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If You Can't Take Criticism, Get Out Of The Booth

BY SARAH SCHORNO
OCTOBER 18, 2007

NEW YORK (TNA) – Women have not earned their place in the broadcast booth, and announcers like Suzyn Waldman are the reason why.

During the post-game broadcast after the New York Yankees were eliminated from the MLB playoffs, Yankees announcer Suzyn Waldman was given the task of describing the scene in the locker room. Yankees manager Joe Torre was addressing his team and coaches, possibly for the last time after a 12-year relationship, and it was emotional. As Waldman relayed the situation, she became choked up and had to pause a moment before regaining her composure and continuing with the live radio broadcast in tears.

In the aftermath of the broadcast, Waldman's many critics called her unprofessional and emotionally attached – both sins in the world of broadcasting. When making a statement to defend herself, Waldman committed a third sin: She called her critics sexists.

"This one's getting me angry, because I don't play this card a lot, but this is as sexist as it gets," Waldman told Newsday.

What Waldman didn't consider – at least not publicly – is that her critics were basing their opinions on her lack of composure as a journalist and not as a woman. It is impossible to say whether a male journalist would have been treated the same way. Why? Because male journalists don't put themselves in that situation. For Waldman to claim sexism is not only unfair but completely unfounded.

It's no secret that women struggle to level the playing field when it comes to sports careers. Waldman has found herself in the position to pave the way for future women in sports broadcasting. She has worked hard to earn the respect of her peers and the fans who listen to her. There have been people who have said that women can't do this job as well as men. Through this controversy, Waldman has validated that opinion.

If women like Waldman continue to cry sexism each time they are criticized, then there shouldn't be women allowed in the broadcast booth. Sports has always been a man's world and what Waldman needs to understand is that as a woman in a man's world, she is under a microscope. By playing the sex card in a situation like this, she is demonstrating the reason why more women aren't in her position. If each act of criticism will be blamed on sexism, then it's not worth the drama.

Women don't belong in the broadcast booth if they are going to cause this sort of distraction. And the distraction in this case isn't being caused by anyone but Waldman herself. If women are going to earn a place in that part of sports, they need to play by the same rules as the male broadcasters. No crying, no unprofessionalism, and no excuses.

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Naughty Athletics (Warning: adult content)

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Posted by Attezz, 2007-10-19 21:40:17
Wow, so, first things first, the "crying" was done live, and was broadcast to a larger audience than that of the radio broadcast that some douches picked up on. Two, how nice of you to not only slander an entire organisation, but an entire region. Third, nice work taking your cues from the major media. You're right, it's a larger story because it's the Yankees, so, why is that? Why are the Yankees worthy of more coverage than 29 other teams in baseball? I guarantee you more people are away of a shitty Torre quote today than they are of the new Royals manager, so, don't use "Yankees are a larger story" as an excuse, while at the same time contributing to the problem........And the entire article above is among the most sexist things I've ever read, sure, it has some nice sentence structure, but that doesn't excuse the idiocy of it.
Posted by The Seaward, 2007-10-19 15:40:08
"At least two male reporters openly cried during the Terry Ryan reisgnation press conference last month. None of them were villified or criticised the way Waldman has been. So, maybe, just maybe, there's some truth to her claim." Maybe. OR maybe we're looking at apples-to-oranges comparisons here. You're talking about Minnesota Twins beat writers; newspaper guys--NOT LIVE ON THE AIR--for an anonymous (by comparison) midwestern team. If Suzyn Waldman were a Minnesota Twins beat writer, this wouldn't be a story. In addition to what Sarah wrote, Waldman also needs to realize that her microscope is zoomed in 13,000x closer than anyone else because she is an IN-GAME BROADCASTER for the NEW YORK YANKEES. People are rarely raised to hate the Twins; new people start hating the Yankees every day. This puts her in an even worse position to make these claims! If there's any -ism you want to throw on here, I'll hear an argument for "teamism," -- that is to say that her criticism is amplified because she works for The Empire. We can talk about that all day. But to call this sexism is silly; Sarah is right.
Posted by Mike, 2007-10-19 13:58:12
I've never liked Waldman, she's a terrible announcer. There is a reason people in television or radio broadcast go to speech training classes to get rid of heavy accents, she should look into that. I know there are women out there that can be objective sports writers/broadcasters/announcers, but the only reason she (and the whole bunch of Yankee announcers/commentators) got their job was their biased love for the team. Even John Sterling told her to get hold of herself! That guy turns a Yankee home run into a contest for the worst Chris Berman impersonation. His knees must be well padded for the job he gives the Yankees on air.
Posted by Attezz, 2007-10-19 12:13:48
At least two male reporters openly cried during the Terry Ryan reisgnation press conference last month. None of them were villified or criticised the way Waldman has been. So, maybe, just maybe, there's some truth to her claim.
Posted by Windier E. Megatons, 2007-10-19 12:04:45
I mean, it's the OPPOSITE of sexism. She's setting women back by crying on air like that and then freaking out when called on her unprofessionalism. This is why broadcasters are required to be objective, no matter what their prior loyalties were. And yeah, local broadcasters are often homers - and yeah, they tend to get called out for that. When has it ever been okay to cry on air? Cronkite when we landed on the moon, and maybe after some big untimely death like JFK, MLK, RFK, or Lennon? Otherwise, you don't do it. Come on.
Posted by hardawayhatesyou, 2007-10-19 12:01:56
Great article. Later on, she not only played the sexism card, but she said another reason she was crying was because she and Torre had gone through cancer at the same time and thus formed a strong bond. So she played the cancer card too. Thats almost sub-human.
Posted by Bobb, 2007-10-19 07:06:01
If a man had done the same thing, he would have been ripped mercilessly. Seriously is she serious?
Posted by Spectacular Sam, 2007-10-19 06:08:36
Excellent article.
Posted by Unsilent Majority, 2007-10-18 15:43:57
"This one's getting me angry, because I don't play this card a lot, but this is as sexist as it gets," Because if it had been a male broadcaster crying on the air nobody would have made a peep. or not.
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