ESPN is reportedly warning its talent to be extra cautious in using social media after ABC star Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet got her fired, according to the New York Post.
The network’s top executives have reportedly reached out to some of its most forthright talent, the ones most likely to cause political controversy on air or online.
ESPN is owned by the Disney/ABC Television Group.
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ABC’s top executive axed the sitcom “Roseanne” on Tuesday just hours after Barr in a tweet called an ex-adviser to former President Obama the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamist group, and the film “Planet of the Apes.”
ESPN has faced previous controversies regarding employees’ use of social media.
The network took criticism for hiring Keith Olbermann despite his multiple past tweets comparing President Trump to a Nazi.
Host Jemele Hill was suspended last year over her tweets about the president.
But President Trump alleged a double-standard on right and left-leaning show hosts this week after Barr, a vocal Trump supporter, was promptly fired while Samantha Bee, a TBS host, retained her job after referring to White House adviser Ivanka Trump as a “feckless c—.”