ESPN pulls announcer from Virginia broadcast due to name: Robert Lee
A broadcaster for the first home game in the upcoming University of Virginia football season is switching duties due to his name: Robert Lee.
ESPN announced on Wednesday that Lee and the company had "collectively made the decision" to switch him on to a different game due to recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which protests turned violent and one woman was killed.
The University of Virginia football team plays its home games in Charlottesville. Its opener is scheduled for September 2.
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One executive who allegedly emailed journalist Yashar Ali characterized the move as an attempt to avoid controversy, and that switching broadcasters between games is not a rare occurrence.
The blog Outkick the Coverage broke the story, which attributed the report to sources inside ESPN. Official ESPN PR later confirmed the story.
Lee is an Asian-American broadcaster with more than two decades of experience. He called almost 20 games on various ESPN properties in the last year, according to his personal website.
It would appear that the move was made at least more than a week ago, as 506sports.com (which tracks TV sports broadcasts) had Lee already assigned to a different game, as noted by a commenter on Outkick the Coverage.
The move appeared to have been made quietly, and ESPN has stressed that the decision was mutual.
Still, the move was led to plenty of criticism of ESPN for making a move that at least appears to be relenting to non-existent outrage.
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Plenty on the right used the occasion to resurface attacks on ESPN for what they perceive as a liberal bias.
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Topics Politics
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
