Michael Wilbon blasts New York Times for abandoning sports journalism

Michael Wilbon accused The New York Times of abandoning the sportswriting industry during a Wednesday appearance on "The Dan Le Batard Show." The longtime ESPN host, who began his career in print journalism and spent decades at The Washington Post before joining ESPN full-time in 2010, directed an expletive-laced rant at the publication. Host Dan Le Batard initiated the discussion by noting that The New York Times was the only major publication that did not allow its sports writers to appear on Wilbon's ESPN program, "Pardon the Interruption."

Wilbon stated that the newspaper was the first to bail on the profession. "They bailed," Wilbon said. "They were the first to bail. F--- The New York Times. I work for a better section anyway." He contrasted his current platform with his past colleagues, listing Tom Boswell, Dave Kindred, Tony Kornheiser, Sally Jenkins, David Remnick, David Aldridge, J.A. Adande, and Barry Lorge. Wilbon noted that he was skipping a whole generation of people in his list and observed that half of those writers went to television.

The host continued his criticism by claiming the newspaper took the sports section away from its journalists. He called the outlet "gutless" and used another expletive to describe their actions. Fox News Digital reached out to The New York Times for comment, but the publication did not respond to the inquiry. ESPN also declined to comment on the remarks.

The comments appear to reference The New York Times' 2023 announcement that it would close its internal sports department. The newspaper stated it would focus on covering teams and games through The Athletic, a company it acquired one year prior to the announcement. Although there were no layoffs resulting from the acquisition, the sports department at The Times had grown smaller in the years leading up to the purchase. The desk eventually lost its stand-alone section in the daily print edition, and local teams were no longer guaranteed an assigned beat reporter.

New York Times staffers have since petitioned for The Athletic staffers to join their union. Jim Luttrell, a senior editor at The New York Times, told Fox News Digital in May that the newspaper bought a separate company and then disbanded its own sports desk. "They now use that company as their sports department," Luttrell said. He added that The Athletic employees are doing the same work that all other journalists at the newspaper do, work that sports journalists previously performed. Luttrell argued there is no reason those employees should not be in the union.