ESPN recently promoted Connor Schell as the second most powerful man at the cable sports station, behind company president John Skipper.
He’s now the executive vice president of content, and he has a nasty case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Skipper made the announcement on Friday.
“Connor has demonstrated keen insight into what resonates with fans, and his instincts allow him to excel at managing the creative process,” he said, according to ESPN’s MediaZone. “I have tremendous confidence that he and his new team of talented executives will help us create dynamic content that will break through in a changing environment.”
Within minutes of the announcement, numerous ESPN staffers sent messages to the sports blog Out Kick the Coverage to expose Schell as a rabid Trump hater hell bent on espousing his political views on social media, despite company policies warning against political posts.
“At ESPN, our reputation and credibility with viewers, readers and listeners are paramount. Related to political and social issues, our audiences should be confident our original reporting of news is not influenced by political pressures or personal agendas,” the policy reads.
Out Kick the Coverage highlighted Schell’s retweets during the presidential campaign that call into question his ability to be impartial in his new position, and expose at least one of the likely reasons why the cable sports giant is losing thousands of subscribers every day.
Schell’s Nov. 8 Twitter activity makes it clear he was pulling for Clinton, and severely disappointed when Trump ultimately came out on top.
Early on, Schell retweeted several posts that projected a Clinton win and mocked Trump, such as Jon Ralston’s post comparing the election to the largest comeback in NFL history: “Trump up 24-3. This reminds me of that Bills game when they trailed Houston.”
Of course, unlike the Bills’ 32-point comeback win in the 1993 playoffs, Trump retained his lead to prevail against his foe.
Another retweet applauded Clinton for participating in the election.
“Well, a female candidate has, for the first time, won electoral college votes,” Schell retweeted from Sam Stein.
Others, originally from Harry Enten, read: “The Florida results look very good to Clinton to me … We’ll see.” And “The exit poll data released at 7 p.m. is good news for Clinton. Certainly doesn’t suggest the polls were wrong.”
Others cheered on Democrats battling for U.S. Senate seats.
Later in the evening, Schell’s retweets turned far more dower and included comments from second lady Jill Biden that disparaged conservative voters.
“There’s no winners,” Schell retweeted from Biden. “Half the country has openly voted for the oppression of LGBT’s, minorities’, and women’s rights.”
Once the election results set in, Schell continued to blame dumb people for electing Trump and repeatedly posted far-left media coverage of the inauguration, Women’s March and other anti-Trump propaganda.
Out Kick the Coverage put Schell’s promotion into proper perspective:
Look Connor Schell may be a very good and talented guy, but the truth of the matter is this — he’s a left wing political zealot who was comfortable enough at ESPN that he was okay with publicly violating the rules he’s helped promulgate for employees and their own political views.
And he gets promoted for it.
Yet despite all the clear evidence that ESPN has gone left wing, reveled in alienating conservative viewers, and consistently rewarded those with left wing political views, they keep making decisions like this. How can you possibly trust ESPN to make fair editorial decisions when the executives in charge of the product hate Donald Trump and his supporters?
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