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Looks Aren't Everything: "Disturbing" Culture Female Broadcasters Navigate Examined

Female sportscasters are facing a "disturbing" trend, as many "feel obliged to look and act young and sexy, but then for those same reasons, they're often mocked, insulted and sexually demeaned," according to HBO's Bryant Gumbel. Fox' Laura Okmin detailed the "qualities" many viewers believe female sideline reporters should have, saying, "Most people would say she better be hot or she should be hot." Okmin said, "I'll tell you what I would say: She better have a great work ethic, she better be really prepared and she better know what she's doing." NESN's Trenni Kusnierek acknowledged the presence of "TV anchor babe" lists on the Internet and said it is a "fine line, because you have people telling you, 'Well, you got to be hot. The hottest ones get all the attention.'" HBO's Jon Frankel noted that "could explain why women in sports reporting are ... wearing outfits that cover less and less." Kusnierek indicated she "resists the pressure to follow that trend." She said, "When you're a visible female in this industry, you may know analytics and baseball like that, but if you come in and you look like you're about to go to a club on South Beach, all anyone is going to see is that." Fox' Charissa Thompson had a differing opinion on that. She said as host of "Fox NFL Kickoff" last season, there were "plenty of times that I wore dresses that I would get comments that, 'It is Sunday, you're talking about football and you should not be wearing that dress.'" Frankel asked, "What's your reaction to that?" Thompson: "Who cares?" Frankel: "Do you think you've ever used your sexuality to an advantage?" Thompson: "I fully admit that I flirt." But USA Today's Christine Brennan said, "If you want longevity, if you want to have a long career, I'd cut out the flirting and I would focus on doing your job as a broadcast journalist. End of conversation, end of story" ("Real Sports," HBO, 8/23).

SUNDAY SILENCE: SI.com's Richard Deitsch noted a woman has "never ascended to even one of the lower-level teams" for NFL games on a network partner, meaning the "implicit message to women who want to enter sports broadcasting is that this job is not for you." Kate Scott, who called the 49ers first two preseason games this year on radio, said it was not until she heard Pam Ward and Beth Mowins calling college football games on ESPN "that I thought to myself, 'Huh, there's a woman in the booth? I love football and I know I want to be a broadcaster, so maybe that's something I should look into.'" She said one reason she thinks there are not "more women doing this is because most women don't even think it's a possibility due to the lack of examples out there." ESPN Senior VP/Event & Studio Production Stephanie Druley "believes we will see a full-time female voice on the NFL sometime this decade." Additionally, one "high-ranking male television executive for a network that broadcasts the NFL said viewers will see a woman holding a full-time role as a national NFL gamecaller before the end of this decade" (SI.com, 8/24).

PRESSURE POINTS: USA TODAY's Nina Mandell noted this week marked one year since ESPN's Jessica Mendoza "became the first female MLB game analyst." Mandell asked if that designation put more pressure on Mendoza to "never be wrong and to always say something smart." Mendoza: "Oh definitely. That’s the pressure I put on myself. We talk about how it’s cool to come in and just do your job and not have it be bigger than just your job-type thing. But I take on that responsibility, as well. I can’t take for granted that if I mess up, I can’t be selfish and say ‘Oh, well that affects me.’" She added, "The first part of this year, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t eating. I was for the first time in my life really dealing with pressure that was harder than a seventh inning Olympic at-bat. But at the same time I didn’t want to change it, as much as I felt it and it wasn’t comfortable, I was also excited about it because I knew it was bigger than me and I knew I had the opportunity to be able to bring a lot of women into an industry where there’s very little" (USATODAY.com, 8/24).

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