Here's The Photo Of GOP Congressman, For Which ESPN Disciplined Ashley Brewer

On Monday, OutKick published a report detailing growing tensions inside ESPN over the selective enforcement of its "ban on politics" policy. Specifically, we reported on how the network has punished conservative employees for minor references to politics, while allowing liberal employees to endorse Democratic candidates for office, criticize Donald Trump, and belittle Republican voters.

One of the more damning examples was an incident we learned of in which ESPN management called former "SportsCenter" anchor Ashely Brewer into the office and demanded she delete a photo she posted of a Republican congressman during a UFC event.

Brewer had alluded to the matter in an X post earlier this year, saying ESPN "chewed" her out over the post. OutKick then obtained the photo in question on Tuesday. Put simply, Brewer posted a photo of former U.S. representative Madison Cawthorn, who is partially paralyzed, posing backstage in a wheelchair.

Here is the photo that ESPN deemed unacceptable and a violation of company standards:

Photo via OutKick.

That's it. Brewer wasn't even in the photo.

By comparison, several ESPN commentators have posted photos alongside Democrat politicians. However, ESPN never summoned them to the principal's office and ordered them to delete the picture before returning to the studio.

ESPN play-by-play commentator Mark Jones, whose history of violating company standards is profound, has currently pinned a photo of himself laughing alongside Barack Obama as his cover image on X. Maria Taylor, before she departed the network for NBC, also pinned a photo of herself with Obama on several of her social media pages.

Take a look:

Around the same time that ESPN scolded Brewer, Mina Kimes shared a photo of herself with Karen Bass on Instagram and told her followers to vote for Bass as Los Angeles Mayor.

Here is that photo:

How can ESPN justify such blatant, politically motivated hypocrisy? 

We asked ESPN PR executive Josh Krulewitz that question on Tuesday. Per usual, Krulewitz didn't respond. He knows the company cannot defend its hypocrisy on the issue. Still, we will update this article if he changes his mind. 

Here's the truth: ESPN disciplined Ashley Brewer because she is a conservative white woman. ESPN avoided disciplining Jones, Taylor, and Kimes because they are liberal people of color. It is that simple.

The mostly white management team at ESPN understands the risk of condemning people of color and them (or their agents) leaking the story to Kevin Draper of the New York Times, which he'd then spin in favor of the talent.

As an attractive white woman with conservative values, Brewer has no cards to play. Blogs like Awful Announcing and Front Office Sports don't sympathize with her.

Thus, the double standards continue and will continue until current and former ESPN employees take legal action against the company for discriminatory enforcement of its "ban on politics" policy.