ESPN’s coverage of the Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault suit has resulted in the resignation of a Dallas ESPN Radio host.
Dale Hansen, a radio personality on 103.3 FM ESPN in Dallas, quit last week “amidst the worldwide leader’s self-imposed muzzling of the Ben Roethlisberger story,” reports the Dallas Observer.
Last Wednesday, Hansen reported on the Roethlisberger allegations for 20 minutes during his “Hour of Hansen” program, unaware that ESPN had issued a “do not report” memo on the story. During a commercial break, producers informed him of the ESPN memo, and he did not discuss the story for the remainder of the show.
After the show, Hansen submitted his resignation.
Hansen told the Dallas Observer that ESPN’s directive to not report the Roethlisberger story “was the fuse, but the fact nobody told me was the match that lit it. … I don’t want to be identified with being one of ESPN’s puppets. I refuse to be anybody’s puppet. Well, Channel 8 might get to pull my strings but ESPN can’t do that for $2,000 a month.”
