Dan Le Batard Declares Sports Journalism Dead Amid Criticism of Shams Charania

Podcast host Dan Le Batard declared sports journalism dead this week during a segment about Amazon’s studio crew criticizing ESPN insider Shams Charania for breaking the league’s MVP award before the official announcement.

“I’d like that time to live forever. Sports journalism is dead. It’s not dying, it’s dead,” Le Batard said. “These streamers have no interest, none of them, none of them, have any interest in doing journalism and that’s why I’m telling you this war, the journalists have already lost it.”

Le Batard was once a respected columnist and investigative reporter at the Miami Herald. He built a reputation as a sharp, witty voice in sports media.

In recent years, Le Batard has publicly framed himself as someone with zero tolerance for the mistreatment of women. He forcefully condemned UFC President Dana White after White was filmed slapping his wife, and he repeatedly weighed in on allegations against former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.

“From the franchise that gave you the Ray Rice elevator video, we get this flailing bulls--- making it sound like Justin Tucker was the victim,” Le Batard wrote on X after Baltimore released Tucker. “‘We’ve released Justin Tucker’ would have sufficed. Football players don’t respect kickers. But the Ravens respect this one, who was bad last year, more than they do women.”

A month before the 2024 presidential election, the Daily Mail published allegations from an ex-girlfriend of Doug Emhoff, husband of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The woman accused Emhoff of forcefully slapping her during an incident in 2012.

Emhoff’s first major interview after the report was with Le Batard. Le Batard never asked about the allegations. Instead, he opened the interview with a question about love.

“Tell me what you've learned about love from your wife,” Le Batard asked.

“Communication,” Emhoff responded.

OutKick asked Le Batard on Tuesday about declaring journalism dead while conducting interviews like the one with Emhoff. He did not respond.

Years earlier, Le Batard hired Howard Bryant to work for Meadowlark Media. Bryant had previously been arrested after allegedly assaulting his wife in public in front of their 6-year-old son. Witnesses told police Bryant was seen choking his wife. Bryant was also charged with assaulting a responding police officer.

Le Batard’s executive producer, Mike Ryan, defended the Emhoff interview earlier this year by dismissing critics as pedos for supporting Donald Trump.

Le Batard was the only notable media figure to defend Deadspin after the outlet falsely framed a 9-year-old Chiefs fan as wearing blackface. The family later filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin, after which The Dan Le Batard Show’s official X account quietly deleted the clip.

If sports journalism is dying, it’s because figures like Dan Le Batard abandoned the core principles in favor of partisan politics and culture war theater, the report said.