Jemele Hill is joining The Atlantic, reports James Andrew Miller. Hill explains why politics made sports people nervous, the dressing-down she got from management over anti-Trump tweets and her new role as a “Roman candle” writer for The Atlantic.
“So much has happened in the last year that I felt like this is as an appropriate time as ever to spread my wings in different ways that I hadn’t really thought of before, or that I knew were possible,” Hill told Miller. “I guess I was going through major FOMO—fear of missing out. There’s a wider playground that I can dabble in, and places where the discomfort is okay,” she says. I wasn’t going to be able to be happy with myself if I didn’t adhere to this calling that’s beckoning me right now.”
Jemele Hill joining The Atlantic as a staff writer https://t.co/MnMtfyw7HJ pic.twitter.com/AkvDX6J3pW
— The Hill (@thehill) October 1, 2018
It wasn’t about leaving because things got difficult, Hill said:
“I’ve been through difficult swings in my career. It was about the fact that I can’t commit to something that I know isn’t right for me, that I know isn’t going to bring out the best in me, and that I know is going to be kind of a waste of time.”
Hill joined Disney-owned ESPN in 2006 as a columnist for ESPN.com after reporting stints at the Raleigh News & Observer, the Detroit Free Press, and The Orlando Sentinel. She began appearing on The Sports Reporters, Outside the Lines, First Take and SportsCenter, ultimately becoming co-anchor (along with Michael Smith) of that venerable show’s 6 p.m. edition.
The Atlantic media bias rating is Lean Left. Good fit.
