Over the last five years or so ESPN has had several scandals when it comes to their sports news reporting staff. Recently the network fired Baseball analyst Steve Phillips after Phillips had an extramarital affair with a 22 year old production assistant.
Phillips termination has led to some controversy especially when it comes to ESPN's company reputation. Deadspin a popular sports blog has spread several rumors depicting ESPN as a sexually wild company.
Obviously the accusations and publicity is not what ESPN wants but I feel that their PR department has done an excellent job in handling the crisis. They immediately responded to Deadspin's accusations in a strong way calling their actions "despicable."
They have been shooting out statements to all of the media outlets in prompt fashion, including the use of Twitter and have even agreed to do a piece with TIME magazine. By being so open and aggressive in the handling of the crisis ESPN has definitely struck a positive cored with me. When companies pull the whole "no comment" card when they encounter a crisis it really bothers me. It is like sticking your nose in the air giving people the impression that they aren't worthy of your time or an explanation. Being open is the BEST option when something like this happens. If you approach it with that outlook people will be willing to overlook whatever happened and will still think of your company positively.
It really worked with ESPN. I still like them, and now I'm not particularly found of Deadspin.
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