Aiyana Cristal is a sports anchor for Comcast SportsNet in Chicago. On Wednesday night, radio host Matt Spiegel from AM sports talk station 670 The Score offered his negative opinion on Twitter of the job she’s been doing, saying, “[She] makes me uncomfortable. I feel how hard she’s trying, and end up awkwardly rooting for her to finish cleanly.”
It’s a fair critique, I suppose, because it focuses directly on her work as an anchor. However, Spiegel’s colleague at The Score, Dan Bernstein, had a misogynistic reply, saying, “I have no rooting interest in her work, but enjoy her giant boobs.”
The conversation between the two radio hosts continued to devolve from there.
Who needs twitter trolls when women sports reporters have colleagues like this? pic.twitter.com/mh6J34Cv4M
— Jen LC (@RegressedPDO) March 26, 2015
Classy.
The initial reply from Bernstein is quite ironic, considering the moral elitism he personifies on his radio show. As of this writing, he has not responded to the firestorm his conversation created, and neither host has been disciplined from CBS Radio, owners of The Score. On Thursday morning, however, Spiegel apologized on his show and on Twitter for his comments.
My initial tweet was about a reporter's on air presence & work. I stand by that; fair game. I regret the exchange thereafter as it devolved.
— M@ (@MattSpiegel670) March 26, 2015
I missed an opportunity to keep the subject on point, & stay respectful. I'm sorry for that on many levels,& sad I offended Aiyana & others.
— M@ (@MattSpiegel670) March 26, 2015
UPDATE: Dan Bernstein joined the end of Matt Spiegel’s radio show on Thursday afternoon and made an on-air apology. “I’m an idiot,” he said. “There are certain times where you can be childish and crass and other times where it’s just really stupid to be a child. My tweet was childish. My tweet was crass and unnecessary and I’m sorry I dragged an innocent person into it who is doing a job, and I made an observation I shouldn’t have made and it was childish and silly and stupid…I own it and I wish I would have had a second thought about sending it. And I’m learning my lesson about what is appropriate, what is inappropriate to say and I feel bad about it.”
