ESPN did another round of layoffs this week and most sports fans learned who was getting the ax even before some of the talent did. For FOX's Nick Wright, that's simply unacceptable.
On the latest episode of his What's Wright? With Nick Wright podcast, Wright admonished ESPN for how it allowed news of the layoffs to leak. He called for greater informational security at the rival network.
“There needs to be better informational security when it comes to layoffs,” Wright said. “To where the information does not leak so much so that you feel like your best option is to let someone know they’re being let go while they’re on the air in a commercial break.”
Moving Forward
Wright said that if a situation arises where information gets leaked, then plans for how the information gets distributed to the public simply have to change. He believes that didn't happen with the now-infamous Ryan Clark situation.
“If you as the overall entity know this has leaked, this is getting out, then you have to change how you plan on doing this,” Wright said. “And you certainly, even if it puts you in a tough spot programming-wise, can’t run the risk that someone is going to be live on the air and find out via Twitter or text message that they’re being let go to the point that you have to let them go during a commercial break. And then, what you triply can’t do is have so many communication gaps that you are then publicizing and posting that person’s takes of the day on your channels while the world has now found out he was let go minutes after giving that take.”
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Ultimately, Wright believes that the entire situation was handled poorly and everyone at the network probably realizes it.
“This should have been handled better, and my guess is everyone involved knows it. And everyone involved can do a little after-action report of, because there’s going to be another round of layoffs at some point, to make sure it’s handled better and more humanely in the future.”
