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The Street
The Street
Colin Salao

Former ESPN host Sage Steele speaks about free speech lawsuit against Disney

Sage Steele continues to freely express her opinions against her former employer, Disney.

The former ESPN reporter, who settled lawsuit with ESPN in August, spoke on the "Club Random" podcast of Bill Maher and elaborated on the environment at the network.

"I had just hit a wall of being beaten down and silenced, silenced, silenced and then made an example of when I was just being me," Steele said. "Oh, so they can all be themselves, but then I can't, Right? And that's when at some point you go, 'Screw you, I'm done.'"

Related: ESPN host leaves network after settling COVID vaccine-related case

Steele said her main point was that the company should be "consistent" with its rules.

"Either you can speak your mind about things or you cannot — but you can't pick and choose," Steele said. 

Steele was reportedly suspended by ESPN in 2021 after she made comments calling Disney's vaccine mandate "sick" while she guested on the podcast of former NFL player Jay Cutler. In that interview, Steele also made comments about former president Barack Obama identifying as Black even though his Black father was "nowhere to be found."

Related: Stephen A. Smith delivers new perspective to Sage Steele's departure from ESPN

"My opinions were said on someone else's podcast on an off day, in my time, and to me, that's a safe space and apparently not. But the key was, is that many of my peers were allowed to say all their opinions on our airwaves and that was okay. It followed the narrative at this company," Steele said.

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