According to a report, ESPN fired sports reporter Marly Rivera following an explosive argument last week.
Rivera allegedly told fellow writer Ivon Gaete that she had an interview with NY Yankees star Aaron Judge scheduled before last week’s game against the California Angels. Gaete, who also wanted to meet with the Yankees captain, disregarded Rivera, prompting the now-former ESPN employee to use the slur “f****** c***” to describe her colleague.
Rivera’s departure from ESPN has been confirmed by the network.
Rivera acknowledged using the remark though she argued that her firing was unjustified.
The report shows that John Blundell, the MLB vice president of communications, is married to Gaete, a freelance journalist.
According to reports, Rivera has said that she and John Blundell had butted heads in the past.
Rivera remarked that she fully admitted what she said and that she should not have said it.
Rivera is bi-lingual, having provided on-air and online commentary for both ESPN.com and ESPN Deportes. She had 13 years with ESPN.
Disney is reportedly planning to release 4,000 workers, many of them coming from the ESPN network and other Disney entertainment departments. Insiders say the layoffs will be finalized in the coming weeks.
Some 4,000 employees were informed in February that they would be let go in the first round of layoffs. Breitbart News said that Bob Iger, Disney CEO, discussed a total of 7,000 layoffs in February.
All on-air personalities at ESPN have been notified that their jobs are the most at risk because of the company’s need to cut costs.
According to a report, ESPN lost another 10% of its subscriptions last year—a total of 8 million fewer viewers than in 2020.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has said in the past that ESPN would be taken off of cable and made available “direct to consumer” at some point in the future. However, a specific date for this transition has not been announced.
