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Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 8:14am
ESPN.com’s Jemele Hill Suspended For Comment: ‘Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim’
She may be the example pro-Imus folks have been waiting for.
A few months ago I wrote a post about the controversy surrounding Vogue Magazine’s cover photo of Labron James and Giselle Bundchen.  ESPN Columnist Jemele Hill was outraged by the image suggesting the publication depicted James as a savage and Bundchen as the damsel in distress. Her scathing article on ESPN.com caused a great bit of heat for Vogue. Well now it appearts that now Hill is in her own hot water. She has been suspended following a piece where she equated fan support for the Boston Celtics in their NBA Finals series to that of Hitler. In her column entitled “Deserving or not, I still hate the Celtics,” Hill wrote:
“Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It’s like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan.”
The two offensive statements were taken out of her online column hours after it was posted, but not before a torrent of negative feedback was unleashed by ESPN.com readers, as well as Celtics fans and other sports columnists.
Hills comments have agitated the public in a number of different ways from ESPN.com readers, Holocaust survivors, Celtic Fans, other columnist and sports talk radio hosts.
The major problem facing Hill, WHO I ABSOLUTELY LOVE as a knowledgeable sports writer is that we’re living the post Don Imus/ Rutgers hoops squad era. After the radio jock who was dismissed for referring to the Rutgers woman’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” many Imus supporters viewed his firing as a double standard and have been waiting for a BLACK journalist to slip up to illustrate their point. So although she’s only expected to be suspended, I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets made an example out of. Â
Hill has issued the following apology however:
“I deeply regret the comment I made in a column Saturday. In expressing my passion for the NBA and my hometown of Detroit I showed very poor judgment in the words that I used. I pride myself on an understanding of, and appreciation for, diversity – and there is no excuse for the appalling lack of sensitivity in my comments. It in no way reflects the person I am. I apologize to all of my readers and I thank them for holding me accountable. This has been an important lesson for me and illustrates that, like many people, I still have a lot of growing and learning to do.”
Clearly she effed up but my question is if editors are reading these columns shouldn’t they be held accountable for allowing the material to go to press? Its like its only controversial if the public says so. Although her comments were later edited online it wasn’t until after ESPN had received hundreds of emails from disseminated and outraged readers.
FILED IN Need to Know, News, Sports
I find it funny that we live in a world that can joke about AIDS and cancer (which people currently are losing there lives from) but let us not dare talk about something that happened 70 years ago.
Easy Mike…
I agree though, we can joke about that stuff, but Sean Kingston talks about suicide and it’s edited. We cannot have a different opinion about Hitler, but we can differ about current events. Who decides what is right or wrong. If you are insulted, don’t read it, don’t watch it, or don’t listen. Everyone has an opinion, but we cannot express them, we always have to apologize for our words? What is that about?
I don’t have a problem with what she said. Everyone is too damn offended by everything.
Pingback: jemele hill : scriptbest
Knowledgeable sports writer? Have you read some of her stuff?
she writes from the perspective of a passionate female fan and former athlete. YES! I respect that.
Exactly what does a man who killed millions of jews and wiped out generations have to do with basketball? NOTHING!!! She needs to be fired to save herself not from herself, but from the public!!!
leave her alone
Mr. Holmes, as a “journalist”, is she not responsible for what she prints, writes, and says? If she cannot grasp that comprehension, then she needs to find another line of work! Maybe she and Don Imus can work together. Between the two of them, they should be able to form half a thought. She is an embarrassment to black women. We have it hard enough. Her help is not needed to set us back any than we already are!!!
For some strange reason, my comment did not post. All I said was as a so-called “journalist”, she is responsible for what she says and writes. If she cannot grasp that comprehension, she is in the wrong field. I find it interesting that people on here said to “get over” the Holocaust, but you cannot & will not get over slavery. Ms. Hill needs to slither off into the sunset. We black women have it hard enough; we do not need her help to take us back even further.