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Deadspin slammed for calling ESPN's Sage Steele 'BLACK Candace Owens'

Deadspin later dropped the word 'Black' from the headline while retaining the rest

Television anchor Sage Steele was branded the 'Black Candace Owens of ESPN' in a profile by Deadspin on Wednesday, December 29, inviting the wrath of many on social media who called out the outlet for being "racist".

It should be noted that while Deadspin had initially used the phrase 'Black Candace Owens' — as suggested by the screenshot shared by PodcastOne show Adam Carolla — they soon dropped the "Black" from the headline while retaining the rest. "Sage Steele loves three things: pissing off Black people, letting White people play in her hair, and finding ways to outdo herself. After a year in which she ran to the Wall Street Journal alleging that two of her fellow Black colleagues, Michael Eaves and Elle Duncan, worked to keep her from taking part in a special called 'Time for Change: We Won’t Be Defeated', trying to get them fired or their reputations damaged, Steele wound up getting demoted to the 12:00 pm SportsCenter while she was replaced by the person she tried to get fired — Duncan — on the 6:00 pm telecast," the article read.

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The article went on to talk about how Steele refused to admit defeat and instead "teamed up with Clay Travis on Twitter and did the whole 'well, what about Chicago?' thing." Travis religiously defended Steele and both of them tried to claim that Chicago, with its major African-Amerian population, was deadlier than Covid-19.

“Let’s also keep in mind, guys, she got Covid. Not only did she have to get the Covid vaccine but then she had one of these breakthrough cases of Covid which seem to be occurring at a fairly regular rate,” said Travis. “Dr Fauci says they don’t track them. I think a lot of people listening now who know someone in their own friend or family circle who had this happen to them. The reality is Jemele Hill, when she was working at ESPN, called Donald Trump a white supremacist and nothing happened. ESPN didn’t do anything. Steele is getting suspended for saying she doesn’t think the company should have a vaccine mandate? That’s absolute madness.”

'Zombie Deadspin'

Twitter started putting in reactions to this pretty soon. Adam Carolla said: "Sage Steele has more talent & intelligence in her little finger than the entire Deadspin staff combined," while another commented, "This woman is Top-shelf." A third noted, "Oh, you mean 'Zombie Deadspin,' where every writer can write about one, and only one, topic (ie, Carron J. Phillips only writes about how much he hates white people, Julie DiCaro writes about how much she hates men, etc.)?"

Another quipped, "Deadspin was always trash from the beginning, it's just gotten worse." The next remarked, "Deadspin listed @JeffreyToobin as most photogenic." One more said, "Kinda racist." A commenter tweeted, "@deadspin has always been shit. Company of hacks." Another quipped, "Isn’t Candace Owens the black Candace Owens?" A person reacted with "Deadspin: we love women of color!! Also @Deadspin: that woman of color has a mind of her own? Fuck her, shes an idiot!!"