Hearst Picks Up WWE Sexual Harassment Story

[posted 5/25/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]


The Connecticut Post and other Hearst newspapers in Connecticut are reporting the story, first broken here on May 10, about the departure of World Wrestling Entertainment’s executive vice president and general counsel, Jared Bartie, following an allegation that he sexually harassed another company manager during WrestleMania week in Arizona in late March.

See “WWE denies exec fired over sexual harassment,” by business reporter Michael C. Juliano, ” http://www.ctpost.com/business/article/WWE-denies-exec-fired-over-sexual-harassment-499926.php.

The story mostly rehashes other rewrites that have appeared in a range of other publications, including the website of American Lawyer Media’s Corporate Counsel magazine. But credit Hearst with quoting me as asserting that “WWE has a long history and culture of sexual harassment,” including claims “in the past against WWE founder Vince McMahon.” (The article tactfully refrains from noting that Vince McMahon’s spouse and WWE’s other founder, Linda McMahon, is the Republican candidate for Connecticut’s open U.S. Senate seat.)

WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman told Hearst’s Juliano that the company “neither responds to Muchnick nor comments on personnel matters.”


Irv Muchnick