Travis Tritt has been all over the news lately.
Over the weekend, Tritt started trending on Twitter after various accounts (politically left-leaning accounts) noticed that they had been mysteriously blocked by him. At the advice of fellow conservative James Woods, Tritt shared his explanation for the Twitter tactic.
And that resulted in a whole mess of tweets like these:
Politics in 2020, amirite?
But here’s where it got interesting.
Sports journalist Jemele Hill is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and host of the Jemele Hill is Unbothered podcast. Prior to that she worked for ESPN for 12 years, participating in shows like First Take, SportsCenter and co-hosting His & Hers, Numbers Never Lie and more. She found herself in hot water with ESPN back in 2017 for violating social media guidelines on two separate occasions, one relating to critical comments about Donald Trump, and the other about Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. She eventually left ESPN in 2018.
So getting back to Tritt, Jemele was also blocked by Travis Tritt. But unlike many of the other accounts, she actually met Travis Tritt a few years ago. And at the time she would’ve said he was a nice guy.
But now, in light of his outspoken political beliefs and blocking tactics, she admitted that she would now lie about about his character and “make him seem like a huge asshole.”
Of course, she dismissed it all as a joke, but joking or not, it should go without saying that it’s a rather concerning statement to hear from a journalist. Things like “truth” and “integrity” are (or at least should be) the cornerstones of good journalism.
Needless to say, she received a lot criticism for the statement.
Travis Tritt responded to Jemele as well.
And look, I don’t give a shit about anybody’s politics one way or the other. I’m not siding with Travis or Jemele, Democrats or Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives, I’m not siding with anybody. I’m just trying to point out the dangers of rhetoric like this. The danger of opening admitting that as a journalist, you’re willing to lie about somebody because you disagree with their politics. It’s a slippery slope. I also don’t think blocking opposing views really helps to foster meaningful discussion either.
Either way, we’re not going to get through this shit storm unless we all come together, find common ground, and search for truth. And as a journalist, the search for truth should be priority number one.
In the meantime, I’ll be over here with Farce.
No sir, might even throw in some Margo Price and Toby Keith.
— Farce the Music (@Farcethemusic) September 7, 2020
