Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University hires disgraced reporter who was fired for her racist rants

A disgraced former reporter who was fired for making racist remarks now has a new job, thanks to Liberty University, Slate reports.

In 2016, Emily Austen was fired from her job at Fox Sports after she appeared on a Barstool Sports broadcast where she made comments about "stingy" Jews and Chinese people always being the "smartest" ones in math class. Fast forward to this Wednesday when Liberty University, headed by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., announced that it will be adding Austen as an anchor on its Game On sports program.

“This is much more than a second chance at my ‘dream career,’ ” Austen was quoted as saying in the announcement. “I am here to honor God, share the Gospel through athletics, and promote Liberty student-athletes, coaches and staff and their walks with Christ.”

As Slate points out, Austen isn't the first person hired by the Christian school who was previously fired for questionable behavior. In the same year Austen was fired, Liberty hired Ian McCaw, who was accused of covering up sexual violence by athletes at Baylor University. Football coach Hugh Freeze was also given a second chance at Liberty after he was forced to resign from his position at Ole Miss in 2017 for using a university-issued cellphone to solicit prostitutes. Freeze was well known as a devout evangelical Christian.