Praise for Ringer diversity called way off base
At 1:27 a.m. on Monday, The Ringer posted a new episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast titled “A Truly Sad Week in America, Plus the 2005 NBA Redraftables With Ryen Russillo.” It was exactly what it sounded like: Simmons and Russillo (both white) giving 40 minutes of extremely unnecessary and at times preposterous commentary on the post-George Floyd protests and uprisings across the country. The Bill Simmons podcast ranks No. 2 on the Apple podcast charts in sports, meaning it likely is downloaded at least hundreds of thousands of times per episode.
The part of the episode that has gotten the most attention is Russillo praising Simmons as a white savior. As part of a long, rambling rant complaining about Donald Trump and “the Dallas brick thing,” Russillo credited Simmons for being one of the good ones.
“Look at you, Bill, look at the people you’ve hired, look at the company that you’ve started, look at the jobs and opportunities that you’ve given a diverse group, which I know you’re always looking to do,” he said. “I’m not (BS-ing), I’m not kissing up to you here. These are facts. You have tried for a very long time to make sure your hiring is as diverse as possible. And you’ve done these things.”
While Simmons has long coasted on his reputation as a popular and progressive manager at Grantland and The Ringer, things have changed as Simmons became increasingly wealthy. (He sold The Ringer to Spotify in February for $200 million.) Several current and former Ringer employees ripped Russillo and the tone-deaf headline this week.
“If you’ve heard someone say The Ringer is a super diverse place, sadly that person does not know what he’s talking about,” Ringer writer John Gonzalez tweeted. “We have a long way to go, and I hope we get there.”
The Ringer Union also put out a statement Monday — hours before the site put out its own version of a carefully calibrated brand-authored statement. “Diversity in the newsroom is essential to covering police brutality and systemic racism, including in the worlds of sports and pop culture. The Ringer has a lot of work to do.
“In 2019, 86% of speakers on The Ringer Podcast Network were white. We have zero black editors,” the statement read. “We have zero black writers assigned full time to the NBA or NFL beats. Our union is currently bargaining for practices to improve our diversity and inclusion.”
In a series of follow-up tweets, the union said management gave a series of excuses for why its eventual contract couldn’t have diversity provisions. (Such provisions are not unprecedented; the staff and management of The Intercept agreed to them in 2018.)