Last week, I discussed the wins that, I believe, resulted from Maria Taylor leaving ESPN for NBC. This week I’ll be sharing the things I think were losses. Starting with…
Maria’s ESPN On-air Exit
As the NBA post-season wrapped up on July 20, with the Milwaukee Bucks defeating the Phoenix Suns to win the championship, so did Maria Taylor’s time at ESPN.
However, if you watched her final broadcast without paying attention to all the behind-the-scenes mess that preceded it, you wouldn’t have any clue that this was the end. There was no mention of it being her final day, no send-off, no goodbye or well wishes from her on-air colleagues, no cake rolled out as an appreciation for the eight years she put in with the company – nothing. Eight years is a long time to be with a company, especially in an on-air capacity, without getting a chance to publicly say goodbye.
While I am listing this as a loss, undoubtedly it’s a minor loss because in the grand scheme of things, who really cares. Well, except for the fact that I would care if it were me. No, actually I’d be ambivalent.
I mean, I don’t care if I spent eight years or eight minutes, if I’m leaving, the least you could do is let me say goodbye to the viewers. I ain’t got to say where I’m going, just let me tell them a quick thank you, so long and I’m out.
That’s what we usually see on-air talent do. Just days before Maria’s exit, we saw an on-air goodbye from Kasie Hunt who left MSNBC for a new CNN streaming service. It happens all the time. So the fact that Maria wasn’t allowed to do the same, I thought was rude.
And if that weren’t enough, the next day, ESPN’s president, James Pitaro, came out with a statement about Maria’s departure. It actually was a joint statement, beginning with his remarks followed by hers. But I don’t know, that just seemed weird to me too. It was like ESPN was trying to hold on to every last bit of control they could over her up until the very end. I didn’t like it.
But then again, like I said, in the grand scheme of things this was tre petty. I guess Maria was like, “let me just go along with this, so I can make my quick transition to NBC, and get them out of my hair.”
Kayla Johnson
The only person who got in trouble over the whole Rachel Nichols’ leaked conversation mess was Kayla Johnson who worked as a digital video producer for ESPN at the time. She ended up getting suspended for two weeks without pay. But what I don’t understand is why was she the only one punished when reports say the recording was disseminated by several employees. My only guess is it’s because she was said to have taken the recording straight to Maria. So I hope this is not a case of Maria throwing Kayla under the bus.
I mean remember the whole Judith Miller and Scooter Libby situation? Judith Miller was willing to go to jail to keep her source secret, meanwhile Kayla Johnson can’t even get a sista to say an “I don’t recall.”
Again, this is only my assumption, Maria may have had nothing to do with Kayla getting called to HR and getting in trouble. Or if she did, perhaps she didn’t realize it was going to go that far.
I just hope that this doesn’t discourage Kayla or others like her from disclosing pivotal information like this in the future. Because when we have coworkers who see something, but are too afraid to say something for fear that they are going to get suspended or fired, that is indeed a great loss.
May we all work with Kayla Johnsons.
White Women’s Silence
As I said, or at least alluded to ( I don’t remember) in the original post I wrote about this matter, I don’t think what Rachel Nichols was saying in that conversation was racist. I mean if it’s true that ESPN promised her the job then reneged to make themselves look good in the current social climate, that’s fucked up, and I can understand why she would be angry, and feel the way she did.
However, what I also heard in her conversation is that she has been aware that people of color have been getting the short end of the stick at ESPN, and instead of being a part of the change, she ignored it because it wasn’t affecting her. Of course she didn’t say those exact words, but that’s what I got from it.
When people know bad shit is going down, and they choose not to be a Kayla Johnson, and instead stand by and do nothing, that is truly a loss.
What exactly could she have done, you may ask? Well, she could have reported the discriminatory behavior she witnessed or heard about herself. She could have gone to the person who she saw experience the discriminatory behavior and told them she would be happy to provide a corroborating statement to HR if they needed it. She could suggest someone for a role who she knew was unfairly being overlooked. She could even acknowledge what happened so that person doesn’t feel all alone, though that would only be a start, you probably don’t want to stop there.
I don’t know the exact setup, situation and culture in their office, but one thing’s for sure, there is always something that others can do, no matter where they fall in the chain-of-command, to help out a fellow coworker who is being unfairly treated.
The thing is, there is risk that comes with that, on many different levels, and that’s what people try to avoid. And that’s part of what makes some people apathetic. They don’t care unless it’s happening to them and by then it’s usually too late.
Similarly, we saw this with Michelle Beadle at ESPN as well, who didn’t seem to speak out against football until a college football coach was ignoring a white woman’s claims of domestic violence. While discussing the matter on the ESPN show Get Up back in 2018, Michelle stated: “I believe that the sport of football has set itself up to be in a position where it shows itself in the bigger picture to not really care about women — they don’t really care about people of color, but we won’t get into that for NFL either. But as a woman, I feel like a person who has been marginalized.“
Again, it’s an example of a white woman mentioning the problems people of color are confronted with in the NFL cursorily to those of white women.
It’s definitely a loss when white women, who have their own battles with discrimination and therefore can relate, turn a blind eye when it’s happening to others.
Women Being Pitted Against Each Other in General
Ultimately I think it’s sad that this situation turned out to be largely referenced as Rachel Nichols against Maria Taylor, rather than Maria Taylor and Rachel Nichols against ESPN. This was a problem that was unabashedly created by ESPN that pitted these two women against each other, and then created no equally satisfying outcome. One had to lose for the other to gain. While in this situation Rachel seemed to get the short end of the stick, Maria’s spoils weren’t exactly the best either while she remained at ESPN, given that it appears the company was also trying to make her out to be a gold digger, regarding contract negotiations.
Maria Ends Up at NBC
While, ultimately, I do think that being at NBC is better than being at ESPN, NBC has had its fair share of complaints about mistreating women as well. From the unceremonious way Ann Curry left the Today show, to the revelations about Matt Lauer’s conduct with women, and Tamron Hall being booted for Megyn Kelly, one thing’s for sure, this isn’t a problem isolated to ESPN. This isn’t a problem that one can just change jobs and get away from. There is a much larger systemic problem in our current business model as a whole that everyone needs to address no matter your gender, race, or any other classification. Because if one thing this story has shown us, is sooner or later, the short end of the stick is coming for you too.
All right so that’s it for the losses. Next week I’ll wrap up with a few lessons or takeaways this story can teach us about navigating these workplace streets.
Until then.
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