Dan Le Batard falsely claims that ESPN only hires and pays white people
Liberal sports host Dan Le Batard is complaining about white people again. This time, he is expressing his frustration with ESPN paying certain white people more money than he'd like.
"Since George Floyd, the company of ESPN and the country of the United States were promising some sort of change over the last five years. But what has happened with the NFL Network and ESPN ... having put a whole bunch of white people in charge of how to select the next evolution of ESPN, this is what happened. I want to ask you guys if anyone is noticing this. Have you noticed that the people at ESPN who are getting the chances and big money ... are Joe Buck, Pat McAfee, Josh Pate, Rich Eisen, the Golics, Jason Kelce, Peter Schrager and the Mannings?
"As the money flows in to fund [ESPN], that is now sitting out the political discussion that it's a whole lot of white people hiring a whole lot of white people and giving the money to a whole lot of white people ... it's only those people getting that money. Has anyone noticed that?"
To answer his question, no. Most people have not noticed that.
For one, normal people don't count the number of white and black people on television. They don't care. More importantly, however, people haven't noticed what Le Batard is describing because his premise is false.
Consider the names Le Batard cites. He lists Joe Buck and Pat McAfee among ESPN's highest-paid talents. They are. But between them is Stephen A. Smith, who is black. Last year, Smith signed a five-year, $100 million contract extension with the company. Because McAfee signed a licensing deal, Smith is ESPN's highest-paid full-time employee.
ESPN did bring back Mike Golic and Mike Golic Jr. this year, as Le Batard mentions. But their inclusion in his argument is questionable because they returned on relatively minor deals to host a radio-only program. If Le Batard is going to mention them, he should also acknowledge that ESPN brought back Stan Verrett, a black commentator with a long history of toxic, embarrassing social media posts.
The Mannings are also on a licensing deal, as are Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal, who host "Inside the NBA" during the NBA Finals.
The point isn't that ESPN has failed to pay star white talent—it has. The point is that Le Batard has selectively cherry-picked those deals to construct an argument about racial bias that doesn't withstand even modest scrutiny.
In fact, there might not be another media network in the country, other than BET, that has prioritized excluding white people from its hiring practices as much as ESPN has over the past decade.
The "change" Le Batard describes is that ESPN no longer entirely excludes white men from the hiring and promotion process, as it once did.
After George Floyd died in 2020, talent agents recognized that ESPN would not promote any white male, regardless of his qualifications or fit for the role. The company gave nearly every new promotion to a black employee.
Look at the commentators ESPN promoted during that period: Malika Andrews, Monica McNutt, Elle Duncan, Clinton Yates, Andraya Carter, Chiney Ogwumike, Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears, David Dennis Jr. and Christine Williamson.
ESPN has since recognized that this overtly racist approach was not sustainable, particularly because most of its audience is white men. For the most part, the network now elevates and pays those whom management believes deserve it, regardless of their skin color.
ESPN's most prominently promoted talent over the past year includes McAfee, Stephen A., Schrager, Jason McCourty, Josh Pate, Mina Kimes and Malika Andrews. There are some hits there, and some misses.
However, because that group is about 50% white, Dan Le Batard has an issue — or pretends to.
We don't find Le Batard's outrage genuine. If he were truly concerned about a media network hiring too many white people, he would run his own media company far differently.
From what we can tell, Le Batard's Meadowlark Media has just one full-time black employee: a producer named Roy Bellamy. Everyone else at his company, which may have up to 40 total employees, is white, and mostly male.
Why the hypocrisy? OutKick asked Le Batard that question on Thursday via text message:
"Hi, Dan. I have two questions:
By the way, happy to re-schedule that interview your rep scheduled with me any time."
Le Batard did not respond as of publication. We will update this story if he does.
But don't plan on a response. Le Batard tends to go silent when he exhibits hypocrisy, which happens with some frequency.
Most notably, he has repeatedly declared zero tolerance for violence against women, despite once employing Howard Bryant, who was arrested for allegedly choking his wife in public.
Le Batard was also the first host to interview Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, after a Daily Mail report cited an alleged incident in which he slapped his ex-girlfriend. Despite the news and interest surrounding the scandal, Le Batard never asked Emhoff about the allegation.
And yet, he criticizes other outlets for failing to ask subjects about allegations involving violence against women.
At this point, you have to wonder why Le Batard is like this. How can he so calmly and falsely accuse others of doing exactly what he does?
Is there something seriously wrong with him? Is he trying to overcompensate for his early, wild bachelor days? Is he still bitter that ESPN chose Pat McAfee over him? Is he simply a fraud?
Unfortunately, despite his own publicist reaching out to set up an interview a few years ago, he ultimately declined to speak with OutKick. He has, however, mentioned both the site and me several times on his show.
He has previously accused me of "wearing the [KKK] hood" and "trying to hold women in media back."
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We found this accusation strange, as I am not the one who owns and operates a media company of nearly all white men and a man arrested for domestic violence.
Put simply, Dan Le Batard is a liar. He should not be taken seriously.
That said, it will be interesting to see whether ESPN executives Burke Magnus and Mike McQuade fall for Le Batard's challenge — and that's what this was — and reprioritize DEI.
Given their history, we wouldn't doubt it.
Finally, you have to find amusement in Le Batard caterwauling over ESPN paying too much money for Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Pat McAfee — perhaps the three most valuable people in the industry.