Astros Staffer's Outburst at Female Reporters Illustrates MLB's Forgive-and-Forget Attitude Toward D

The press aren't your friends. If you're going to sit in the big boy chair, you have to act like a grown up. Taubman did not (in addition to lying) and so he got shown the door.

 

One thing has come out of this thread. Pretty disappointed in @J.R.

didn’t consider him to have such a strange reaction this this

 

Astros cut him, Yankees pick him up, media puts out an Osuna redemption story.

 

No, this isn’t entirely accurate.

He taunted a reporter over the issue of domestic violence.

He then lied to his employer which led to his employer issuing a false statement that embarrassed the entire franchise.

That is why he was fired.

 

Yeah, anytime I see someone ranting about the "fake news media," everything else they say comes with some degree of doubt attached to it. The angrier they are, the higher the degree.

Just weird to see someone ranting about "outrage culture" and getting all... um... what's the word I'm looking for here? Oh yeah: outraged.

 

Guy does drunken ******* thing
Guy catches flak for it
Guy lies to his bosses
Bosses back up guy with an incredibly poorly thought out PR release
Guy is proven to be in the wrong
Bosses wait
PR sh!tstorm grows
Bosses fire guy
Bosses release better PR statement

Does that about sum it up?

 

One unforeseen and unfortunate consequence of this is that it will be a setback for female sports journalists.

The main reason this exploded is because it was male-to-female interaction. The subject matter played a role, but, I cannot imagine that this story would have caught fire the way it did if this was a man taunting and cursing at another man (let's say hypothetically the journo who had been dogging the Astros all year about Osuna was a man).

I'm not making a value judgment on that, but whoever decided to publish this story I hope weighed the ramifications of how this would affect female sports journalists going forward.

 

What do you believe would be her valid claims for a lawsuit?

 

It's been truly bizarre watching a handful of otherwise sane, rational people light their BBS reputations on fire defending Taubman and the Astros (or attacking the journalists) over this.

 

The Astros' initial statement accused her of lying. For a journalist that is a big deal. That's gotta be libel.

 

"Back up guy" doesn't totally cover it (they attacked the victim of the drunken assholery) but otherwise yeah spot on.

 

The Astros have admitted the first statement they released was false. The Astros went public claiming that SI and the report were wrong. That has called into question her integrity and honesty in a profession were those are paramount.

She WILL sue and with the admission by the Astros she will win. The question is what is fair and reasonable and it will likely result in a 7 figure settlement many times over because the Astros will want to settle. They don’t want their owner and GM and players deposed. Nor do they want their former employee commenting.

The Astros lawyers this winter need to work out a settlement agreement so she will do a no disclosure agreement.

 

She is an employee of MLB. MLB is conducting their own "internal investigation". So I'd think HR related suits like workplace harassment or hostile work environment are potentially on the table.

 

That’s acts I-III

Act IV will be any punishment for the GM

Act V will be the civil suit and likely costly settlement

 

7 seems a bit rough but it was a national story so I guess that's plausible. But yeah this is exactly how it will go down. The Astros will pay to make this go away, another huge part of why dickface mcshithead got fired.

 

Oh hell yeah, I totally forgot about that angle. That's even greener pastures for a lawsuit than the whole libel thing.

 

I would like to know if she has an arbitration clause in her contract that may force it to arbitration or some language limiting her ability to see an MLB team.

 

You may be right that the Astros will ultimately pay to avoid the continued PR.

But, do you think she made herself a public figure for these purposes? Yes, I know you may contend malice is a lay down based on the later remarks re: the first statement, but those cases are difficult and I doubt the Astros will go with they were lying if this goes to litigation.

 

As an MLB employee, why wouldn't she seek recourse from her employer? I honestly have no idea, and like you said we don't know the specifics.

I'm shaky on the Antitrust implications here also, as far as the League liability vs individual Teams in a situation like this.

 

In federal court I don’t think it will matter honestly. It just won’t get that far.

Crane doesn’t want to give a deposition and I suspect the Astros know a bit more than we are letting on anyway.

Also you better believe MLB is going to pressure the Astros to resolve this issue.