# Jemele Hill calls ESPN a lobbying firm

> Ted Cruz went on College GameDay to talk NIL reform, and the loudest critic has her own ESPN record to answer for.
- Title: Jemele Hill calls ESPN a lobbying firm · OutKick | Shortify
- Summary: Ted Cruz went on College GameDay to talk NIL reform, and the loudest critic has her own ESPN record to answer for. If a sports network talking politics is…
- Keywords: espn, jemele hill, ted cruz, college sports, sports media, news, politics, Jemele, Hill, calls, lobbying, firm
- Source: OutKick — https://foxnews.com/outkick-sports/former-espn-host-hypocritically-calls-network-political-lobbying-firm-after-ted-cruz-appearance
- Author: Jon Root
- Published: 2026-09-12T00:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: espn, jemele hill, ted cruz, college sports, sports media, news, politics
## Cruz shows up on GameDay
Sen. Ted Cruz joined ESPN's College GameDay to talk with Rece Davis about the bipartisan Save College Sports Act, which Cruz co-authored. The crowd booed and social media lit up.
## The post that started it
Jemele Hill fired off a one-line verdict on X, treating a senator discussing a sports bill on a sports show as proof the network had crossed a line.

> Did not know ESPN had become a political lobbying firm.
## Hill had her own show
She co-hosted SC6 with Michael Smith, a program built around political argument, mostly about race, including open support for Black Lives Matter.
## ESPN handed her the mic
In July 2016 she defended WNBA players' BLM shirts against police who walked out. That August, ESPN put her in charge of moderating its town hall on athletes, guns, violence and law enforcement.
## The 2017 blowup
Hill called policing and the courts institutionally racist, backed Kaepernick's comparison of cops to slave patrols, and labeled Trump a white supremacist. ESPN issued a statement distancing itself from her.

> policing & judicial system are institutionally racist
## The network did it too
Elle Duncan paused an ESPN broadcast in solidarity against Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill. In 2023 the network celebrated Lia Thomas during Women's History Month.

> our allyship is going to take a front seat, and with that, we're going to pause in solidarity
## The silence that gives it away
College GameDay hosted Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro at Pitt in 2025 and Hill said nothing. A bill on NIL and the transfer portal is not partisan, it is just sports.
## Key takeaway

If a sports network talking politics is disqualifying now, it was disqualifying when the politics ran the other way.