On Monday morning, Dan Le Batard—who makes a living by talking on his ESPN Radio show—started his show off by discussing what he couldn't talk about. According to him, an ESPN producer asked him not to talk about the now-infamous recording of Donald Trump and Billy Bush making inflammatory remarks about women. Le Batard went on to say that he was threatened with a suspension if he chose to talk about the Trump tape on his show.
When Le Batard asked for clarification on the rules, a producer for the show said, "You can't talk about it...you probably said too much already." And the producer said that the only thing he was technically allowed to say was that he wasn't allowed to talk about it. Which is what Le Batard went on to do.
Le Batard sounded genuinely annoyed about not being able to touch on the Trump tape and pointed out that he's been allowed to talk about a range of other issues in the past."We talk race. We talk gender, and there is some stuff here that can be talked about as it relates to misogyny and entitlement that we talk about all the time around here," he said. "You have to be kidding me. This controversy is in our wheelhouse. You have to be kidding me."
He also said that he wanted to talk about internet sensation Ken Bone, but he openly wondered whether or not that would be allowed since it also had to do with politics. He then suggested that a suspension for talking about the Trump tape might be "worth it" and said the ESPN suits are "wrong" for muzzling him. And he said he was going to rebel against the network by doing a show about nothing but sports, which might seem to make sense since Le Batard's show is on ESPN. But if you've listened to it before, you know that sports are usually the last thing on Le Batard's mind at any given moment.
When contacted by Business Insider, ESPN said that Le Batard was never threatened with a suspension. But Le Batard sounded pretty convincing while talking about it. You can hear him go off in the clip above.
