NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
The former ESPN host Samantha Ponder opened to the “evil” messages she received on social media after she mourned the loss of Charlie Kirk after his murder.
Ponder appeared on Pakinomist Channel’s “Saturday in America” and remembered Kayleigh McEnany that she reshaped a video of Kirk and his family on social media and thought nothing about it.
CLICK HERE for more sports cover at Foxnews.com
The then-Spn reporter Samantha Ponder looks at her husband, Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Christian Ponder (not depicted) at training camp at Blakeslee Fields, July 27, 2025. (Bruce Kluckhohn/USA Today Sports)
“The strange thing is that I didn’t really say much. I posted a video of his family just because I thought it was so relatable to watch because he is a father. You forget when you see people on TV sometimes that this is just a father who is a man and has these little kids,” she said. “So I then relocated a video of their family on vacation and I immediately lost thousands of supporters – and who cares? This isn’t about me.
“But it was more about seeing what’s going on in our country right now, and I just got vicious messages that any of us who worked on TV is getting all the time. I’m used to it. But it was in response to something that I thought we could all agree – man, it’s sad when someone murdered.
Ponder was worried about what people see on different sides of social media as every person’s algorithm is different. She contrasted what she saw about Kirk and his family versus the messages she received.
Gary Cohen doesn’t apologize for having ripped the Cubs player who jumped over the game to Charlie Kirk Memorial
Then-spor reporter Samantha Ponder present during the first half of the 2013 BCS Championship Game between Notre Dame, who fought Irish and Alabama Crimson Tide at Sun Life Stadium on January 7, 2013. (Matthew Emmons/USA Today Sports)
“I think it said a lot about where we are as a country, but I also think it says a lot about the algorithms we are dealing with,” she said. “I saw so many people send me a message and said ‘he was a racist. He was a bigot.’ So I thought, ‘I didn’t know about him.
“I hardly blame the people who felt like that because they are lied to. They are fooled. They are not sitting and seeing a long debate with Charlie Kirk. They see what their algorithm gives them. I had people to say, ‘I didn’t see anyone who gr at his death.’ And I think I see doctors, nurses, teachers, mothers laughing about his death, his murder that we all saw.
“These people didn’t see it all. So it tells us that we see two different America, and much of it is because of the social media algorithm that we are all just chronically online dependent on which is a real problem.”
Ponder was among the sports figures talking about Kirk’s murder.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA speaks during Turning Point Action Conference, July 15, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
The 31-year-old was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson was arrested in Kirk’s death.
