Jen Chang, my espn.com editor, called me a bit ago to express support, and to remind me that he knows a little of what it's like to be a female sportswriter.
That's because people look at his byline a lot (especially before we had headshots with our articles) and assume he is female. He'd get emails about "Women like you don't understand soccer."
The funniest thing was that he said once some of them found out that he wasn't female - they'd actually change their minds about his points and agree with him.
Hilarious.
And a little sad.
Anyway, I appreciated that, and I also want to let blog readers know that I have heard back from league officials affirming the media policy and their commitment to equal access for MLS. They're going to work with the staff of all the league teams to share protocol guidelines.
Hopefully, it won't be an issue for anyone in the future.
Thanks to all those who took the time to share honest opinions.
Thanks to KT for providing some interesting historical context on the situation.
Thanks to DL for his always unique perspective.
Thanks to MZ for the phone call and advice and all the jokes.
Thanks to all the players and coaches who have treated me as just another professional, inside or outside of the locker room, and taken the time to give me the quotes that I needed to try to write good stories. I value that in a whole new way now.
24 comments:
I was sympathetic to your story, but since you insist on acting like Marcos did something terrible, I'll point this out: Next time, please show better manners and more respect. It doesn't matter what gender Marcos is, or what gender you are, a person asked you to leave because they felt uncomfortable getting naked in front of you, and you refused. Take a second and think about this from his point of view, and stop being so close minded.
She turned away from him. She turned her back to him. He grabbed her elbow from behind. It's not like she stood in front of his locker while he was trying to get dressed. He sought her out.
Marcos was the one who told me my gender mattered. He came over and told me he couldn't undress in front of a woman. At the time, I wasn't asking him for an interview, and I was in fact nowhere in front of him but talking to someone else instead. I refused to leave until I got the quotes needed for my game stories, as I have a contract with those web outlets. I had hoped to talk to the Crew's new signing and pitch the feature to Jen Chang for an espn.com story, but after the way Marcos acted, I got the bare minimum needed for my game articles and I got out of there.
Na, thank you for speaking up.
I'm sure MLS, MG and the Crew would much rather not have to deal with this subject, but because you spoke up they do.
I thank you and some little girl, in some little town, whose job will be easier because of you thanks you also.
Matt your comments on this blog make me feel uncomfortable. Reading your opinion is the equivalent of seeing a fat ugly man naked. I would appreciate it if you would leave. And please if this response makes you upset, take a second and think about this from my viewpoint, and stop being so closed minded.
I would respond to Matt but Howard took care of it.
Anonymous is right, you (Luis and all the other supportive journalists) are helping other female journalists. Keep it up.
I also want to add that I love this blog.
You are still apinting Marcos as a sexist pig just because he did not want to undress with a woman in the room (back turned or not). Would Andrea be comfortable changing in a room with a stranger, even if that person said "don't worry I will turn my back". I have no problem with a woman reporter or them even being in the locker room. However I do have a problem when a reporter drags a person's name through the mud and drones on and on about it. You could have reported the situation and left names out and went to the Crew with your complaint, but you didn't. You used the incident to be self serving to your cause. Did you contact the Crew PR person to seek a reason why Marcos felt uncomfortable so that could be reported? I doubt it
Go back and read previous posts. You answered all your questions incorrectly.
Maybe the Crew FO was left an e-mail or message regarding the incident before it was blogged about. However it is clear that Andrea was not going to wait for a reply before posting it. If she had to post it before a reply, then simply leaving players names out of it. I am sure Marcos is not a sexist pig, but now I am sure many people have that opinion of him due to this. If she felt violated by the cat calls as well when trying to interview Ezra, then why weren't those players named too? Two wrongs don't make a right.
Three things:
1) Regardless of how wrong you feel Marcos was, publishing a blog entry that characterizes him as an a-hole without allowing reasonable time for a response from the team or the player was extremely unprofessional.
2) I don't see how "turning your back" would be considered adequate privacy in most circumstances. You may think it was, but the point is that Marcos did not. And I'd argue that most people would not consider this adequate privacy. Perhaps next time you get out of the shower, you'll allow me to stand in the bathroom with my back turned to see how it feels.
3) The opinions of your colleagues in this case are not particularly relevant. First of all, they are journalists, and will of course side with their fellow journalists. And secondly, their opinions are based on your account of the story, which is the only one we have been provided. Surely there were other people who actually saw this incident who would be willing to comment, otherwise I'm inclined to believe it wasn't nearly as big a deal as you make it out to be.
I have stated the facts of what happened, and I have a bit of the exchange on tape. Other journalists were there who backed up my view - they came afterwards to see if I was alright and to ask what Marcos had said (they don't understand Spanish)while he was so upset with me.
I didn't demean Marcos, and if relating the situation makes him look bad, I'm not going to apologize for that. It's not my job to protect MLS, the Crew or Marcos from the reality of what took place.
While I'm happy to accept any apology involved, and I'm glad the league has responded so supportively, that doesn't change the truth that the situation happened and a bunch of people, me included, weren't sure how to react.
Only when people know
1) These events still take place 2)They should be prevented and 3)How best to go about that,
can the issue be really resolved.
If anything, the comments here have convinced me more than anything how important it was to speak out, because it's clear many people simply don't understand what a journalist does, and what equal treatment is.
I didn't name the players who catcalled because I don't know their names. I didn't turn around the whole time it was happening. I stared straight ahead and waited for Hendrickson to answer my questions. I have the background noise on tape, but I don't recognize Crew players by their voices.
If what you think what you did was simply state the facts and allow readers to come to their own conclusions, then you probably didn't write the piece or read it later as carefully as a professional journalist should. The tone was anything but matter of fact. Not that I'm saying it should have been (of course you're entitled to write it with whatever slant you feel like), but I do expect you to not characterize your writing on the incident as merely stating the facts.
Granted, it wasn't you (Andrea) who initially called Marcos an a-hole, but the fact of the matter is that particular comment set the tone for the entire story. Even if you didn't want it to be, it read as if you were saying "Marcos is an a-hole and here's why:"
Lastly, again, "other journalists" were the ones who backed you up. Surely you can admit they might be a little biased (in the same way I'd fully expect Marcos' teammates to back him up if questioned). Plus, as you said, they don't speak spanish, so again, their experience of the story was through you.
Since this has already become a relatively public incident, perhaps you might considering releasing the tape so we can form opinions that aren't based on one person's account of the story?
What Luis wrote was his own reaction and opinion. He has already apologized for that.
I never called Marcos any name, and if you don't trust my account of the situation, that's not my problem. I never said my account was simply the facts. I wrote honestly about my reaction as the person involved. My feelings were part of the story, because I would imagine that other women journalists would feel the same in that situation.
You'll notice that the audio links here never come from me. It's because I have a microcassete recorder. It's not digital, like Luis', so I can't upload sound files from it.
It's also curious that so many think I've put out too much information by even talking about what happened to me, while others want more information. The basic story is what I tried to go with in the first place. Go back to the "Not Cool" post.
Andrea, just ignore the idiots. Some people don't understand, or should I say, won't understand. The idea that you would be grabbed, shoved out of the locker room, and then hold back your reaction on the blog is just stupid. These issues have to be addressed or they aren't going away.
This is the Crew's fault as much as anything, as they should have made clear to its players what MLS's policies are. If Marcos isn't comfortable with the league's rules, he should find a new team, or shower at home.
You said "I never said my account was simply the facts", yet just above in this comment section you write "I have stated the facts of what happened". These two statements to me and probably many others means the same thing.
Miker, good advice. I think everything has been said by now, anyway.
I just want to clarify one thing - I didn't get shoved out of the locker room. I pulled away as soon as I was touched and I held my ground. Damian Calhoun told me, "I couldn't figure out what was going on - he was screaming in your face and you were so calm."
I'd say I was probably a bit dazed and confused, but I told Marcos clearly in Spanish that I was there to work, and then I turned away.
I guess that's the same thing I should do now to these people leaving some of these comments.
Well, it's not the same thing. I gave all the relevant facts. I also talked about my reaction. This blog has always been about our opinions and views. It's also been about a lot of information as well.
To address MikeR comments, I believe Andrea has said in one of the other links on this topic that when she was was touched by Marcos it was not forceful enough to move her and was on her elbow or something close to that, so I am sure if at 6-2 180lbs he wanted to shove her out he could have. It is statements outside of the facts from people other than Andrea that are further inflaming the issue.
I think perhaps I wasn't being clear enough with my previous comment.
Earlier, you had said, "I have stated the facts of what happened....I didn't demean Marcos, and if relating the situation makes him look bad, I'm not going to apologize for that."
I was trying to question whether you really managed to not demean Marcos by suggesting that the way the story was written was not simply to "relate the situation" as you had said.
In fact, by your own admission in your response to my previous comment: "I never said my account was simply the facts."
My point was that if you're going to tell/write a story in such a way that it involves your feelings (which is fine with me), then the reader can't possibly draw an ubiased conclusion. And if that conclusion is going to be that a particular person is some insensitive pig, then I don't think his name should have been used unless reasonable time was given for a response. Of course, what is reasonable is debatable; but less than one day is certainly not reasonable.
And yes (again), I know it was Luis who used the word a-hole and that he has already apologized for it. But the fact of the matter is that for the casual reader, who might not notice the color coding, it was easy enough to not notice that comment was not yours. And thus, even though you may not have intended it as such, the story came across as, "Marcos is an a-hole and here's why."
And just as a point of clarification, I had only suggested releasing the tape because this has already become a public incident. I was not necessarily saying making it a public incident was the right thing to do in the first place.
I'm not sure if what you're saying is simply that I should have not posted about the incident at all, but I think keeping the Crew player anonymous would have led to more speculation.
Even if the team had apologized on the spot, the situation had taken place. My indignation, and yes, I wasn't happy about it, wasn't about an apology - it was about what had happened and the fact that it shouldn't happen again.
I don't believe in letting things go and hushing them up to see if people reform. Accountability comes as a result of things being made public. Whoever didn't clarify to Marcos what journalists are allowed to do and what is appropriate in the locker room dropped the ball.
So many people are saying "two wrongs" but I don't believe I was wrong for telling my story. Luis already apologized for what he said, and if people couldn't tell from the post (why would I say, Andrea, as he did - and refer to myself in the third person?) then that's their misunderstanding.
matt know the fats, dude. AC did her job AND respected the man's space. Just because he comes from a country where female sports reporters in the lockeroom are a foriegn concept, doesn't make grabbing her justifiable.
Seriously, get over yourself and turn off the rush limbaugh.
You keep saying that misunderstandings aren't your problem. But you're a writer. Shouldn't it be your problem if a significant number of readers misunderstand what you write?
Dude, don't blame Andrea for the fact that I or others making comments didn't read her piece carefully enough. I'm not sure what your issue is here, but claiming that Andrea rather than Marcos is the issue is nonsense. Go somewhere else and troll.
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