Leave it to Stephen A. Smith to debate himself.
The “First Take” host used his podcast this week to address the departure of Sage Steele from ESPN and her subsequent interview on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” during which the former “SportsCenter” host blasted the network for its “hypocrisy.”
Steele, who settled her lawsuit against ESPN last week and left the network, told Kelly she was being held to a different standard than her colleagues, saying, “You can’t have it both ways.”
At the heart of Steele’s lawsuit was her free speech claim that she was punished for sharing her personal thoughts on the COVID vaccine and former President Barack Obama, while colleagues who spoke out following the George Floyd murder faced no consequences for their words.
The difference with Steele’s case was her words went against the company’s policy and culture.
“All I ever wanted was consistency,” Steele said.
Smith disagrees. And agrees. Basically, you can say whatever you want until it hurts the bottom line.
“I think it’s a mistake when a corporation tries to silence anybody,” Smith said on his podcast, according to Awful Announcing. “I think you let everybody speak, that way the company doesn’t get blamed for the positions and individual takes.
But Smith also said: “The individual has to be culpable for the words that we articulate and the impact that it has ultimately on us.
“If I say something and it ultimately costs ESPN dollars and as a result ESPN says, ‘You got to go,’ they’re not saying I have to go because of my politics. They’re saying I have to go because I compromised their bottom line. And I think that’s the position all corporations should take, as opposed to trying to curtail or silence anybody because you think their individual words are going to be a reflection on the whole. It is not, when you let everybody speak.”
Steele had sued ESPN for retaliating against her by pulling assignments following her appearance on a podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler in 2021.
She made controversial statements on the show about being forced to get the COVID vaccine and Obama identifying as Black on the census.
Smith, now the de facto face of ESPN, said he’s talked to Steele since her departure and teased a possible future appearance by her on the podcast.