
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ESPN had previously deemed Hill's tweets "inappropriate" after she called President Trump a white supremacist in September. Jeva Lange
Update 5:02 p.m. ET: The Wrap reports that Hill's SportsCenter co-host Michael Smith will sit out Monday's episode in light of Hill's suspension. The decision was "mutual" between Smith and ESPN, The Wrap reports. Smith will apparently return to the SportsCenter desk tomorrow.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
