The flood of sexual harassment claims as of late run an entire gamut of unethical behavior. They include victims both over-aged and underaged, women and men, gay and straight, rich and poor. The sexual harassment can range from incredibly dumb 
comments to full-blown forcible rape.
Sexual harassment in all its forms is about power and who holds that power. During this period of societal turmoil, those accused – and those who support them, claim all kinds of witch hunts and false innuendos. I have no doubt, as with any frenzy, that some have been falsely accused. I have heard the arguments as well that “any person can be made into a victim,” and often without proof. I will err on the side of the accusers. For the most part if a victim claims that she or he has been raped, fondled, inappropriately touched, sexted or heard unfitting suggestions and/or innuendos, I believe them.
Setting the Bar in Sports Entertainment
For decades, longer really, sexual harassment in Hollywood and television has been the stuff of twisted legends. We have all heard tongue-in-cheek accounts of “casting couches” and “favors” both offered and expected, in return for jobs in the industry and entry level roles or appearances. This is nothing new.
What is new, is the explosion of programming. With the advent of cable and live streaming the proliferation of entertainment baffles the mind. Ironically, it occurred as newspapers and magazines and even publishing itself has declined.
“Entertainment” may be exploding, but it is not necessarily enlightened. The mentality of the casting couch, men in power and unethical behavior has been allowed to carry forward from Hollywood’s so-called Golden Age.
In the current era of media, one of the more interesting phenomena is sports programming. Though ESPN is not new, it has spawned numerous rivals and spinoffs. In addition to ESPN, we have Fox, the NFL network, the Golf Channel, the Hockey Channel, Bleacher Report and numerous local sports networks and programming. Sports programming runs into the tens of billions of dollars.
There was a time, of course, when sports reporting was an afterthought, it was a five-minute segment of the evening news. The sports news was usually “read by” the local sports reporter. All that has changed with the major sports networks trotting out ex-professional athletes and other personalities to “wow us” with their expertise and on-air presence.
The “celebrity” behind these personalities elevate them in our eyes. We forget they are men and women who are merely paid to relate their athletic experiences from their former lives or to lend their unique characters to our viewing experience. They are all media trained, professionally dressed and get paid exorbitant amounts of money.
What they are not “trained in” is ethics.
I bring this point to the forefront as Marshall Faulk, Eric Weinberger, Ike Taylor and Heath Evans have been named by ex-NFL Network staffer for acts of sexual harassment. Donovan McNabb of ESPN has been named in the suit as well. All of these charges have been brought by Jami Cantor, a former wardrobe stylist at the network.
Donovan McNabb allegedly sent sexually explicit texts to Cantor. While I hardly enjoy relating this kind of information, I would also point out that Eric Weinberger, a former executive producer at the NFL Network sent Cantor nude pictures of himself while performing sexually explicit acts. She claims that Faulk groped her breasts and that Taylor sent her inappropriate pictures and a video of himself masturbating. Warren Sapp sent her sex toys while Heath Evans made inappropriate sexual comments.
Most shockingly (as if it couldn’t get worse) Cantor was fired in October 2016 after she complained about working conditions at the network. She is suing for wrongful termination.
Behind the Masks
There is always the remote possibility that not one allegation made by Jami Cantor is true. However, it is pretty difficult to fake an explicit picture or text. They chose her for their targets because they imagined she would be too weak and intimidated to fight back. She was, after all, a woman.
The men in question portray themselves to their audiences as being family men, righteous men and obviously, knowledgeable men. It is all image that has been created around relatively powerful personalities. However, ethical behavior cannot be faked.
Ethical behavior must be taught. As Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey (also in the entertainment business) learned, you can insulate yourself with money, status and power but you cannot fake good ethics. Ethics will cut through coarse behavior like a hot knife through butter.
I have often wondered why ethics is not taught and then reinforced to on-air personalities. I would even venture that in the case of these athletes who turned into media personalities, they never had one meaningful ethics training session from college through to the pros and then to their lucrative football talk shows.
There were no ethical expectations made of them and it shows. When the ethical bar is set too low, this is what occurs. They have brought shame upon everyone around them.
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