News/Commentary

Sports anchor Sage Steele sticks it to ESPN one last time following lawsuit settlement

August 15, 2023 | | Print Article

The lasting struggle to right the wrongs committed in the name of The Science™ marked another apparent victory with an ESPN lawsuit settlement related to First Amendment violations.

The Twitter Files and investigations from House committees have repeatedly shown how all-encompassing the effort to suppress information and maintain a narrative was on COVID. Now, nearly two years after comments on a podcast over jab mandates had allegedly sidelined her, Sage Steele announced her lawsuit was settled and she was parting ways with the sports broadcaster.

“Life update,” she posted to X Tuesday. “Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely. I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”

Under their parent company Disney, ESPN had been one of many corporations enforcing a mandate that required injection of the emergency authorized, not approved, experimental COVID shot to maintain employment. These mandates repeatedly showed disregard for medical and religious exemptions and, as Steele had said in 2021, were “sick” and “scary.”

Those comments had been part of her appearance on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler’s podcast, “Jay Cutler’s Uncut,” from Sept. 2021 where she had expressed her only reason for taking the shot was to keep her job.

“I respect everyone’s decision, I really do, but to mandate it is sick and it’s scary to me in many ways. But I have a job, a job that I love and, frankly, a job that I need,” she had said.

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Days after the interview aired, according to a lawsuit that had been filed in April 2022, Steele had alleged the company sidelined her and pulled her off of major assignments like the annual New York City Marathon.

ESPN and Disney had allegedly violated Steele’s First Amendment rights and, subsequently, Connecticut law that “prohibits companies from disciplining employees for exercising their First Amendment rights, as long as their statements don’t materially interfere with their performance or working relationship with the company,” by penalizing her for critiquing the COVID mandates.

According to Front Office Sports, ESPN had offered Steele a $501,000 settlement in June “to cover ‘reasonable’ attorney fees.”

Her attorney Bryan Freedman had criticized the move and stated at the time, “Disney and ESPN clearly admit their liability by offering to pay Sage Steele more than half a million dollars for taking away her right to free speech.”

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“The offer misses the point. Disney cannot purchase their employee’s constitutional rights no matter how powerful they think they are,” he added and further suggested, “How about apologizing and treating people fairly? Let me put it this way, would Disney be willing to accept money from the state of Florida and Governor DeSantis in exchange for being silenced? Why the double standard?”

While details of the settlement were not readily available, a spokesperson from ESPN did confirm to CNN that “ESPN and Sage Steele have mutually agreed to part ways. We thank her for her many contributions over the years.”

Meanwhile, positive reactions poured in for the courage that Steele had shown in standing up for her rights when it would have been easy for her to go along just to get along.

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Kevin Haggerty
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