BostonGlobe- But others are speaking openly. In her complaint, Adrienne Lawrence describes a toxic environment at ESPN headquarters where men make unwanted sexual and romantic advances under the guise of networking or mentoring, and “mark” women as their own by spreading false rumors about sexual relationships with female employees.
Lawrence accused John Buccigross, a longtime SportsCenter anchor whom she viewed as a mentor, of sending unsolicited shirtless photographs of himself and calling her “dollface,” “#dreamgirl,” and “#longlegs” in messages from 2016 reviewed by the Globe. Lawrence said she tried to remain cordial in the messages but at one point responded: “You need to wear clothes, sir.” When rumors spread that the two were in a relationship, Lawrence repeatedly complained to company officials and was advised by a supervisor to drop the matter, according to the complaint. Lawrence said ESPN retaliated against her by reducing her on-air shifts and ultimately denying her a permanent position. The other fellow, a male, received a job offer. The Globe interviewed three former employees whom Lawrence had confided in at the time about her treatment and confirmed her account. Buccigross, roughly two decades older than Lawrence, acknowledged sending the photos but denied starting any rumors that the two were in a relationship. “I considered Adrienne to be a friend,” Buccigross said in a statement to the Globe. “I’m sorry if anything I did or said offended Adrienne. It certainly wasn’t my intent.” -------- I'm not going to lie, when you put it in print that accusation paints quite the inflammatory picture. Doll face? Long legs? Dream girl? Half naked pictures that were met with the text message equivalent of a finger wag? Not looking great for John Buccigross in his off-hours exchange with a female co-worker twenty years his junior. That is, until you see them in...wait, what's that thing we always tend to ignore because it gets in the way of a good story? Ahhhh, that's right, context... ....and with all the good that has come with women finally feeling empowered enough to out the perverts they encounter in the workplace, the bad of timely attempts to capitalize on how quick we have become to accept these allegations as fact was sure to follow. Admittedly, a couple innocent men having to wash themselves off after having their reputation dragged through the dirt is a small price to pay as the collateral damage for unveiling decades of marginalization by way of menacing misogyny. Still, now - more than ever before - we should force ourselves to examine these things on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the most problematic point of contact was this (strategically omitted by ESPN) selfie...
...thaaaaaat (refer back to the text exchange) was immediately met with a request to hang out. I'm no expert on sexual harassment, but I don't think victims of it repeatedly engage their assailant in hopes of meeting them privately to wash down home-cooked Italian specialities with an alcohol of their choice. I don't know if John Buccigross was actually in pursuit of Adrienne Lawrence, but if he was then the trail of amorous breadcrumbs she left is at least partially to blame. As far as I am concerned, the only creepy thing that the then 50 year old anchor is guilty of doing is texting like the 50 year old man that he was at the time. So if inter-company flirting is frowned upon then you can slap the sad face emoji on both of their records, but there was absolutely nothing one-sidedly sexual about an exchange that featured far too many winky faces to be assumed completely professional in nature. Now, these screenshots don't serve as a defense of the company that potentially wiped themselves clean of only the female minority when it looked as though two of their employees might be shitting where they ate, but they are undoubtedly an exoneration of John Buccigross as some sort of manipulative sexual deviant. I feel like that's a pretty fucking important distinction that wasn't even remotely made by the accuser in this article. Especially since the article continued on to trivialize the trials and tribulations of a pregnant woman who worked through a miscarriage on-air only to be laid off hours before returning from a subsequent, successful attempt at child birth by lumping them in some cutesy, well-received, back-and-forth banter... Shortly after Mike McQuade took over as vice president of SportsCenter in 2014, he questioned Walsh’s commitment because she also worked for The Fantasy Show during the football season. Walsh, who had recently signed a multi-year contract and helped host an opening for ESPN’s new digital center, was shocked that her new boss was raising concerns, according to three former employees briefed on the matter at the time. Walsh was so worried about her job that she decided not to call in sick when she started bleeding from a miscarriage during a work trip to Alabama. Instead, she went to the studio and anchored the show. She described the on-air miscarriage in an Instagram post on Mother’s Day this past year, but Walsh told the Globe she could not comment because she is still under contract. Former employees said that Walsh was upset that McQuade did not respond to an e-mail she wrote from the hospital about the miscarriage, and she was soon sent back to the same Alabama set where she had miscarried. After Walsh raised concerns about her treatment, she was told the matter had been investigated and was handled properly even though she was never interviewed, according to the former employees. Shortly after, Walsh was assigned to fewer shows, a move that she viewed as retaliation for speaking up, according to the employees. Walsh eventually conceived again and talked to human resources before she went on maternity leave to get assurances her position was safe. But days before she planned to return from maternity leave this past April, ESPN notified her that she was part of the layoffs.
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