Le Batard: Carton's whiteness made 'seven-figure' FOX deal possible

Sports radio host Dan Le Batard has claimed Craig Carton’s pathway from prison to a national television show on FS1 ‘would never’ happen for someone ‘who isn’t white.’

Le Batard savaged the ‘sorry sad sack, awful industry’ of which he works in, following the announcement of Carton’s move departure from WFAN to focus on his FOX show.  

Carton will now focus solely on his show that debuted last September known as ‘The Carton Show,’ and is set to earn seven figures, according to the . He announced he was leaving WFAN on-air last Thursday. 

‘I want to make that clear on the front end that I don’t want to rip a guy who had a gambling problem, who is a convicted felon for having a gambling problem,’ Le Batard prefaced

‘Addiction grabs human beings and can be difficult.But as it relates to our sorry sad sack, awful industry that employs people, who are largely interchangeable. The idea that FOX would give a convicted felon a promotion when that opportunity would never go in my history doing this, to somebody who isn’t white, is such an indictment of everything around me, that I find it deeply offensive about our industry.’ 

Carton was sentenced to 42 months in prison on April 5, 2019 for his role in a $5.6 million ticket fraud scheme that he claims was the result of his ‘deep, dark spiral’ into gambling addiction. 

He was also convicted of conspiracy as well as wire and چربی سوز جی سی securities fraud in November 2018. Ultimately, he served just over a year in prison before being released to a halfway house on June 23, 2020.He returned to the WFAN airwaves on October 29, 2020. 

‘It enrages me that there’s a Carton show,’ Le Batard continued. ‘The man went to jail! The man defrauded the people and got right back into sports entertainment television!’ 

‘It’s not something certainly that would happen when somebody was a convicted felon and not a white person. It’s just not anything that would have any precedent in this business.

‘The idea that someone would have that kind of an offer to remake their career, it’s stupefying.It’s just not something that would happen in many other places and it’s not something certainly that would happen when somebody was a convicted felon and not a white person. 

‘It’s just not anything that would have any precedent in this business. It just speaks so ill of our industry.’

There are countless examples of sports media personnel having their troubled, even criminal, past overlooked. 

A short list of black athletes-turned-media-professionals have who had strong careers include Aqib Talib, Ray Lewis, Richard Sherman, Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones and Michael Vick.

Former NFL No.1 overall pick Ryan Leaf also has a successful media career despite serving two-and-a-half years in prison for burglary and drug possession.