Dan Le Batard, who avoided allegations of abuse by Doug Emhoff, says journalism is ‘dead’.

Podcast host Dan Le Batard declared sports journalism “dead” this week during a segment about Amazon employees criticizing ESPN insider Shams Charania for breaking the league’s MVP award before the official announcement.

“I would like that moment to live forever. [Sports journalism] he is dead. It’s not dying, it’s dead,” said Le Batard. “These broadcasters don’t care, none of them, none of them are interested in doing journalism, that’s why I’m telling you this fight, journalists have already lost.”

Whether sports journalism is truly dead is another topic. Hearing Dan Le Batard make the announcement is another entirely.

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Le Batard was once a respected columnist and investigative reporter at the Miami Herald. He made a name for himself as a sharp, witty voice in the sports arena. He deserves credit for that job. But few people have done more to undermine the integrity of the industry in recent years than he. Few have blurred the lines between journalism, activism, activism, and highly selective outrage.

Consider her story about women and domestic violence.

In recent years, Le Batard has publicly positioned himself as someone who has zero tolerance for mistreatment of women. He strongly criticized UFC President Dana White after White was filmed slapping his wife, and also weighed in on allegations against former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.

“In the places that gave you the video of the Ray Rice lift, we get these bulls on fire— making it sound like Justin Tucker was the victim,” Le Batard wrote on X after Baltimore released Tucker. “‘We kicked out Justin Tucker’ would have been enough. Football players don’t respect kickers. But the Ravens respect this one, who was bad last year, more than women.”

On the surface, those words sound like the words of a journalist who takes allegations seriously and holds powerful people accountable.

The issue is hypocrisy.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff listen as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th presidential inauguration ceremony in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times/AP)

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A month before the 2024 presidential election, the Daily Mail published allegations from the ex-girlfriend of Doug Emhoff, the husband of then Vice President Kamala Harris. The woman, who said witnesses could not corroborate her account, accused Emhoff of “forcefully slapping” her during the 2012 incident.

Emhoff’s first major interview after the report was not with CNN or MSNBC. There was Dan Le Batard. However, Le Batard never questioned these allegations. Not once.

Instead, open the interview with a question about love.

“Tell me what you learned about love from your wife,” asked Le Batard.

“Communication,” Emhoff replied.

To be clear, no one expected Le Batard to conduct brutal interrogations. The interview was apparently intended to humanize Emhoff and help restore public opinion of the Harris campaign. Good. That happened in the media.

However, refusing to acknowledge the allegations represented a shameful abandonment of basic journalistic standards.

Even the affiliated networks would apparently ask for an answer from Emhoff, if only to satisfy the minimum obligation to deal with serious allegations involving a national political figure.

OutKick asked Le Batard on Tuesday about declaring journalism “dead” while simultaneously conducting interviews like this one with Emhoff. He didn’t answer. We will update the story when it becomes available.

The hypocrisy of Emhoff’s interview was not a one-off argument.

Years ago, Le Batard hired Howard Bryant to work for Meadowlark Media. Bryant was previously arrested after allegedly assaulting his wife in front of their 6-year-old son. According to reports, witnesses told police that Bryant was seen choking his wife. Bryant was also charged with assaulting a responding officer.

Given Le Batard’s public pronouncements on violence against women, his decision to hire Bryant raised obvious questions. Questions he never answered seriously, despite our repeated questions.

It’s also worth noting that Le Batard executive producer Mike Ryan defended Emhoff’s interview earlier this year by calling critics “pedos” for supporting Donald Trump. In other words, he had no defense at all.

And when it comes to the kind of journalism that Le Batard seems to value, he is the only journalist who defended Deadspin after the newspaper lied about a 9-year-old Chiefs fan wearing blackface. The family later filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin, after which the official Dan Le Batard Show X account quietly removed the clip.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris watches the game between the Lakers and the Warriors at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 6, 2025. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

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This history makes Le Batard of sports journalism difficult to take seriously.

If sports journalism is dying, it’s because figures like Dan Le Batard have abandoned core values ​​in favor of corporate politics and the theater of war of hackneyed culture.

That he is pretending to be the arbiter of this field is an insult to the few people who are still trying to practice.

Now we’re waiting for Le Batard to get the first interview with Diddy after his release from prison, so we can ask him about “love.”