Will ESPN Suspend Dan Le Batard?

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    According to Sports Business Daily the choice to sit out his show Monday was Dan Le Batard’s because the host was not in the right frame of mind to go on the air. The publication is also reporting that ESPN is mulling over whether or not to suspend Le Batard for crossing the line into politics.

    It was last Thursday that Le Batard criticized President Trump about immigration and ESPN for its no-politics policy. Le Batard missed an hour of his Friday shift and his entire show Monday. He’s one of ESPN’s most popular syndicated hosts and recently launched his own podcast network. He’s based in Miami and is the son of Cuban immigrants.

    John Ourand of Sports Business Daily reports that Le Batard spent the weekend trying to convince ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro to relax the policy. Now Pitaro and ESPN have to decide if they are going to stand behind their policy and suspend Le Batard or let what he said slide and hope it doesn’t happen again.

    If you were in the same situation ESPN is now in, what would you do?

    10 COMMENTS

    1. We tune into sports talk shows for sports. To get away from the political BS that the media speed out over and over again. If he wants to talk politics, then change his format and go with another provider. ESPN is right in standing their ground.

    2. From here:
      Ownership and management would rather just avoid the hassle of the whole situation by keeping political opinions and/or assertions from the talent entirely out of the mix.
      REALITY, however and occasionally, does, eventually, find a voice.
      I did say “eventually”.
      I could also be wildly confused – particularly when considering this culture.

    3. With social media making anybody~everybody a “journalist” and with Politics and Sports crossing paths on a more regular basis, for employers such as networks and team owners to expect Talk Show hosts and Athletes to do their business in a vacuum will be a losing battle. To expect them to always “color within the lines” is un-American, unfair, unacceptable, and useless.

      • I think employees should follow the policies put forth by ownership and management which have been implemented after much thought and deliberations for the long-term good of the company and all the employees. Those policies should be put in writing with each new employee signing on to understanding and pledging to abide by those policies. Deviation from those agreed-upon policies should be followed by an immediate termination, no second chance, with punitive damages sought.
        It would be enjoyable firing you, David.

    4. ESPN needs to decide if it’s employees are required to follow company policies or not.

      There are definite repercussions to such a decision. If you ignore one employee when he/she doesn’t follow a policy, it makes it much more difficult to deal with other employees who don’t follow policies (which might not be related to this policy).

      A company I worked for ended up losing an employment lawsuit because it was shown that management allowed some employees to break some rules while others were punished for breaking rules.

      ESPN needs to be careful going down the rabbit hole of selective enforcement.

      • 88.2? That is not an FM channel in North America. Under the FM bandplan, FM channels are 200 kHz wide with the center frequency on the odd decimal of a megahertz; e.g., 88.1, 88.3, etc.

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