ESPN punished Wojnarowski to avoid scrutiny of its own China ties

[mountaineer]

ESPN punished Wojnarowski to avoid scrutiny of its own China ties
by Zachary Faria, Commentary Fellow |
 | July 13, 2020 11:38 AM

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley insisted he didn’t want an apology from or a punishment for ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, but that he wanted ESPN to start reporting on the NBA’s ties to China. However, that is not really an option for ESPN because of its own reliance on China and the NBA.

Wojnarowski ended up receiving an undisclosed suspension for responding to a Hawley statement with an email simply saying “f--- you.” Hawley’s letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver ripped the league for its deference to China, and Hawley made it clear afterward that China was his target by asking ESPN not to punish Wojnarowski.

Wojnarowski knows firsthand the consequences of ESPN being critical of China. His show Woj in the House was broadcast by the Chinese company Tencent and was described by ESPN as the most watched basketball show in the world. When Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey voiced his support for the Hong Kong protests, Wojnarowski liked the tweet. Shortly after, his show was canceled by Tencent.

ESPN agreed to a deal with Tencent in 2016, and extended it in 2019, in which the Chinese company would feature “exclusive Chinese-language (Mandarin) ESPN content.” ...

Washington Examiner

Keep in mind that you can order a customized official NBA jersey (only $139.99) from the NBA online store that says "Kill Cops," but not one that says "Free Hong Kong."  Daily Caller. NBA doesn't want to offend its Chinese masters.

[catfish1957]

Most telling is that this puke only got a suspenison. 

If it had been a conservative commenting, he'd gotten canned in seconds.

ESPN has sucked for decades.

[mountaineer]

ESPN has sucked for decades.

It's nothing but political commentary disguised as sports, anymore.

[mountaineer]

ESPN "froze out" Sage Steele because she wasn't an angry enough black person, apparently.

Sage Steele Believes Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves Froze Her Out of Undefeated Special
by Ryan Glasspiegel
 20 minutes ago   

In late June, ESPN aired a special in primetime entitled The Undefeated Presents Time for Change: We Won’t be Defeated, reflecting on the sports world after the killing of George Floyd. According to a report by Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal, Sage Steele told ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro that she believes she was frozen out of this special by anchors Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves, and that she felt this was reflective of a divisive work environment.

Per the WSJ story:

Ms. Steele said colleagues told her she was considered for the special by the executive in charge, Michael Fountain, until two of the other on-air personalities involved, Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves, complained, saying Ms. Steele wouldn’t be accepted by what they considered the Black community, according to the person familiar with her account to management.

This wasn’t a story just built around background sourcing. Steele went on the record for it, telling the WSJ in a statement: “I found it sad for all of us that any human being should be allowed to define someone’s ‘Blackness.’  ..."

Steele grew up around the military. She has come under fire for positions on social media over the years, including taking issue with all the coverage Colin Kaepernick was receiving and criticizing people who were protesting against Donald Trump’s travel ban for disrupting others’ airport travel logistics.  ...

Outkick

[mountaineer]

Back to the matter of China. Now ESPN is playing tough, like they don't have their own relationship with China?

Clay Travis  @ClayTravis
ESPN just dropped an atomic bomb on the NBA’s China relationship. Story alleges NBA turned blind eye to massive human rights abuses & league’s own camps looked like they were from Nazi Germany. NBA also told employees not to comment on China for story.
5:00 PM · Jul 29, 2020·

Here's the story from ESPN:

ESPN investigation finds coaches at NBA China academies complained of player abuse, lack of schooling
  By  Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada

LONG BEFORE AN October tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters spotlighted the NBA's complicated relationship with China, the league faced complaints from its own employees over human rights concerns inside an NBA youth-development program in that country, an ESPN investigation has found.

American coaches at three NBA training academies in China told league officials their Chinese partners were physically abusing young players and failing to provide schooling, even though commissioner Adam Silver had said that education would be central to the program, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the complaints.

The NBA ran into myriad problems by opening one of the academies in Xinjiang, a police state in western China where more than a million Uighur Muslims are now held in barbed-wire camps. American coaches were frequently harassed and surveilled in Xinjiang, the sources said. One American coach was detained three times without cause; he and others were unable to obtain housing because of their status as foreigners.  ...

The ESPN investigation, which began after Morey's tweet, sheds new light on the lucrative NBA-China relationship and the costs of doing business with a government that suppresses free expression and is accused of cultural genocide.   ...

Full story at ESPN