Podcast host declared sports journalism “dead” this week during a segment about Amazons studio crew criticizing ESPN insider Shams Charania for breaking the leagues MVP award before the official announcement.
“Id like that time to live forever. [Sports journalism] is dead. Its not dying, its dead,” Le Batard said. “These streamers have no interest, none of them, none of them, have any interest in doing journalism and thats why Im telling you this war, the journalists have already lost it.”
Whether sports journalism is actually dead is one topic. Hearing Dan Le Batard make the declaration is another entirely.
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Le Batard was once a respected columnist and investigative reporter at the Miami Herald. He built a reputation as a sharp, witty voice in sports media. He deserves credit for that work. But few people have done more to undermine the integrity of the industry in recent years than he has. Few have blurred the lines between journalism, activism, performance, and selective outrage more aggressively.
Consider his coverage of women and domestic violence.
In recent years, Le Batard has publicly framed himself as someone with zero tolerance for the mistreatment of women. He forcefully condemned UFC President Dana White after White was filmed slapping his wife, and he repeatedly weighed in on allegations against former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.
“From the franchise that gave you the Ray Rice elevator video, we get this flailing bulls— making it sound like Justin Tucker was the victim,” Le Batard wrote on X after Baltimore released Tucker. “Weve released Justin Tucker would have sufficed. Football players dont respect kickers. But the Ravens respect this one, who was bad last year, more than they do women.”
On the surface, those comments sound like the words of a journalist taking allegations seriously and holding powerful people accountable.
The issue is the hypocrisy.
A month before the 2024 presidential election, the Daily Mail published allegations from an ex-girlfriend of Doug Emhoff, husband of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The woman, who claimed witnesses could corroborate her account, accused Emhoff of “forcefully slapping” her during an incident in 2012.
Emhoffs first major interview after the report was not with CNN or MSNBC. It was with Dan Le Batard. And yet, Le Batard never asked about the allegations. Not once.
Instead, he opened the interview with a question about love.
“Tell me what you’ve learned about love from your wife,” Le Batard asked.
“Communication,” Emhoff responded.
To be clear, no one expected Le Batard to conduct a hostile interrogation. The interview was clearly intended to humanize Emhoff and help rehabilitate the public perception of the Harris campaign. Fine. That happens in media.
However, refusing to acknowledge the allegations represented an embarrassing abandonment of basic journalistic standards.
Even openly partisan networks would almost certainly have asked Emhoff for a response, if only to satisfy the minimum obligation of addressing a major allegation involving a national political figure.
OutKick asked Le Batard on Tuesday about declaring jou
