Sage Steele's ESPN exit is about many things. But the First Amendment isn't one of them

On-air personality Sage Steele has left ESPN after settling a lawsuit against the company claiming it violated her free speech, and of course it’s turned into an argument about the First Amendment, that most favorite amendment to take out of context when people want to justify the dumb things they say.

“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” Steele tweeted Tuesday morning.

Fair enough, if she feels like she is being treated unfairly she has every motive to leave. But, as when Twitter and Facebook suspended Donald Trump, this is not a First Amendment issue. It just isn’t.

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What did Sage Steele say?

Presumably Steele is talking about the right to free speech part of the amendment, which she enjoyed plenty of.

In the non-ESPN podcast in 2021 that sparked the controversy, while saying she respects anyone’s decision to get a COVID-19 vaccination, she added: “to mandate it is sick and it’s scary to me.”

She then had this to say about Barack Obama checking “Black” in the race box on the U.S. Census: “I’m like, ‘Well, congratulations to the president.’ That’s his thing. I think that’s fascinating considering his Black dad was nowhere to be found, but his White mom and grandma raised him, but hey, you do you. I’m going to do me.”

And finally she said of women sports reporters and sexual harassment that women “need to be responsible” and it’s not “just on players and coaches to act a certain way.”

She was taken off the air for a week and later apologized, but in April of 2022 she sued the network, saying it had violated her right to free speech.

Invoking the First Amendment out of context is like shouting 'woke' as an insult

Of course the right-wing outrage machine was ready and willing to claim the Disney-owned ESPN is just trying to silence a conservative voice. The same people complain that Trump was just exercising his First Amendment rights when, lying about the outcome of the 2020 election, he suggested an angry mob stroll down to the Capitol and show lawmakers what’s what.

The Department of Justice, in its indictment of Trump, wisely noted that Trump has the right to lie. He just doesn’t have the right to use a lie to incite an attack.

You get the feeling that people have no idea what the First Amendment says or protects. It’s just a knee-jerk thing to shout, like “WOKE,” when you disagree with something.

What does the First Amendment actually say?

Just so we are all on the same page, here’s what it says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

And there you go. Now you’ve read it. Tell all your friends.

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ESPN also suspended Jemele Hill for criticizing Donald Trump

You will note that there is certainly no law against Steele saying whatever she wants to, whether on ESPN or Twitter or on a podcast or by typing something up and nailing it to a tree in the park. The amendment explicitly says so. It’s her choice what she wants to say and where she wants to say it. No one is going to arrest her.

But free speech isn’t unlimited. Like every ESPN employee, Steele served at the company’s pleasure, and if it’s determined that she violated its rules, so be it. It’s a private company. Its employees agree to certain conditions when they sign on.

That’s similarly how Trump ran afoul of Twitter after the Jan. 6 attack. He violated Twitter’s rules, back when the company actually had some. Though the ban certainly didn’t stop him from spreading lies and misinformation on other platforms.

ESPN has also disciplined employees for more liberal comments. Jemele Hill, a former ESPN on-air personality, was suspended for two weeks in 2017 after tweeting that Trump was a white supremacist and that anyone who disagreed with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saying he would bench any players who “disrespect the flag” should “boycott his advertisers.”

Hill eventually left the network and now writes for the Atlantic.

Steele will find a landing spot; it would be surprising if Fox News wasn’t hammering out a contract as you read this. And she will have to abide by that company’s rules, whatever they may be. (Criticizing vaccine mandates and Barack Obama probably aren’t among them.)

And no matter where she winds up, she will continue to enjoy the protection of the First Amendment, just like we all do.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sage Steele lawsuit, departure from ESPN is not about First Amendment