Jemele Hill Attacks OutKick In Desperate Attempt To Boost Failing Book Sales

Oh, Jemele. As the kids say, "You don't want that smoke."

Jemele Hill published a book near the end of October. If you didn't know that, you're not alone.

That tweet from OutKick's Bobby Burack was posted on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the day of this writing, her book had fallen to #4,452 on Amazon's chart. At this rate, she's going to be well outside the Top 5,000 books on Amazon less than a month after publishing.

Ouch.

EDITOR'S UPDATE (11/19): Hill's book now ranks outside the top 6,500 books on Amazon.

We can only assume this is making Jemele very angry. And when people get angry, they lash out. Jemele went looking for someone who would publish her rage and a beautiful marriage was born between her and Deadspin.

But, in order for the privilege to view this 90-second video, you have to watch an un-skippable advertisement. The one I got was a minute. I had to watch an entire one-minute advertisement to get to 90 seconds of Jemele Hill.

The irony here is Deadspin thinks people -- normal ones, not like us sociopaths who are paid to do it -- will sit through an advertisement to watch Jemele Hill. You might recall that Hill was kicked off SportsCenter because advertisers left the programs in droves, costing Disney & ESPN millions of dollars.

How do I know that? I worked at ESPN and was told that. Here's what I wrote in a previous column:

I had a meeting with very high-profile ESPN executive when I worked there and the conversation turned to the Hill and Smith version of SportsCenter. This executive told me that the advertising that the 6pm SportsCenter was bringing in prior to the Smith and Hill failed experiment was CUT IN HALF. He did not show me the actual numbers, but his tone and demeanor were clear: the show was hurting the company. This exec even went so far as to insinuate that one of the main reasons for the mass ESPN layoffs in 2017 were a direct result of this lost revenue. Connecting the dots, one could draw the conclusion that over 100 ESPN employees possibly lost their jobs so that Hill and Smith could continue to push away the audience.

Jemele Hill Attacks OutKick

With that as the backdrop, let's get to the video. We took the advertisement out for you. You're welcome.

Where to even begin? Chances are you're laughing so hard you can't even focus on your screen right now, so I'll give you a moment to gather yourself.

Good? Cool. Let's break this thing down.

She starts by plugging the book. Obviously. She's not going to get back into the top 4,000 without mentioning it as much as possible.

Then, we start with the good stuff.

"The people that rock with Barstool, rock with Clay Travis, are more than welcome to rock with those people," Jemele Hill says.

Thank you, Jemele! Those of us eagerly awaiting for your permission to "rock with Clay Travis" can finally live our truths. And it feels good.

"It's interesting that some individuals in those camps are just very fame-thirsty and dishonest, to me. That's not how I roll. That's not how I was taught in this business, and certainly not the person I am."

OK, come on. She's trolling us here, right? Those are words that she actually said in front of a camera with a completely straight face. Jemele Hill called other people fame-thirsty and dishonest and then said that's "not how she rolls." The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

This you, Jemele? Talking about people who are more famous than you and admitting to making up lies about them? Boy, that sounds kind of -- dare I say it? -- fame-thirsty and dishonest?

The lack of self-awareness here is alarming and bordering on delusional.

"The only thing that I don't particularly like is that they tend to 'stoke the mob' -- if you will -- sometimes over, what I would consider to be, very petty grievances."

Again, no self-awareness here? Hill's entire brand is about "stoking the mob." That's the entire point of calling everyone racist. You're trying to rally people together to take down someone that you don't like. Someone, like say, the former President of the United States.

Or maybe the most popular talk show host on cable news.

A United States senator.

Uh, Henry Ford?

I just want you all to know that to find these, I did an advanced Twitter search of "Jemele Hill" and "racist" or "racism." I am not joking or being hyperbolic: I saw over 50 uses of either/both of those words in tweets from this year alone. At least once a week she calls someone or something racist. But, hey, that can't be intended to "stoke a mob" because that's not "how she rolls."

"I can instantly tell when someone has read OutKick cause there's a certain playbook they all use in their 'talking points.' So, I'm like 'oh yeah, I know where you read about me at, I got it now.'"

First of all, thanks for the plug! We know you're big into promotion, so you must really care about us to give such a shoutout.

Secondly, at least she acknowledges that OutKick readers have talking POINTS, plural. Jemele Hill has one talking point: racism.

Again, it's getting ridiculously redundant at this point but for her to accuse other people of having a "playbook" when she literally has one go-to play would be funnier if she didn't actually believe it.

But I guess she's not wrong. While other people have a play "book" she has a play "flash card."

"Please buy the book. Sister tryna be on the New York Times bestseller list."

I am not editorializing with that spelling. That's exactly how Deadspin close-captioned her final, desperate plea.

Jemele Hill really needs you to buy her book because no one else is.

I actually feel kind of sorry for Jemele. At one point, she was hosting SportsCenter. That was the most coveted position in all of sports television. People like Dan Patrick, Scott Van Pelt, Stuart Scott, Robin Roberts, Linda Cohn -- some of the most respected folks in the business -- have hosted the show and gone on to do great things.

Jemele Hill, meanwhile, wrote a book that's about to be outside Amazon's Top 5,000 and she's making 90-second videos for Deadspin attacking OutKick and Barstool to try and peddle a few more copies.

Talk about a fall from relevancy.