It has been clear that racial politics have infected ESPN’s content, but it turns out that that same toxic worldview has taken root behind the scenes as well. It is most apparent among the network’s employees who cover the NBA.
Witness a recent saga involving ESPN reporters Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor. The biggest takeaway from it is that there are no sympathetic figures. Nichols felt she was snubbed from hosting the network’s NBA Finals coverage because Taylor is black, and ESPN was trying to correct for some lack of diversity. Nichols also thinks that she has had a hard time at ESPN as a woman because the network is run by “white conservative male Trump voters” and discussed a response to this feud by blaming ESPN for pitting two women against each other for the same job.
