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‘ESPN Is Not a Political Organization’: ESPN President Issues Memo to Staff in Wake of Trump Controversy

A view of the logo during ESPN The Party on February 5, 2016 in San Francisco. (Credit: Mike Windle/Getty Images for ESPN)

ESPN President John Skipper issued a memo Friday telling employees to avoid “inflammatory” comments on social media following the firestorm over “SportsCenter” host Jemele Hill’s Monday tweet calling President Trump a white supremacist.

Hill was on her program Friday, and ESPN has not commented on whether it has taken any disciplinary action. But Skipper’s memo, without referring to the tweet directly, said it was a “violation of standards” and that the matter was dealt with privately.

Trump responded to the tweet Friday morning with one of his own, making note of ESPN’s subscriber losses that have occurred due to cable and satellite cord cutting: “ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth.”

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Hill should be fired for her comments.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.