“What do Lisa Olson and the Iraqi Army have in common? They both have seen Patriot missiles up close.” This notorious quote was uttered in 1991 by Victor Kiam, owner of the New England Patriots from 1988–1991.
On September 17, 1990, Olson was a reporter for the New York Daily News reporting on a New England Patriots practice. While interviewing cornerback Maurice Hurst, tight end Zeke Mowatt stood directly behind her naked and started making suggestive comments. Other players joined in.
Olson said the incident was nothing less than “mind rape”.
The NFL appointed a commission to study the incident. The commission found that the offenders were Zeke Mowatt, Robert Perryman, Michael Timpson, and the Patriots management. They were fined $47,000 in total. However, reportedly the money was never collected from the players.
Then came Kiam’s joke.
Olson was so rattled by this experience she moved to Australia—returning in 1998.
We’re told that sports journalism and journalism have evolved in many ways since then. Social media has been a “game changer,” allowing journalists to directly interact with their readers.
But for some women sports journalists today, social media has merely replaced the toxic locker room culture of the 1970s and 80s.
For Diana Moskovitz, a sportswriter for Deadspin, social media is a double-edged sword.
“I’ve gotten great story tips and received great feedback and help via social media, especially Twitter,” Moskovitz said. “I’ve also gotten some of my worst harassment on Twitter, on top of my own concerns about tweeting something that I shouldn’t in the spur of the moment.”
Moskovitz isn’t the only one.
Julie DiCaro, a freelance sports journalist, weekend host and update anchor for 670 The Score, and Sarah Spain, an espnW.com columnist, ESPN Radio host and SportsCenter Reporter for ESPN, have experienced online harrassment themselves.
They decided to take a public stand against the hatred.
Earlier this year, the two women partnered with Just Not Sports, a blog that talks about anything and everything related to sports, and created the hashtag #morethanmean. The campaign addressed how online trolls would make horrible comments online with the benefit of anonymity, but are too cowardly to say such comments in person.
“Make no mistake, these tweets are not meant to express disagreement,” DiCaro said in a Sports Illustrated article. “They are calculated to destroy, demean, and denigrate the women they target in a public forum.”
For sports journalists, men can make a statement with minor consequences, but if a woman stepped out of line, she is much more intensively scrutinized.
“Men get mean comments, too, but I think the context of it is quite different for women,” Spain said in a New York Times article. “It’s not just, like, ‘You’re an idiot, and I’m mad at you for your opinion, it’s: ‘I hate you because you are in a space that I don’t want you in. I come to sports to get away from women. Why don’t you take your top off and just make me lunch?’”
A 2014 Pew Research Study compared online harrassment rates between the sexes. “All women are more likely to be exposed to sexual harassment online (25 percent of women to 13 percent of men) and stalking (25 percent of women to 7 percent of men),” the study concluded
Trolls who make these comments don’t care about the specifics of the womens’ reporting. It’s about targeting them.
“Be it a conversation on heavy subject matter like violence and sexual assault, or a discussion of things as trivial as the Bears 3–4 defense, tweets like these are simply a part of my reality, nearly every single day,” DiCaro said.
This issue hits home personally, too.
Last year, I wrote wrote bi-weekly articles, ranging from game recaps to opinion pieces, for the Detroit Red Wings affiliate blog of a fandom-focused sports site called FanSided.
The week I wrote on the Red Wings versus New York Islanders games, the comments set the tone for my job I hope to turn into a career.
The picture on the left was my profile picture . It was simple and, I thought, professional. It seems that my appearance takes precedence over the content, and my gender stops me from saying certain things in this field.
For some women sports journalists, however, the situation is different. Either they don’t pay attention to the comments, or their work is rarely commented on.
Kacie Hollins, a sports reporter and anchor for WXYZ Detroit, counts herself as one of the lucky ones.
“I hear stories nonstop all the time and I’ve never had anything super horrific, I mean there’s some weird people out there but I’ve gotten like weird sort of fan mail and stuff like that but you’re always going to have people that insult you on social media,” Hollins said. “It’s hard for me to recall because if I’m being honest like I have to say you’re going to put in the effort to not let this stuff stick with you.”
Not paying attention seems to do the trick for Hollins. Maybe that’s the secret ingredient.
Research conducted by the City University London and the University of Huddersfield found that sports’ largely male audience is linked to the low numbers of women sports journalists.
The study raises the question of coverage imbalance. If women’s sports were covered more, would more women watch it?
Women sports journalists in positions of influence could push for more coverage of women’s sports.
According to the 2014 survey “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media,”, sports editor positions are nearly uniform in their maleness and whiteness.
Women sports journalists will not be going anywhere. They will continue to fight for equality in the sports journalism world. Women will continue to make strides and hold more administrative positions in the future.
“[We have] all made great points on why its long past time to close the chapter on women sports reporters/entertainers as sideline eye candy and open the broadcast booth to the growing numbers of talented, skilled female commentators ready and itching for prime time,” Irish sports journalist Anne Doyle said in a Forbes article.
It’s a long road ahead and the only way to go is forward.
Natalie Longroy 
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