ESPN's Mark Jones Spread Lie on NBA Broadcast That Jacob Blake Was Unarmed

After a two-week break from spreading lies on Twitter, ESPN's highly-promoted broadcaster Mark Jones interrupted his call of last night's Lakers-Bucks game to falsely claim that Jacob Blake was "unarmed" when he was shot by police last year.

"Of course," to use his words, that is wrong. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession, video footage showed Blake carrying a knife, and investigators found a knife on the driver’s side floor of Blake's vehicle.

Jones' claim has been disputed for months. Even The Washington Post corrected its story to note Blake was, indeed, armed:

Despite all the reports and evidence, ESPN's Mark Jones still spread this false narrative to millions of viewers during a live sporting event. Thus, Jones either lied or is greatly misinformed about a topic he is discussing with the country. Both scenarios are equally believable and troubling.

Over the past year, Jones has repeatedly displayed disturbing behavior.

In the fall, Jones claimed that he would refuse assistance from police, many of whom have protected him and helped him arrive at games safely, because he says they are racist and want to shoot him.

Not long after ESPN assigned Jones to call an Army football game, Jones shared a post calling then-President Donald Trump a "white supremacist terrorist."

He still called the game, and ESPN was cool with it.

Jones also routinely likes tweets attacking people because they don’t agree with him politically. During the football season, Jones enjoyed tweets that mocked Nick Bosa for tearing his ACL, an injury that threatened Bosa's NFL career. Per Jones, Bose deserved that because he may have voted for Trump.

Even worse, seconds after Rush Limbaugh's wife tearfully broke the news that her husband had passed away from lung cancer, Mark Jones celebrated, liking tweets cheering Limbaugh's death.

I reached out to ESPN after each incident, and each time ESPN refused to comment. That's fine. ESPN owes me nothing, but it does owe its fans a simple note, one that says Jones and his social media activity don't represent the company's views. (Unless, of course, they do.) How hard would it be to say, "ESPN does not support hate toward police, cheering for ACL injuries, and celebrating death"?

Thursday morning, I asked ESPN about Jones spreading the lie that Jacob Blake was unarmed and whether the network wanted to say that Jones' behavior doesn't represent the company. ESPN, again, declined to comment. I can only conclude that they are fine with letting Jones' lie remain uncorrected.

As I have discussed before, ESPN knows that Jones' behavior is wrong, but company executives are afraid to address it and risk the wrath of an equally far-Left media reporter attacking them and baselessly calling the company racist. These executives are not dumb. They are cowardly.

Mark Jones is an embarrassment, yet ESPN promotes him and parts ways with Mike Golic and Trey Wingo.

For those who wonder how they can become a sportscaster, Mark Jones is showing the way. And it's detestable.