Former ESPN journalist Jason Whitlock has taken aim at his former employer’s parent company, the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS), by accusing it of trying to emasculate the sports world.
What Happened: According to a Mediaite report, Whitlock used his Blaze Media podcast “Fearless” to accuse Disney of trying to politically re-engineer sports.
“For the last 20 years, and really starting with the purchase of ESPN in 1996, Disney has gone about the business of feminizing and wokefying sports,” Whitlock said. “This isn’t some overnight thing that just happened the last two or three years. This isn’t some Colin Kaepernick-coincidence that they took advantage of. This has been a plot and a strategy for nearly 30 years.”
Whitlock claimed that after Disney’s acquisition of ESPN, the company sought to “Disney-fy ESPN and the sports world and to feminize ESPN and the sports world” by widening the realm and de-emphasizing the male presence.
“They do it through, their little key catchphrase: diversity, inclusion, and equity,” he added. “They call it diversity, equity, and inclusion, I call it diversity, inclusion, and equity because it’s D-I-E. It’s the death of men. It’s the assassination of men —that’s what Disney and ESPN are about, imposing the matriarchy on the rest of the world.”
See Also: Rachel Maddow's MSNBC Show Moving To Monday Nights Only
Why It Happened: Whitlock was part of the ESPN team from 2002 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2015. After leaving ESPN for the second time, he has been affiliated with conservative-focused media platforms including Fox Sports and Outkick before joining Blaze Media last June.
“Blaze Media shares my values — love of God and country, laughter, and a belief that nothing is more liberating than a fearless pursuit of truth,” said Whitlock in a press statement when he signed with Blaze Media.
Whitlock had previously addressed his concerns on the overlap between sports and politics last June in a video for the PragerU.com site when he declared “pro sports has become woke sports,” adding that athletes who bring political agendas to their games create a divided environment that was antithetical to the traditional unifying aspects of sports.
Last month, he used his column on TheBlaze.com to blast his former employer’s parent company’s handling of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida with a piece titled “ESPN is Sleeping with Your Enemy, and So Are You.”
Photo courtesy of Jason Whitlock's Facebook page
