Stephen A. Smith was thrilled to announce that Shannon Sharpe would officially be joining him on ESPN’s (DIS) -) “First Take” even as his rivals at FS1 (FOXA) -) also brought in new blood to replace Sharpe. But Smith has not enjoyed the media response to the recent changes on both sides.
Smith spoke on his podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” on Aug. 25 to address those who have been critical of the debate show format he pioneered alongside FS1’s Skip Bayless. Critics have said the format has been a detriment to sports media and journalism.
“This notion that all of a sudden, the industry of sports journalism has been so sullied to the point where it's almost irreparable, and it's our fault, pissed me off. It's a lie. It’s utter bullshit,” Smith said.
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The conversations actually restarted over the last week because FS1’s executive vice president for content Charlie Dixon told the Sports Business Journal that “Undisputed” is moving away from its “Embrace Debate” format.
“We focus more on the chemistry and the availability of agreeing with people versus trying to find inflection points where people have a variance of opinions,” Dixon told SBJ.
Smith also brought back a video from mid-July which he said he had just recently viewed where his former ESPN colleague Dan Le Batard was critical of Bayless and the industry at large.
“I would like to talk to him in the future in a way that is conversational instead of performative about how dumb sports debate television has made everything,” Le Batard said on The Dan Le Batard Show.
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Le Batard’s co-hosts such as Stugotz and Mike Ryan Ruiz have also spoken about the topic, saying they also think that Le Batard is part of the changing journalism world.
“Stephen A. isn’t really the problem here,” Ruiz said on a separate episode in late July. “It’s all the cheap imitations of Stephen A. that he’s spawned because it’s so easy to do what Stephen A. does poorly.”
Smith was unhappy with Le Batard, who he has continued to refer to as a “friend” despite the months-long back and forth, and gave a fiery clapback.
“You know good and fucking well, this is how I talk,” Smith said. “It ain’t performative, it’s me. It’s insulting for you to imply that. And I’m sick and tired of being hit in the back with implications from somebody that’s supposed to know me.”
Smith had more to say about the sports media industry, including the role of race in debate television, in the over 27 minutes he spoke on his podcast that can be viewed below.
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