News/Commentary

ESPN fires 13-year veteran reporter for calling fellow journalist the C-word in an argument

April 27, 2023 | | Print Article

A 13-year ESPN reporter has been fired for allegedly referring to one of her colleagues with the dreaded c-word during an incident that took place at Yankee Stadium last Tuesday.

Right before the New York Yankees were to go up against the Los Angeles Angels, reporter Marly Rivera got into a tiff with fellow reporter Ivón Gaete over an upcoming interview with Yankees player Aaron Judge.

“Rivera, who claimed she had scheduled time to speak exclusively with the reigning AL MVP, became upset when Gaete refused to respect the exclusivity,” the New York Post reported Wednesday.

“During the quarrel, Rivera yelled an obscenity, calling Gaete a ‘f—ing c–t,’ which was caught on video,” the Post added.

Following the altercation, Rivera reportedly tried to apologize, but Gaete rejected the apology, as did evidently ESPN.

“She no longer works here,” ESPN told the Post in a statement.

Rivera did share a formal apology with the Post.

“I fully accept responsibility for what I said, which I should not have. There were extenuating circumstances but that in no way is an excuse for my actions. I am a professional with a sterling reputation across baseball and I do believe that I am being singled out by a group of individuals with whom I have a long history of professional disagreements,” the statement reads.

Critics responded to Rivera’s firing in several ways. Some responded by crying “nepotism” based on Gaete reportedly being the wife of MLB Vice President of Communications John Blundell:

Others directly blamed Gaete for Rivera’s termination:

However, there’s no evidence that Gaete was involved with Rivera’s firing, other than her being the recipient of the c-word.

Also, for everyone attacking Gaete over Rivera’s termination, there was a person celebrating the termination on the grounds that she deserved it — not only for using the c-word, but for other alleged offenses.

Case in point:

Evidently, Rivera wasn’t all that liked …

Some have compared her termination to that of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Reports have indicated that he’d once called a Fox News executive the c-word, and that this may have contributed somewhat to his abrupt firing.

“[T]he recently fired Fox News host called a senior executive a ‘c–t’ in a private message that was turned up during discovery in the defamation case filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which was settled for $787 million last week. The report does not state which executive Carlson was referring to and the message was redacted in the ocean of correspondence that was released through court filings,” according to New York magazine.

“Carlson did not want the damning message redacted from the lawsuit. ‘He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message,’ the report states. He compared it to his ‘I hate him passionately’ comment about Trump. While that was said amid a short burst of anger, his resentment toward the executive was ‘deep and enduring,'” the outlet reported Wednesday.

Vivek Saxena
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