The first African American to hold a managing position at the Washington Post left to follow his interest in news, sports and race and start something new.
Kevin Merida, ESPN senior vice president and editor-in-chief of The Undefeated spoke at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism on Monday alongside Pedro Gomez, ESPN baseball reporter.
“I had a desire to see if I can start something from scratch,” Merida said.
With no set launch date, The Undefeated is a website that will focus on sports and race and will try to create an engaging platform for people to interact with complex topics beyond sports.
“We’re not a news site but we want to be a site that feels urgent and necessary to people’s life,” Merida said.
He wants the website to include narrative writing and to be a commentary hub with lots of different voices, videos and experiments with other forms to reach a broad audience.
Sports create a sense of community and can unite people of different race, gender and political backgrounds, Gomez said.
“You can go to a stadium and can be a Democrat or Republican and that doesn’t matter. For the time of the game, you are a fan,” Gomez said.
Fans desire to win, and passion for the game is what makes sports such a big part of people’s lives.
“It gives you an instant thrill,” Merida said.
Cronkite junior Adonis Dees agreed with them, noting that, “sports are the biggest way to bring people together no matter the race or gender.”
“We watch sports because we love sports, but we also watch sports for the people — because people are interested in people,” Gomez said.
With sports and reporting, racial issues can occur. If you get called something negative, you have to move forward and continue reporting, Gomez said.
“Being uncomfortable is okay; being uncomfortable challenges you,” Gomez said.
As a journalist, if the organization you’re covering isn’t getting angry at you every once in a while then you’re probably not doing your job right, he said.
When topics come up about race, you have to go right up to the subject and do the reporting, Merida explained.
“We should be fearless but not reckless,” he said.
Merida said the main demographic for The Undefeated is 18-35, particularly African American men but he hopes to expand it beyond that. It will not just focus on African American issues but all races, sports and cultures.
“I hope some people look at us when we’re done and say they want to be like us,” Merida said.
Contact the reporter at rblascak@asu.edu.
