New sexual harassment suit details ESPN ‘misogyny’
Adrienne Lawrence dropped the hammer on ESPN on Sunday, filing a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against the Worldwide Leader for incidents dating back to 2015.
The former ESPN anchor and legal analyst is accusing the company of not addressing her complaints, specifically against “SportsCenter” host John Buccigross, but many are accused of varying degrees of harassment in the suit. Lawrence’s allegations first became public in a December Boston Globe story, in which she claimed Buccigross called her “dollface,” “#dreamgirl,” and “#longlegs” in text messages sent in 2016 along with unsolicited shirtless photos.
Lawrence had filed a complaint against ESPN last summer, but the new lawsuit — filed in Connecticut district court Sunday — comes with an 85-page complaint that divulges more details.
“ESPN is, and always has been, a company rife with misogyny,” the first line of the new complaint reads, via the Connecticut Law Tribune.
ESPN strongly denied that it was negligent in investigating Lawrence’s complaints, and also insisted that her allegations were not the basis of her leaving the network.
“We conducted a thorough investigation of the claims Adrienne Lawrence surfaced to ESPN and they are entirely without merit,” ESPN said in a statement. “Ms. Lawrence was hired into a two-year talent development program and was told that her contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the training program. At that same time, ESPN also told 100 other talent with substantially more experience, that their contracts would not be renewed. The company will vigorously defend its posi- tion and we are confident we will prevail in court.”
According to the suit, male executives and talent at ESPN “keep ‘scoreboards’ naming female colleagues they are targeting for sex.” It also alleges that men openly watch porn on their computers and have made comments in Lawrence’s presence like wondering what Rihanna must “taste like.”
Among many mentioned in the suit are Chris Berman, the longtime face of the net- work, former “SportsCenter” anchor Jonathan Coachman and popular analyst and journalist Bomani Jones.
Berman is accused of leaving a “threatening and racially disparaging” voicemail on Jemele Hill’s work phone in early 2016. Hill later acknowledged that she had a “personal conflict” with Berman, but denied he made any racially disparaging remarks, and added that ESPN listened to her and handled the situation.