ESPN's sex scandal fallout

With another on-air personality embroiled in a sex scandal, should ESPN fire Steve Phillips to save itself?

ESPN’s reputation as the "Sodom and Gomorrah of sports television" has plummeted further after baseball analyst Steve Phillips, 46, admitted to an affair with fellow-staffer-turned-stalker Brooke Hundley, 22. This isn’t the first sex scandal for either the married Phillips (who took a leave of absence from the New York Mets in 1998) or for ESPN. Does the sports network have a sex problem? (Watch news coverage of Phillips' affair)

The affair was "consensual"—give ESPN a break: The World Wide Leader has been trying for years to "clean up its long-standing image as a post-graduate fraternity house," says Neil Best in Newsday, and this latest incident of inter-office indiscretion "will not help." But the network is hardly the only workplace facing this issue: "Let the first large company that is without sin cast the first blog post."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up
Latest Videos FromThe Week