Sage Steele Claims ESPN Forced Her to Stick to Script During a Softball Biden Interview: ‘You Will Say Every Word That We Write Out’

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Ex-ESPN anchor Sage Steele revealed that her 2021 interview with President Joe Biden was entirely scripted with no room for deviation.

The interview, done in March 2021, focused on sports leagues dealing with the Covid-19 and vaccine hesitancy among both athletes and fans. In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Steele described how “structured” her talk with the president actually was.

“That was an interesting experience in its own right because it was so structured,” Steele said. “And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go.'”

Steele sued ESPN in April 2022 after claiming she was unfairly punished for expressing her views on a podcast outside of work. She left the network in August 2023 after the two sides reached a settlement.

In March 2024, she debuted her new podcast The Sage Steele Show on Bill Maher’s media network Club Random Studios.

Prior to her interview with Biden, Steele said “every single question” came from ESPN’s top brass.

“To the word,” she continued. “Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives. Absolutely. I was on script and was told not to deviate.

“It was very much, ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups. Next.’ … This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision makers are, the president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked.”

ESPN declined to comment when Fox News reached out.