Creepy Guys, Leave Female Reporters Alone!
Anthony Blaise Bekavac
It happened again. Despite being asked not to do this. Despite several news reports documenting the behavior. Despite the public backlash they receive as a consequence. Creepy guys continue to make derogatory comments about the appearance of female sportscasters to their own detriment.
The latest incident happened on July 30th via Twitter. An account belonging to Anthony Blaise Bekavac (@BlaiseBekavac), a 1977 graduate of St. Elizabeth High School in Pittsburgh, tweeted to MLB Network host Siera Santos the following:
“Siera, tonight was the 1st time I have ever saw you on MLB. My observation is you dress like you are going to a club or are on a corner of the street waiting to be picked up. Never did I think the show was about baseball. What a laugh what a joke!!”
I attempted to question Mr. Bekavac about his tweet by sending him two questions via instant message. I was curious to know why he thought his comments were appropriate and what his wife thought of it. He never responded to my questions. However, he did block me from instant messaging him, which now that I think about, was actually a response. Oh well. I tried.
The backlash against Bekavac was swift as it should have been. If you are stupid enough to put your misogynistic thoughts in a public forum as your freedom of speech allows, then don’t run away like a coward when that same freedom of speech comes back at you. Ironically, Bekavac lives a short distance away from Annapolis, Maryland, home of the Naval Academy where young men and WOMEN will one day risk their lives to defend Bekavac’s right to be an asshole. In his defiance, he didn’t delete his Tweet or apologize for it. He doubled down on it.
“Don't ever let men push you to dress a certain way. It's a sign of problem,” he continued to Tweet.
Yes, Anthony it is and you are the problem. I guess ole Anthony failed to realize that by making this statement to “dress a certain way,” he was actually contradicting his own statement in his original tweet suggesting Santos change her attire. Ahh you gotta love these clowns because if they are one thing, it’s consistent. If a woman is confident in her attire, if it is approved by her employer, then there is no problem unless you are a secret member of the Taliban. Are you Anthony Bekavac?
He later tweeted on the same post that he was married with two grown daughters. So why would a man who says he is happily married and has two adult daughters think it is okay for him to go into a public forum and insult a woman he doesn’t even know who is 25 years his junior?
It is often called “white man’s privilege.” I disagree with that term and think it is more just the sheer stupidity and arrogance of too many white men in this country. White men who think they can storm the Capitol while at the same time scream, they “back the blue.” White men who can get fired from Boeing as its CEO for deception and then get a position on the Board of Trustees at Northwestern University. White men who make $10 million a year coaching college football, but get their underwear in a bunch when mostly Black athletes start going to HBCU’s and cashing in on their talents as the playing field starts getting even. White male arrogance is at an all-time high in the United States and we know they won’t check themselves, so the public as a whole must do it.
There is no need for any man in 2022 to be telling a woman she dresses like a hooker. Dan McNeil, a legend in Chicago sports talk radio ruined his career in 2020 after stating on, once again that damn Twitter, “NFL sideline reporter or a host for the AVN (Adult Video News) presentation?” His comment was directed towards ESPN reporter Maria Taylor. Public backlash was severe and his bosses at Entercom wasted no time in kicking McNeil to the curb after a long history of suspensions for other acts.
But nothing compares to the disrespect uttered by current WSCR 670 radio host Dan Bernstein in 2015. During a segment that was airing live, Bernstein said this about African American sports reporter Aiyana Cristal "I have no rooting interest in her work, but enjoy her giant boobs."
The fact that Bernstein was only suspended and not fired is only because he was a few years before the “Me Too” movement and his bosses didn’t feel enough heat from the public to do the right thing. I would have been cool if he had gotten “Will Smithed” personally because too many men often say disrespectful stuff about women, especially Black women in safe places. Rarely do they have the balls to say it when there is another male in the woman presence, because they know the potential outcome of doing so. Black and Brown women like Cristal and Santos are too often the victims of violent and sexually-charged comments from men. According to a 2018 study conducted by Amnesty International, women of color were 34 percent more likely to be mentioned in abusive tweets than white women.
In 2019, an outstanding piece of work was published by the Committee to Protect Journalists. It discussed the dark side of sports journalism where females looking to go into the field were often dissuaded from doing so because of online trolling and fear for their safety. The women have good reason too.
In 2016, sports reporters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro participated in a YouTube video produced by Just Not Sports in which random men read real tweets that had been sent to the two journalists. The language was so disgusting and violent, one cannot watch the entire video and not be affected from it. Tweets calling them the C-word or the B-word along with hoping their dog would get hit by a car were some of the milder ones believe it or not. The more troubling ones were the ones where the cowards’ said things like “I hope your boyfriend beats you,” or “I hope you get raped again,” as DiCaro is a survivor.
In 2018, sports journalist Julieth González Therán was sexually assaulted on live television while reporting on the World Cup. A man grabbed her breast and kissed her without warning before walking away.
And lest we not forget what happened to ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in 2008, when her privacy was violated by a sicko who used his cellphone to videotape Andrews’ nude in her hotel room through the peephole he had removed. The videos taken of Andrews were posted online. Andrews eventually won over $50 million in a lawsuit and her attacker Michael Barret, a Chicago insurance salesman got sentenced to 30 months in prison for stalking and recording Andrews.
So, when Anthony Blaise Bekavac, gets it in his head that he can just say whatever comes into his little pea-sized brain, he and the others need to know there are consequences for their actions and there is no hiding behind a keyboard and screen name. Continuing the culture of verbal attacks against women creates a climate of violence against women that too often manifests into a physical form. Consequences for our actions come in many forms Anthony. You are old enough to know that by now. One can only wonder what your wife Constance and daughters think of you after this.