Former ESPN personality and left-wing activist Jemele Hill has pushed back on recent reports that she will be leaving the streaming service Spotify soon. Her comments came after a general consensus emerged that her run there is coming to an end, and the 47-year-old sportscaster is merely waiting to make a formal announcement when the time is right.
Jemele Hill, via Wikimedia Commons
The longtime media personality is widely reported to be negotiating her exit from Spotify, where she has been the host of Jemele Hill is Unbothered since 2019, after her exit from ESPN. Multiple news outlets share the claim that she’s in search of a new platform for her show.
In 2022, she questioned why Spotify wouldn’t give her or another black host the same deal that they gave Joe Rogan. He was said to have signed a 3.5-year, $200-million dollar deal in early 2022.
“What I would like to see,” Hill said in an interview with the New York Times, “is for (Spotify) to hand $100 million to somebody who is black.”
Jemele Hill speaks with Chris Cuomo, screenshot via Chris Cuomo Project
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While that sounds terrific in theory, the truth is that there really isn’t a podcaster out there right now – white or black – who can demand the same salary as the standup comedian and UFC commentator. Rogan’s rise to prominence in the world of online streaming has made him a global superstar and cultural phenomenon.
In several ways, Rogan has become the voice of his generation and a talk-shop-stop for many movers and shakers. Thus, his fame and following justify the fortune that follows it.
That’s not how Jemele Hill saw things, however.
Hill herself says ‘Not so fast.’ After the original editorial from Outkick broke, she went to social media to respond, saying that her show hadn’t been “canceled”. However, she may have did leave a bit of a foreboding line in her statement, saying: “When I have something to say, I’ll say it.”
During her time at ESPN, Jemele Hill became well-known for her left-wing social advocacy and, at times, political radicalism. On September 11, 2017, he unleashed multiple tweets critical of President Donald Trump, including describing him as a “white supremacist.” That led the network to briefly suspend her.
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