Chicago Sports Talk Radio Host on CSN Anchor: "I have no rooting interest in her work
Aiyana Cristal is a reporter and anchor for CSN Chicago. Last night, Matt Spiegel and Dan Bernstein, who are sports talk radio hosts on 670 The Score, had this Twitter conversation about her:
Who needs twitter trolls when women sports reporters have colleagues like this? pic.twitter.com/mh6J34Cv4M
— Jen LC (@RegressedPDO) March 26, 2015
Especially on the part of Bernstein, who can be quite the agitator on air and in his columns for CBS Chicago, this is a pretty clear violation of acceptable public decorum. It will be interesting to see if this exchange picks up enough steam locally for the hosts to be disciplined. It would be shocking if, at the very least, an apology were not in order.
UPDATE: Spiegel apologized for his role:
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 II: Bernstein apologized on air (via the Chicago Sun-Times):
“I’m an idiot,” Bernstein 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. I made an observation I shouldn’t have made and it was childish and silly and stupid.”
Bernstein said he will not delete the offensive tweets because he does not want to pretend like it never happened.
“I own it,” Bernstein said, “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.”