Jemele Hill Changes Tune On Jaguars Reporter After Learning She Works For Black Newspaper

Former journalist Jemele Hill was among the many holier-than-thou media members who initially criticized an exchange between Jaguars head coach Liam Coen and a reporter on Sunday.

Or, as Hill put it, a "reporter."

"I’m going to tell you, congratulations on your success, young man," Lynn Jones-Turpin said to Coen after the team’s playoff loss to the Bills. "You hold your head up. You guys have had a most magnificent season. You did a great job out there today. You just hold your head up, OK? Ladies and gentlemen, Duval. You keep it going. We got another season."

Hill responded as follows:

"That can’t be a reporter. Cause if so, I would not have used the term awesome.

By Monday, Hill had changed her tune. She was suddenly praising Jones-Turpin and admonishing others for not supporting her publication.

"What I would say to my fellow media members — and to the general public — is that if we’re going to have this much discourse about @JacksonvilleFP reporter Lynn Jones, the very least we could do is follow her publication on social media and subscribe," Hill wrote.

"Many of us have been local reporters and we know how challenging it is now for local papers to cover the news. So subscribe + follow as I just did https://jacksonvillefreepress.com."

So what changed? How did Hill go from dismissing Jones-Turpin as a reporter to promoting her work? Between those two posts, Hill added a key detail: "This is one of the few black newspapers still in existence."

Ah, there it is.

At first, Hill watched the clip and mocked the reporter’s warm comments to Coen. However, once she realized Jones-Turpin worked for a black newspaper, she reversed course. 

In typical Jemele Hill fashion, the person's skin color changes everything. Simply learning that Jones-Turpin was a black woman turned Hill into a fan of her work.

It’s hard to imagine Hill offering the same grace if the reporter were white or worked for an outlet less aligned with her views. 

This tendency to view people differently based on race has become a theme of the NFL postseason. Commentators like Ryan Clark and Bomani Jones have held Josh Allen to standards they criticized others for applying to Lamar Jackson just a week ago. More on that here.

It’s all transparent and tired.

Further, the broader outrage over Jones-Turpin’s exchange with Coen was also misplaced. The self-proclaimed "serious journalists" pretend that the press room remains sacred ground. It isn’t.

The era of tough, honest sports reporting is mostly over. Few reporters ask real questions anymore, knowing it could cost them access.

In fact, Jones-Turpin’s remarks were refreshing. She spared us from yet another meaningless "Talk about your team’s energy" or "Are you proud of your guys?" question that suffocates the value of postgame pressers.

As this concept is for Jemele to grasp, both white and black sports journalists have undermined the industry in recent years.