{"id":1457033,"date":"2022-04-28T14:59:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1457033"},"modified":"2022-04-28T14:59:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:59:39","slug":"sage-steele-sues-espn-disney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sage-steele-sues-espn-disney\/","title":{"rendered":"Sage Steele Sues ESPN, Disney"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsage-steele-sues-espn-disney%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1457033&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>ESPN personality Sage Steele has filed a lawsuit against the network and its parent company, Walt Disney, over allegations that her free speech rights were violated.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a complaint filed in a Connecticut court on Wednesday, Steele alleged that the sports media outlet retaliated against her for comments she made in a podcast interview last fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xqpfuymF3WQ\">During an appearance on \u201cUncut with Jay Cutler\u201d<\/a> in September, Steele referred to ESPN\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandate as \u201csick\u201d and said she finds former President Obama <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/media\/575319-espns-sage-steele-obamas-identification-as-black-fascinating\/\">identifying as Black \u201cfascinating\u201d<\/a> because he was raised by his white mother and grandmother.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/media\/575370-espn-removes-sage-steele-from-programming-after-controversial-remarks\/\">In response<\/a>, ESPN removed Steele from programming for a week, though the company denies that it \u201csuspended\u201d her. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe next day, on October 4, 2021, Steele was informed that she would be \u2018sidelined\u2019 or \u2018taking a break\u2019 (euphemisms for \u2018suspended\u2019) and would be required to issue a public apology for her comments,\u201d the lawsuit said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cESPN and Disney took adverse actions against Steele in the nature of discipline and\/or discharge as a result of her exercise of her right to free speech under the state and federal constitutions,\u201d it adds. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSteele was suspended from on-air appearances, forced to issue a humiliating public apology, taken off prime assignments, and subjected to bullying and harassment by colleagues while ESPN and Disney did nothing to stop it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Those \u201cprime assignments\u201d included the New York City Marathon, the Rose Parade and the ESPNW Summit, an event she had previously hosted. <\/p>\n<p>Fellow ESPN personalities such as Ryan Clark, Mina Kimes, Sarah Spain and Nicole Briscoe either have publicly denounced or refused to work with Steele after her remarks, her suit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cESPN violated her free speech rights, retaliated against her, reprimanded her, scapegoated her, allowed the media and her peers to excoriate her and forced her to apologize simply because her personal opinions did not align with Disney\u2019s corporate philosophy of the moment,\u201d Steele\u2019s attorney Bryan Freedman said in a statement to The Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSage is standing up to corporate America to ensure employees don\u2019t get their rights trampled on or their opinions silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to The Hill, an ESPN spokesperson said that Steele still remains a \u201cvalued contributor\u201d for the network, noting her recent work on the network\u2019s Master\u2019s golf tournament coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSage remains a valued contributor on some of ESPN\u2019s highest profile content, including the recent Masters telecasts and anchoring our noon SportsCenter,\u201d the ESPN spokesperson said. \u201cAs a point of fact, she was never suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"thehill-promo-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/in-the-know\/3470489-the-latest-on-johnny-depp-vs-amber-heard\/\" class=\"thehill-promo-link__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tThe latest on Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/news\/3469984-watch-live-white-house-press-briefing\/\" class=\"thehill-promo-link__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tWatch Live: White House news briefing\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>Steele alleges in her complaint she was only offered the Master\u2019s assignment after she filed a complaint to the ESPN\u2019s Human Resources department earlier this year about her treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last year\u2019s remarks weren\u2019t the first time Steele, who has been with the sports media outlet since 2007, has stirred controversy with her public comments. <\/p>\n<p>She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/espn-anchor-sage-steele-claimed-black-colleagues-excluded-her-from-race-special-11595365089\">told The Wall Street Journa<\/a>l in 2020 that her colleagues Elle Duncan and Michael Eaves, who are both Black, excluded her from appearing in a network special about race and protests of police-involved killings  because she wasn\u2019t \u201cBlack enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN personality Sage Steele has filed a lawsuit against the network and its parent company, Walt Disney, over allegations that her free speech rights were violated.\u00a0 In a complaint filed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1457033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1457033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1457033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1457033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1457033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1457033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1457033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}