{"id":19654,"date":"2021-07-06T20:47:51","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theoklahomaeagle.net\/?p=19654"},"modified":"2021-07-06T20:47:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T20:47:51","slug":"19654","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/2021\/07\/06\/19654\/","title":{"rendered":"A Disparaging Video Prompts Explosive Fallout Within ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.clutchpoints.com<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 
\nBy R. P. Salao
\n <\/p>\n

Longtime ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols is used to being the\u00a0<\/span><\/a>one shining light on breaking news.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Now it appears she\u2019s the subject of the latest bombshell report that reveals a borderline racist rant caught on video.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in July 2020 during the NBA Playoffs in the Orlando Bubble, Rachel Nichols was reportedly upset due to the fact that Maria Taylor, a Black woman, was getting to cover the NBA Finals when Nichols herself expected to be the one getting that job.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was venting her frustrations on a phone call with Adam Mendelsohn, a PR advisor of\u00a0LeBron James<\/span><\/a>, while confined to her room in a Disney hotel, but she didn\u2019t realize her video was still on. That video has since made the rounds within ESPN. The recording was apparently due to her unfamiliarity with the new equipment, which they started using as the pandemic hit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Via Kevin Draper of The New York Times:<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world \u2014 she covers football, she covers basketball,\u201d Rachel Nichols said in July 2020. \u201cIf you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity \u2014 which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it \u2014 like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maria Taylor did not take the slander from Rachel Nichols sitting down. The rising star from ESPN felt unfairly disparaged and only agreed to push through as long as Nichols was not to be part of the broadcast:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will not call myself a victim, but I certainly have felt victimized and I do not feel as though my complaints have been taken seriously,\u201d she wrote in an email to ESPN executives, two weeks after the Rachel Nichols incident, which was obtained by The Times. \u201cIn fact, the first time I have heard from HR after 2 incidents of racial insensitivity was to ask if I leaked Rachel\u2019s tape to the media. I would never do that.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cSimply being a front facing black woman at this company has taken its toll physically and mentally.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maria Taylor\u2019s contract is expected to expire during the duration of this year\u2019s NBA Finals. It\u2019s looking increasingly likely that she may be in her last weeks with the sports broadcasting giant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.clutchpoints.com   By R. P. Salao   Longtime ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols is used to being the\u00a0one shining light on breaking news.\u00a0Now it appears she\u2019s the subject of the latest bombshell report that reveals a borderline racist rant caught on video. \u00a0 Back in July 2020 during the NBA Playoffs in the Orlando Bubble, Rachel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,105,110,114],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-19654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national","category-sports","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19654"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=19654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}