Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley insisted he didn’t want an apology from or a punishment for ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, but that he wanted ESPN to start reporting on the NBA’s ties to China. However, that is not really an option for ESPN because of its own reliance on China and the NBA.
Wojnarowski ended up receiving an undisclosed suspension for responding to a Hawley statement with an email simply saying “f— you.” Hawley’s letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver ripped the league for its deference to China, and Hawley made it clear afterward that China was his target by asking ESPN not to punish Wojnarowski.
Wojnarowski knows firsthand the consequences of ESPN being critical of China. His show Woj in the House was broadcast by the Chinese company Tencent and was described by ESPN as the most watched basketball show in the world. When Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey voiced his support for the Hong Kong protests, Wojnarowski liked the tweet. Shortly after, his show was canceled by Tencent.
ESPN agreed to a deal with Tencent in 2016, and extended it in 2019, in which the Chinese company would feature “exclusive Chinese-language (Mandarin) ESPN content.” As ESPN said at the time, “This agreement will help us serve millions of Chinese fans and bring our coverage of basketball, international soccer, and other sports to them like never before.” ESPN landing the exclusive rights to NBA broadcasts in China was huge for the company. The NBA’s own deal with Tencent was projected to be worth $700 million over five years.
It puts ESPN’s coverage of the NBA and China into context. ESPN used the “nine-dash line” Chinese propaganda map in 2019 coverage, which shows Taiwan and the South China Sea as belonging to the country. ESPN released an internal memo telling staff to avoid talk about Hong Kong in their coverage of Morey’s tweet and its aftermath.
ESPN didn’t punish Wojnarowski for cursing at a United States senator. This is clear enough from the NBA players, who couldn’t be bothered to talk about China’s detention camps for Uighur Muslims, lining up to tweet the “#FreeWoj” hashtag. The idea that left-wing havens such as ESPN and the NBA think cursing at Republicans is beyond the pale is laughable. Both are deeply financially intertwined with China, and so making this issue about Wojnarowski instead allows them an out to avoid this uncomfortable discussion for a little longer.
Stephen A. Smith, arguably ESPN’s most recognizable personality, blasted Morey last year by saying, “You have an obligation to adopt and embrace the interest of those you collect a paycheck from.” You would be hard-pressed to explain ESPN’s standing with China any better than that.
