ESPN's Skipper Issues Memo, Says Net Is About Sports, Not Politics

ESPN President John Skipper on Friday sent out a memo toemployees addressing Jemele Hill’s tweets about President Trump. Skipper wrote, “ESPN is about sports. ... ESPN is not a political organization.” He added, “We have issues of significant debate in our country at this time. Our employees are citizens and appropriately want to participate in the public discussion. That can create a conflict for our public facing talent between their work and their personal points of view. Given this reality, we have social media policies which require people to understand that social platforms are public and their comments on them will reflect on ESPN. At a minimum, comments should not be inflammatory or personal.”

Skipper: “We had a violation of those standards in recent days and our handling of this is a private matter. ... We need to remind ourselves that we are a journalistic organization and that we should not do anything that undermines that position” (ESPN.com, 9/16).