Talk about making a mess of things. ESPN, which has lost more than 10 million subscribers in the last five years, has removed a poem from its website praising convicted cop killer Assata Shakur.
The poem, written by University of Kentucky Professor DaMaris B. Hill, appeared originally in a post titled, “Five Poets on the New Feminism.”
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The Federalist was first to flag the poem, noting in an article this week that Shakur, a former Black Panther, was convicted in 1977 of murdering a police officer. She later broke out of prison and fled to Cuba in 1984. The FBI is offering a reward of $1 million for information resulting in her arrest.
ESPN has since updated its post so that it now is titled, “Four Poets on the New Feminism.”
An editor’s note has also been attached, which reads, “An earlier version of ‘Five Poets on the New Feminism’ featured Revolution by Dr. DaMaris Hill. We have decided it is not an appropriate selection for our site, and have removed it from the feature.”
Shakur, whose real name is Joanne Deborah Chesimard, has the distinction of being the first woman to make the FBI’s most wanted list.
An ESPN spokesperson explained the poem-yanking.
“There was an oversight in the editorial process for selecting the poems for the ‘Five Poets on the New Feminism’ feature on espnW. Dr. DaMaris Hill is a respected professor and poet, who submitted this poem based upon her personal feelings toward Assata Shakur,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Federalist.
“While the editors welcomed a contribution from a notable writer and chose it as a reflection of this one poet’s experience, upon further review we have decided it is not an appropriate selection for our site and have removed the piece from the feature,” the statement added.
The poem incident comes the same week that ESPN announced it had let go more than 100 reporters and on-air personalities, including longtime National Football League reporter Ed Werder, Major League Baseball reporter Jayson Stark, SportsCenter anchors Jaymee Sire, Chris Hassel, Jay Crawford and many others.
It also comes amid reports that ESPN’s decline in ratings and subscriptions is due in part to the company’s shift towards left-leaning political commentary.
In Ohio, for example, ESPN saw a noticeable drop in Republican viewership in 2016 at the same time that it became more partisan, according to Deep Root Analytics, which looked at two years’ worth of data out of the Buckeye State.
“In our analysis, a clear trend emerges: ESPN’s viewership in this key swing state market became less Republican during 2016,” the group reported Thursday.
The report added, “To be sure, the ESPN layoffs signal a larger business challenge facing the network. But at least in Cincinnati, the partisanship of viewers noticeably shifted – just as ESPN’s problems got worse.”
