There has been a few controversies that have stemmed from Jemele’s outgoing personality [editor – “outgoing” now means “poor judgment and lack of self-control”, apparently]. What do you expect, though? I mean, she’s a journalist covering sports, a male-dominated dominion [editor- what?], so being outspoken is just par of the course [ed – lol. You could have also said “water next to the bridge” or “crying behind spilled milk”]. Along the way, I think it’s perfectly understandable that she might make some unintentionally-juicy soundbites [editor – yep, she is sometimes good at being unintentionally interesting. That’s why they hired her, I’m sure].
She’s been accused of using her sports columns for race baiting, in addition to creating a double standard by being openly racist in several of her editorials and columns. For example, in a 2007 column about Barry Bonds, Jemele herself admitted to playing the race card, writing that it’s “somewhere in my back pocket, but I’ll play that later on.” [ed – fair warning. Dr. King really just wanted people to openly admit that they were planning to be racist and offensive to each other at some point in the future].
It’s gotten to the point that many of her “fans” and readers expect controversy. Imagine what she could do if she learned that some sport’s figure had ordered a std home testing kit for themselves. By outing the individual, she would be invading his/her privacy. Quite frankly, the main reason for using a home STD kit is to avoid going to the doctor. Of course if the results from the home test were positive, that person should get to a doctor immediately. The same goes if symptoms persist, no matter what the test result were. After all most STD test kits are only 95-97% accurate. On the other hand, if Jemele revealed that the player was concerned about having contracted an STD, it might alert his sexual partners, if there were multiple ones of the situation. Oh, the gossip will get even juicier. I can just imagine what sharp, and possibly un-PC comments will zing out into the public sphere from the inimicable Ms. Jemele.
Shortly thereafter, during the 2008 NBA Playoffs, Jemele was suspended from her writing post after referencing Adolf Hitler in an article about the Boston Celtics (the then-NBA champions) and the Detroit Pistons. Again, keep in mind that Jemele is a huge fan of the Detroit Pistons from her own hometown [editor – she’s not a big fan of the Detroit Pistons from anywhere else, though]. In her editorial describing why she couldn’t support the Celtics, she wrote: “Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It’s like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan. Deserving or not, I still hate the Celtics.” Strong words, indeed, which elicited strong negative comments from readers. That portion of the editorial was stricken from the publication shortly after it was published, and Hill was subsequently suspended for one week. She eventually issued an apology via ESPN.
A slow learner, Jemele was at the center of another controversy in 2009, after she told Green Bay Packers fans to give Brett Favre the “Duracell treatment,” actually suggesting that fans at Lambeau Field throw batteries at the former quarterback. Later that year, Jemele once again should have put her foot in her mouth when she was reprimanded for her comments that compared University of Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball coach John Calipari to Charles Manson. I’m getting a bit of deja vu, but regardless, Jemele later apologized to the university [ed – I’m taking back my earlier suspicion that Ms. Hill wrote this. She probably knows her own life well enough not to have to paraphrase the wikipedia entry].