Was Skip Bayless Censored By ESPN Before Going On A Tim Tebow Religion Rant?
Skip Bayless is known for stirring the pot and causing controversy and it looks like he has found has way into some new territory. Bayless was getting ready to go on another Tim Tebow rant on First Take, but this one seemed to be more religious based after a controversial photo shoot that Tebow was in. Just as Bayless was ranting, it cut to commercial for about 40 seconds and then came back.
I did not see the video live so all I have is this Youtube video. As Skip Bayless was getting ready to hit on a possible controversial topic, it went to commercial. That is a question that ESPN is going to have to answer. If you want Bayless to be controversial, why would you censor him? This may not have been intentional but it looked like they were in no hurry to get back from break.
You can make the argument that this was simply a production mistake. Sometimes commercials are cut to and it just screws up the broadcast. However, it looked like the show kept moving even during the commercial. Nothing seemed to indicate that Bayless knew what was going on. That makes me wonder about what was happening.
ESPN is in the business of selling sports to everyone. They do not want to alienate people but this video might show that they do not want religious speech on their channels. I personally think it looks like Bayless was being censored, but it could very easily have been a mistake. It might cause a big debate in the next few days, however.
That leads me to this. Do you believe that Bayless was censored or was this a mistake by ESPN? Do you think this will be a big story in the coming days? Let us know in the comments.
Riley Schmitt is a writer for Rant Sports.
