Harassment from Jared Porter led to journalist leaving industry
1. The Jared Porter story seems pretty cut and dry.
Late Monday night, ESPN released a thorough investigative report about Porter, then a scout for the Cubs, sending a ton of lewd texts and a graphic photo to a female reporter in 2016.
In response, the Mets, who hired Porter as GM on Dec. 13, acted swiftly and fired Porter first thing Tuesday morning.
If you read the ESPN story, you knew Porter would be done; ESPN had access to so many texts and photos that he’d have no chance to play the “I was hacked” card.
The Mets, to their credit, wasted no time in taking action against Porter. Once your GM is shown to be unbalanced at best and a stalker at worst (sending 62 unanswered texts makes you a stalker in my book), you have no choice but to cut bait. The Mets, with new owner Steve Cohen, sent a message that the franchise would have zero tolerance for sexual harassment by moving fast on this.
But the part of the story that has stuck with me more than anything (besides the 62 consecutive texts) is that the woman who received these texts left the journalism business altogether. Who can blame her when part of her job became avoiding Porter. Here’s an excerpt from the ESPN story:
“Over the course of the 2017 season, the woman said, she turned down opportunities to travel to Arizona to cover the Diamondbacks because she was afraid of running into Porter. She said she did not see him again until the postseason, when he was standing near the batting cage at the Diamondbacks' stadium. She said she immediately left the area and hid.”
According to ESPN, the journalist, who now works in finance, did not leave the business solely because of Porter, but the incident made her question whether a career in sports journalism was worth putting up with this kind of harassment.
"It would be a lie to say similar occurrences hadn't happened to me in [my home country]," she told ESPN. "It's a male-dominated industry. But it was a tipping point for me. I started to ask myself, 'Why do I have to put myself through these situations to earn a living?' "
Most rational people don’t have any sympathy for Porter, but, as always, there will be people who question whether the Mets did the right thing given that Porter’s transgressions happened with another franchise and took place five years ago (both arguments are totally irrelevant).
Of course, those people are dopes. Porter made life so miserable for this journalist that she gave up her career. It was only fitting that Porter lost his.
2. If you enjoy "The A-Rod Show" and don't actually care about the game that ESPN is airing on Sunday nights, you're in luck. Alex Rodriguez and Matt Vasgersian have signed new contracts to call Sunday Night Baseball for the World Wide Leader.
3. Dwyane Wade celebrated his 39th birthday yesterday by posting a photo of himself in the buff, with his private parts only being blocked by his wife, Gabrielle Union.
The pic was not viewed favorably by a couple of Wade's children.
4. More good news on Delonte West, who, with help from Mavs owner Mark Cuban, is making amazing progress in his recovery from addiction.
5. The guest on the latest episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast is Troy Aikman. Fox's lead NFL analyst explains why Tom Brady and Drew Brees have had so much success at the late stages of their careers, reveals who he thinks deserves the most credit for the NFL's being able to play an uninterrupted season during a pandemic, what it's been like calling games in empty stadiums, his philosophy for criticizing players during a game, his desire for a front-office job, the controversy with the Eagles' final regular-season game, why he thinks Aaron Donald is better than Lawrence Taylor, whether he'd ever want to guest-host a game show, recording a country album many years ago and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 75th birthday to Dolly Parton. Thank you for helping fund the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and thank you for giving us one of the greatest duets of all time.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: This is a great clip of Aaron Rodgers giving instructions to Allen Lazard before hitting him with a touchdown pass against the Rams last Saturday.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram