Stephen A. Smith & Molly Qerim Ripped for Hypocritical Dana White Response After Slap Incident

Published 01/12/2023, 12:18 AM EST
2023 has had a rocky start for UFC president Dana White, who’s been surrounded by controversy and receiving a lot of hate for engaging in a physical altercation with his wife on New Year’s Eve. He seems to be not able to catch a break from it, and that’ll be the case for a while. The situation, however, changed course and put ESPN commentator and White’s friend, Stephen A. Smith, along with host Molly Qerim in hot water for ‘going easy’ on the slap incident. The former ESPN employee and sports journalist Jemele Hill wrote a report about how ESPN and its stars are handling the situation delicately given their relationship with the UFC president. Additionally, Hill also offered receipts to back up her claims, coming straight from the ESPN writer himself.
Responding to White’s slap incident, Stephen A. Smith stated, “My immediate response to that is, whatever discipline he should face is the kind of discipline he would impose upon someone he oversees.”
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Furthermore, the ESPN commentator also regarded his equation with the UFC president and said, “He’s a friend. I love the guy. Personally. So this is a very hard subject for me… My heart goes out to his family. Because this is a very, very embarrassing situation.” To which Molly Qerim added that she respects White, and she’s someone who doesn’t judge people based on their worst moments.
Jemele Hill’s charges against Smith & Qerim were reinforced by the fact that they didn’t take a hard stand on the incident. He called their dynamic with the UFC president to be an anchor for this conduct.
Dana White got a soft treatment, claims Jemele Hill
Jemele Hill went on record by saying that Dana White is receiving a pass for his actions, which would have had dire repercussions if someone else had been in his place. In her article in The Atlantic, Hill wrote, “It’s just that the coverage of the incident has overall been pretty soft. Having worked at ESPN for 12 years, I know intimately the difference between cursory coverage and a nonstop national conversation fueled by the massive sports media machine.”
Furthermore, Jemele Hill cited the ESPN writer and editor Jeff Wagenheim‘s tweets that ‘confirmed’ her observation that the network is intentionally going easy on the UFC president’s controversy.
However, Jeff Wagenheim quickly retreated from his word, although not entirely, and put out a ‘clarification’ tweet.
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Based on this, Hill further added how their approach would’ve been drastically different if this incident involve someone other than Dana White. Additionally, she recalled the alarming allegations about the UFC president’s treatment of women made by his mother, which the network passed easily, too.
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