Sports: Did ESPN’s firing of Steve Phillips expose a double-standard?
- Steve Phillips is no longer working for ESPN. His ability to be an effective representative for ESPN has been significantly and irreparably damaged, and it became evident it was time to part ways.
- The ESPN network, in a statement • On the firing of “Sunday Night Baseball” analyst Steve Phillips, after he had an affair with a 22-year-old production assistant. ESPN admitted in the quote that it wasn’t the analyst’s conduct that got him fired, but the fact that he made the network look bad. Our take: We, as a culture, were largely sympathetic to David Letterman, even though he basically did the same thing. Why shouldn’t we do the same for Steve Phillips? However, we will say this much – Letterman got to control the story, while ESPN and Phillips largely didn’t. • source