Joining Fox News’ post-Grammys meltdown Monday night, former Sportscenter host Sage Steele fumed about musicians speaking out against Donald Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown and told them to “shut up and sing” because they “don’t know what” they’re talking about when it comes to politics.
Steele, who left ESPN in 2023 to launch a new career as a conservative podcaster, purposely echoed Fox News star Laura Ingraham’s clarion call to athletes and entertainers to refrain from opining on hot-button political issues – which seemingly only applies to those with liberal opinions.
During Sunday night’s broadcast of the Grammys, at least a dozen musicians made statements against Trump’s immigration policies amid ongoing demonstrations that have spread across the nation following the two shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents in Minnesota during the administration’s Operation Metro Surge.
With several artists wearing “ICE Out” pins to protest the increasingly unpopular immigration enforcement tactics by the administration, Grammy winners used their acceptance speeches to express solidarity with immigrants while calling for a halt of the mass deportation operation.
“No one is illegal on stolen land… It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now, and I just, I feel really hopeful in this room,” Billie Eilish said, adding: “And I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting and our voices really do matter, and the people matter.”
Bad Bunny, whose upcoming Super Bowl performance had already sparked MAGA outrage over his anti-ICE stance, also declared “ICE Out” from the stage as he accepted his award for best música urbana album. “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans,” he declared.
Appearing on Jesse Watters’ primetime Fox News show on Monday, Steele – who settled a lawsuit with ESPN after accusing the sports giant of violating her First Amendment rights by punishing her for her controversial political comments – demanded that musical artists keep their views to themselves.
Claiming that she “only watched for about 15 minutes, but it was enough to really set the tone for what I knew what it would ultimately be,” Steele said that the Grammys was “still disappointing” before referencing Ingraham’s infamous refrain. Besides writing a book in 2003 titled “Shut Up and Sing” about “elites from Hollywood” subverting American culture, Ingraham notoriously told NBA stars LeBron James and Kevin Durant in 2018 to “shut up and dribble” rather than express their opinions on political and cultural issues.
“And I’d liken it to what the great Laura Ingraham said years ago,” Steele proclaimed. “‘Shut up and dribble.’ It isn’t because we didn’t want to hear athletes’ opinions on things. Maybe here or there, but it’s because we learned that they don’t tend to base it in fact.”
She added: “They base it on TikTok news or left-wing media narratives instead of the facts. If you go on fact, and give me your opinion from there, then fine. And that’s exactly what the Hollywood elites are choosing not to do as well, and it was an incredibly pathetic, but not surprising display by all of those on that stage yesterday.”
Steele eventually circled back to that motto later in the discussion, saying that “shut up and dribble” and “shut up and sing” continued to apply to these artists. “You’re super talented,” she concluded. “But you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Meanwhile, as Fox News took part in the “most predictable day on the network” by raging about the anti-ICE speeches at the Grammys, the network has absolutely gushed over rap superstar Nicki Minaj’s recent MAGA conversion and condemnation of liberals and Democrats.
This includes Ingraham herself, who doesn’t seem to want Minaj to “shut up and sing” when it comes to voicing her over-the-top support for Trump. At the same time, though, it appears that the Fox News host still doesn’t know what songs are actually sung by Minaj, as she recently confused the “Anaconda” artist with longtime foe Cardi B.
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