A week after The Boston Globe reported a "deeply ingrained culture of sexism and hostile treatment of women” exists at ESPN, the liberal sports network engaged in a weak attempt at damage control today. Public Editor Jim Brady claimed ESPN is "making progress" with women in sports, but he made no reference to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former employee.
Brady acknowledged ESPN is not immune to the recent allegations of sexual assault, and he defended the network with a reminder that ESPN radio hosts Donovan McNabb and Eric Davis "were pulled from the air" over alleged sexually inappropriate behavior when they worked for the NFL Network. Brady's observation that "as a society, we’ve crossed over into an era in which tolerance for sexual harassment no longer exists" flies in the face of The Globe's report on ESPN.
This past fall, ESPN added to its notoriety by entering into a video partnership with Barstool Sports, known for aiming misogynist insults at women, including ESPN's Sam Ponder.
The Globe story contended the partnership with Barstool "emboldened others to speak out about the entrenched locker room culture, where men have made unwanted sexual propositions to female colleagues, given unsolicited shoulder rubs, and openly rated women on their looks, and, in at least one case, sent shirtless selfies, according to interviews with roughly two dozen current and former employees."
Some of those accusations were made by former employee Adrienne Lawrence, who's suing ESPN for sexual harassment. The alleged culprits are John Buccigross (seen in photo above) and Matthew Berry. ESPN told The Globe that Lawrence's charges are without merit.
Brady mentioned ESPN's pushback to The Globe story: “We work hard to maintain a respectful and inclusive culture at ESPN. It is always a work in progress, but we’re proud of the significant progress we’ve made in developing and placing women in key roles at the company in the board room, in leadership positions throughout ESPN and on air.”
Picking up on that spin, Brady crowed about ESPN's positives regarding women:
Interestingly, all of this is happening at a time when ESPN has a lot of positives to point to when it comes to women at the company. The network has more female employees in high-profile roles than ever, both on the air and in the executive suites. Thanks to an ongoing commitment to espnW, the company’s coverage of women’s sports is more comprehensive than ever, and ESPN even holds a high-profile annual conference on women’s sports that always features A-list speakers.
Brady carried that narrative to the hilt. He wrote "there’s no question ESPN has done an admirable job of hiring more and more women across the network, and providing high-profile opportunities for them, in recent years." Jessica Mendoza became the first female Major League Baseball color commentator. Alison Overholt is editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine, Beth Mowins called an NFL game, Jemele Hill and Sam Ponder host programs. ESPN has a relationship with Billie Jean King's Women’s Sports Foundation.
Attempting to lead his readers down a rabbit trail, Brady went off about how difficult it is for female reporters to navigate men's locker rooms or to reach management levels in industries historically dominated by men. From the sounds of The Globe's story, it's been difficult for women to navigate the office of ESPN without catcalls, 1-10 ratings and other insults from the resident mooks.
Tipoeing around The Globe's accusations against ESPN, Brady admits that none of the network's accomplishments negates the fact that the problem of harassment in sports is real. But he writes 15 paragraphs shifting blame and indicting ESPN's former BFF Barstool for trashing women. By cancelling the Barstool agreement, Brady says, ESPN showed it was at least listening to its female employees. Just not the ones talking about sexual harassment in the work place.
Brady further undercuts his credibility as someone knowledgeable about ESPN's work climate by informing readers he's not a full-time ESPN employee and does not work at any of its offices. He said, "I have no idea what the level of the problem is inside the network, and since my term ends at the end of the year, it’ll be incumbent on others to report that out. The good news is that, based on recent events, if there’s dirty laundry, it’s never more likely to see the light of day than it is right now."
No thanks to Brady's shameless shielding of that light.
