SMW Q&A with Mike Soltys

In Orlando for the opening of the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, Sports Media Watch had a chance to speak with ESPN VP/Communications Mike Soltys. The conversation touched on the recent two-week suspension of Pardon the Interruption host Tony Kornheiser, following his negative comments about SportsCenter host Hannah Storm‘s on-air wardrobe.

SMW: So obviously this week, the big story is the suspension of Tony Kornheiser from PTI. I wanted to just once again get your rationale for the suspension.

Soltys: [ESPN President] George [Bodenheimer] has been communicating to the company the importance of respect for colleagues. We felt that what Tony said about Hannah was — it crossed the line, it was inappropriate. So we reacted, and we got the outcome that we have.

SMW: To play Devil’s advocate, you look at other situations at other networks — Craig Sager gets his outfit criticized by NBA players, NBA personalities on Turner — different situation, but do you think that maybe ESPN may have potentially overreacted to something more benign in this case? Because Kornheiser does — he is sarcastic with many people.

Soltys: We made it very clear to everyone that works at ESPN, including our on-air people, that it’s important to show their coworkers respect. And certainly, criticism is on our air around the clock, on many different platforms. But we’ve asked to show colleagues the respect that they deserve. And that’s where this decision came from.

SMW: So, if Kornheiser had said this about another personality on another network, like Cheryl Miller or Pam Oliver, would that have been a different story then?

Soltys: It would have been different. It’s a hypothetical situation. It’s hard to say, in any particular circumstance, what comes of it. But the focal point on this was that he was talking about a coworker.

SMW: ESPN reported on the Kornheiser suspension on SportsCenter, on ESPN.com. You also reported on Erin Andrews, that story on ESPN.com. Those aren’t stories you would report on if they happened on other networks, I don’t think. Is that just an attempt at more transparency?

Soltys: It’s funny you ask that question that way, because in the past, we’ve been criticized about reporting on other networks and not reporting on our own. Our news operations want to look at things that have an interest to our fans. And in the past, we were more reticent to do things that were on ourselves.

But we’ve made a very conscious effort to cover anything that’s going to be of interest to our audience. And you can tell by the kind of media coverage that was being given to the Kornheiser story, that clearly it was of interest to people, and so we report it. We’ve done that in recent times on most any stories that we find ourselves in the middle of. And that’s what people should expect going forward.