IF YOU WANTED THE WORST TROUBLE FOR SKIP BAYLESS, HE CERTAINLY HAS FOUND IT
Not long after he left his Fox Sports show, the analyst is being sued for sexually harassing a network hairstylist, which brings questions about why Lachlan Murdoch lets Eric Shanks run the operation
The first troubling scene I’ll paint about Fox Sports came in a hotel elevator. Many of my media colleagues were packed inside when the car stopped, at a swimming pool floor, and Skip Bayless squeezed in with 15 others. He was wearing a tiny Speedo thong. And nothing else.
The second troubling scene I’ll paint about Fox Sports is when I walked into a bar at a Super Bowl in Houston. I was meeting a buddy, but suddenly, a security officer approached me and didn’t want me around. Why? The Fox people were partying with friends, including Dallas Cowboys executives, though the bar was open to the public. Why were these people so nervous? What were they hiding?
The third troubling scene I’ll paint about Fox Sports involves Eric Shanks, the executive producer and CEO. He spoke on a podcast about a newspaper investment he made in Ojai, where he lives near Los Angeles. He spoke fondly about local journalism when City Council was in hokey business with a San Francisco law firm. “Towns with newspapers,” he said, “they function more properly … there’s less corruption.” The problem? What’s best for Ojai wasn’t good for America, when Fox protected Qatar and didn’t cover human rights abuses in exchange for rights to soccer’s World Cup.
So why would anyone be surprised as Bayless-inspired litigation rocks the network’s shaky world? A former Fox hairstylist says Bayless offered her $1.5 million for sex, abusing her with “lingering hugs and kisses on the cheek while putting his body against hers and pressing against her breasts.” Noushin Faraji has filed a workplace misconduct lawsuit against Bayless and Fox Sports executive vice president Charlie Dixon — the loon who created loser daily programs — and says Dixon demanded sex from her to renew her contract. Faraji says she was not alone in Charlie’s world.
“Faraji brings forth this action because for over a decade at Fox, she was forced to endure a misogynistic, racist and ableist workplace where executives and talent were allowed to physically and verbally abuse workers with impunity,” her suit reads. “As Fox knew or should have known of Mr. Dixon’s willingness and propensity to use his position to sexually harass women, Fox is liable for the materialization of that particular harm.”
Bayless is married and remained relentless about Faraji, ignoring her when she spoke about her ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2021. “Bayless told her that he wanted to be with her. Ms. Faraji panicked and began rambling that there were cameras everywhere, that she has a child, and that she does not want him,” the suit reads. “Bayless then grabbed her hands, began kissing them … Ms. Faraji made an excuse to leave.” Last year, before he left an “Undisputed” program with bad ratings, Bayless “asked how much money it would take for her to have sex with him.”
Remember Shannon Sharpe, Bayless’ former partner? He is a star at ESPN and wasn’t punished by Disney Company bossman Bob Iger, who apparently ignored an accidental live sex video last year, and according to Faraji, Bayless accused her of having a relationship with Sharpe. She was fired by Dixon, said Bayless, “because she knew too much and was talking.”
Says the suit: “Ms. Faraji has suffered, and continues to suffer, losses in earnings, losses in other employment benefits, losses in other financial aspects. Furthermore, she has suffered, and continues to suffer, emotional distress, shame, embarrassment, and fear, all to her damage, in an amount to be proven at the time of trial. … When Ms. Faraji and others came forward to report the wrongdoing, instead of addressing their concerns, Fox retaliated against them while the perpetrators and those who protected them were inexplicitly promoted.”
At one point, Faraji says Bayless made fun of her Muslim faith. “Skip, stop, you have a wife,” she said, to which he responded, “Aren’t you Muslim? Doesn’t your dad have three to four wives?” A Fox Sports host, Joy Taylor, also made fun of her faith and told Faraji to “get over it” when DIxon “grabbed her buttocks” during a party.
I must ask: Why is Shanks still running this operation? How quickly can Tom Brady escape his $375 million deal and run to the Las Vegas Raiders? Think Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are very happy at ESPN? Does Lachlan Murdoch ever ask these questions as the bossman in charge?
In Chicago, Bayless was a columnist at the Tribune when I wrote columns at the Sun-Times. I not only kicked his ass, I ran him out of town. He gathered himself at ESPN, as a partner with Stephen A. Smith, and with the help of Jamie Horowitz — who now works with Peyton Manning’s media ventures — they compiled a version of morning ratings. Bayless took big money at Fox and was handed a $32 million deal by Shanks.
Why?
As someone who worked eight years of daily television at ESPN, where I commented on sports for “Around The Horn,” I thought I’d seen everything when Woody Paige was sued for sexual harassment. The front-page headline in the New York Post?
“Around The Horny.”
Paige escaped and is on a lifetime supply of Botox at age 78. Bayless will not escape, nor will Dixon or Shanks. The final troubling scene I’ll paint about Fox Sports came in their building, on Pico Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars in Los Angeles, where I was asked to appear years ago for an interview. I sat in a room with executives as we watched “Around The Horn.” Our show always buried whatever Fox tried. I think they were trying to make fun of it.
Then I got up and left.
Thank God.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.