ESPN Silent On Employees Breaking 'Ban on Politics' To Criticize Trump and Vance

When Jimmy Pitaro took over as ESPN president in 2018, he informed staffers and reporters during a press conference that the network would no longer openly discuss politics.

"[ESPN] is not a political organization," said Pitaro. "We are a sports media company."

Pitaro kept good on his word until about 2020, following the death of George Floyd and the lead into the election. 

Several on-air employees have since criticized Trump, advocated for Democrats to win elections, spoke out against state abortion laws, downplayed the deadly BLM riots, and peddled falsehoods regarding Jan. 6.

ESPN did not condemn one of them publicly. Since 2018, ESPN has disciplined just one talent for breaking the supposed "ban on politics." That was, of course, Sage Steele, the only openly conservative pundit at the network. 

Steele settled a lawsuit with ESPN/Disney last year, in which she provided examples of the network allowing her liberal colleagues to discuss non-sports issues but suspended her for doing the same. You can see some of those examples here.

Six years after sticking out his chest with authority, liberal talents have once again demonstrated they do not fear Pitaro. ESPN employees have shown no recent hesitation in voicing their opinions about the 2024 election cycle.

On Tuesday, Elle Duncan weighed in on vice presidential nominee JD Vance:

"Making snap judgements on childless ppl whilst trying to prevent some families from utilizing the only hope they have of expanding their family is the real sociopathic behavior. Sending love to the ppl being attacked for making choices w/ IN and in many cases OUTSIDE of their control."

"SportsCenter" anchor Nicole Briscoe did the same, commenting above Duncan's post:

"I would not have children