Speaker 1: The first order of business I'm going to get into.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make sure that I don't get into
Speaker 1: it alone. Before I bring up the subject, let me
Speaker 1: introduce all of you to a friend of mine, a
Speaker 1: dear friend of mine, who's contributing to the show. This
Speaker 1: her second day contributing to the show. She is the wonderful,
Speaker 1: the incomparable, Tory Cooper. She is there sitting in my
Speaker 1: seat in my studio. How are you, Tory, how's everything going?
Speaker 1: How is your weekend?
Speaker 2: It's an honor to be here, you know, I spent
Speaker 2: it here in New York.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed it, Steven.
Speaker 2: It was great to get a call back from you
Speaker 2: to talk with you on your show again.
Speaker 4: That's right, and that's what we have to do.
Speaker 1: And I'll get back to you in just the second Tory,
Speaker 1: because I definitely want to get your take on a
Speaker 1: couple of matters, because I think it's apropos that I
Speaker 1: have you here with me. I have to get started
Speaker 1: with this subject because we all know that anytime you
Speaker 1: mentioned Skip Bayless, anybody wants to Most folks want to
Speaker 1: hear what I have to say.
Speaker 4: And that's where we're going to get started.
Speaker 1: Because it's sports media news, which makes it apropos, and
Speaker 1: it involves a recent law suit filed against Fox, Fox
Speaker 1: Sports and several people, including my buddy, Skip Bayless, my
Speaker 1: former colleague at ESPN. The suit, filed by a woman
Speaker 1: named Nashine Faraji, a former hairstylist for the company, cites
Speaker 1: several instances of workplace misconduct.
Speaker 4: Okay, The forty.
Speaker 1: Two page that's right, forty two page suit names several defendants,
Speaker 1: including Fox Sports executive vice president Charlie Dixon and even
Speaker 1: host Joy Taylor. Faraji alleges Dixon grabbed her buttocks at
Speaker 1: a birthday party, and when she relayed the encounter to Taylor,
Speaker 1: the Fox host allegedly told her to quote.
Speaker 4: Get over it. End quote.
Speaker 1: As for Skip Bayless, Faraji says he touched her inappropriately
Speaker 1: and propositioned her for sex, offering her one point five
Speaker 1: million dollars end quote. I'll get to Tory and her
Speaker 1: thoughts on him for a second this things. First, let
Speaker 1: me tell you why I had to cover this.
Speaker 4: Number one. It is news. Number two. I was just
Speaker 4: on the air a few weeks ago and took some
Speaker 4: heat for.
Speaker 1: The fact that I pointed out that I've been friends
Speaker 1: with jay Z for twenty five years, and I know
Speaker 1: nothing about what happened, no intimate details. Certainly can't be
Speaker 1: irresponsible and not try to interfere with a legal matter
Speaker 1: of lawsuit. But in the same breath, I didn't think
Speaker 1: it was a crime to point out that the person
Speaker 1: that I've known for twenty five years, that I've never
Speaker 1: seen somebody that would be capable of that, with that
Speaker 1: meaning that person that I was around for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: The same applies to Skip Bayless. Now, I don't know
Speaker 1: what happened. I don't work at Fox. I worked at
Speaker 1: Fox from two thousand and one to two thousand and three.
Speaker 4: I haven't been there.
Speaker 1: I haven't been in that building, and over twenty years,
Speaker 1: I don't know any details or anything like that, and
Speaker 1: I'm not here to cast a gate ms Varaji or
Speaker 1: anybody else. I don't know Charlie Dixon that well, even
Speaker 1: though he used to play, used to work I'm sorry
Speaker 1: at ESPN. I don't know Joy Taylor that well, even
Speaker 1: though she and I have interacted with one another on
Speaker 1: several occasions throughout her career, and I find her to
Speaker 1: be a consummate professional, very good at what she does,
Speaker 1: very capable, very knowledgeable about the world of sports and
Speaker 1: what have you. I also know that she's big on
Speaker 1: women empowerment, so it's hard to imagine her saying get
Speaker 1: over it.
Speaker 4: But again, I don't know, but we all know that
Speaker 4: when you see Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith with a subject like this and the name involves
Speaker 1: Skip Baylor's, that's what you want to know about.
Speaker 4: And here's what I would tell you. I don't know
Speaker 4: what happened.
Speaker 1: But just like I said, I've known jay Z for
Speaker 1: twenty five years, I can't imagine that I've known Skip
Speaker 1: for just as long.
Speaker 4: I can't imagine it.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine it, especially when they brought up the
Speaker 1: one and a half million dollars. The Skip Baylor's I know,
Speaker 1: has a hard time giving away fifteen dollars. He's one
Speaker 1: of the cheapest people I know.
Speaker 4: That's just me.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that I have any inside knowledge
Speaker 1: about any of this.
Speaker 4: Don't. I don't, and I'm not going to get involved.
Speaker 1: I think it's incredibly dicey and irresponsible for people who
Speaker 1: don't know to act like they do know. But in
Speaker 1: the same breath, I also feel it's important that if
Speaker 1: you know people or you think you know people and
Speaker 1: you've had a long standing relationship with those people that it's.
Speaker 4: Not a crime for you to say.
Speaker 1: The person that I know, the person that I've been around,
Speaker 1: the person that I worked with in his case, you know,
Speaker 1: for four straight years from twenty twelve to twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: doing First Take every weekday morning at ten am to
Speaker 1: twelve noon. The person that I knew since our days
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports when we would appear on Jim Rome's
Speaker 1: show Okay the Last Word and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: we were in the same Fox building off of Pico
Speaker 1: Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars.
Speaker 4: The person that I've seen that.
Speaker 1: Really really trust almost no one and doesn't explo himself
Speaker 1: to anybody, you know, eating the same breakfast and lunch
Speaker 1: every day. His vice is a diet mountain dew, and
Speaker 1: he doesn't.
Speaker 4: Socialize with people. That's the guy I know.
Speaker 1: So imagining him being in this kind of position is
Speaker 1: shocking to say the least. All I could tell you
Speaker 1: is that it's not the Skip Bayliss I know. But
Speaker 1: obviously this is a legal matter he's going to have
Speaker 1: to deal with, because this situation doesn't appear to be
Speaker 1: going away a lawsuit has been filed.
Speaker 4: This person, who's a hair stylist.
Speaker 1: The people that I've spoken to in the last twenty
Speaker 1: four hours that have some knowledge about her says that
Speaker 1: she's the kind of person that she's meticulous with her details,
Speaker 1: and she's going to chronicle things and that's how she operates.
Speaker 1: I don't know her, I don't know them. I know Skip,
Speaker 1: and I'm very very hard broken that he finds himself
Speaker 1: in this situation being accused of these allegations. But I
Speaker 1: can't be over the airways being irresponsible and attaching truth
Speaker 1: or inn or guilt to anything that I know nothing about.
Speaker 1: All I can say, and I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: crime to say it's just like I said with jay Z,
Speaker 1: the person that I know for twenty five years, I've
Speaker 1: never seen anything like that from that person, anything close
Speaker 1: to that from that person.
Speaker 4: That's the same thing that I.
Speaker 1: Would tell you about Skip Bayles's That's all I can say.
Speaker 1: I have nothing else to add because I don't.
Speaker 4: Know what happened. I don't know what was said.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether something was misconstrued or anything like that.
Speaker 1: That's where I'm coming from with it. Tori, I know
Speaker 1: you had thoughts and opinions about this. I'm really interested
Speaker 1: in hearing what you have to say. You are a
Speaker 1: lady in this industry. You've been a journalist for years.
Speaker 1: You know what level of professional integrity is supposed to
Speaker 1: come with the business. You know the tenets that come
Speaker 1: associated with it. And obviously I am not a woman.
Speaker 1: You are, and so when you see a story like this,
Speaker 1: I like to know what your thoughts are in any
Speaker 1: perspective you can provide.
Speaker 2: My initial reactions were disappointment as well, because Skip Bayless
Speaker 2: has an incredible legacy in the sports commentary world. You
Speaker 2: worked alongside him. Everybody knows Skip Bayless, and it was
Speaker 2: disappointing to know that his name was going to be
Speaker 2: when you google his name today. This is the lawsuit
Speaker 2: that's going to pop up, and this may pop up
Speaker 2: for several weeks now, So you can't get away from
Speaker 2: something like this once it's in writing.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: This is a civil matter, and anytime you're reading a
Speaker 2: forty page document like this, when I read through it,
Speaker 2: you know, initially you know you have to be unbiased
Speaker 2: when you're listening to these allegations, but you have to
Speaker 2: remember that this is simply that allegations, and this is
Speaker 2: going to be an issue that's going.
Speaker 3: To be talked about for several weeks.
Speaker 2: But initially I was disappointed to see Skip's name in
Speaker 2: this as well as miss Faragi. You know, as a woman,
Speaker 2: I can tell you that whenever you hear about your
Speaker 2: colleagues or.
Speaker 3: Anyone going through this, you're hurt for them, you know.
Speaker 2: And based off her allegations in this civil lawsuit, she
Speaker 2: says that she spoke to several people about trying to
Speaker 2: talk about some of the things that she was allegedly
Speaker 2: exposed to, and she was told to be quiet and
Speaker 2: that if you want to keep your job as a
Speaker 2: single mother, you need to let this go. And seems
Speaker 2: like she was there for a number of years, seven
Speaker 2: to ten years that she was there, and she talks
Speaker 2: about a number of different allegations in different instances when
Speaker 2: she was exposed to other people. She mentioned Charlie Dixon
Speaker 2: Dixon executive vice president. She mentioned that she was allegedly
Speaker 2: at a bar where you know, her back was growth,
Speaker 2: et cetera. So there's a number of different allegations as
Speaker 2: you come through this suit that are alarming, and then
Speaker 2: the silencing behavior that allegedly took place, and unfortunately, Stephen,
Speaker 2: in this world that we live in. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: one of the reasons why I left the sports industry initially,
Speaker 2: because I felt like I was people were flirting with
Speaker 2: me and not taking my perspective or my preparations seriously
Speaker 2: when I would show up to interview them, because it's
Speaker 2: hard to get passed your looks, and as you saw,
Speaker 2: she's an absolutely beautiful woman, you know. So that's just
Speaker 2: it's the unfortunate reality of the sports world.
Speaker 3: Is that world.
Speaker 2: But it's not just in sports, it's in news too.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Got a couple of questions to throw you away because
Speaker 1: I'm very interested and intrigued by something. A couple of
Speaker 1: things that you said. Number One, you talked about the
Speaker 1: partying from the sports from the sports industry for a while,
Speaker 1: because you know, the way folks approached you. It's one
Speaker 1: thing for folks, and I'm not saying thing it's appropriate,
Speaker 1: please don't get me wrong, but it's one thing for
Speaker 1: somebody to flirt with you or to not take you
Speaker 1: seriously because of your looks. Were they did you consider
Speaker 1: it harassment? And if so, what would you define as harassment.
Speaker 1: Just for a lot of youers out there, both male
Speaker 1: and female, who don't get that sometimes explain.
Speaker 2: That I would definitely not consider it harassment at all.
Speaker 2: I just was advancements that I was not interested in
Speaker 2: being around at all, especially when I'm at work. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to focus on work, and I come here to
Speaker 2: respect you, and I would expect the exact same in return.
Speaker 2: If I'm going to prepare questions and watch you for
Speaker 2: nearly two hours and take notes on your play, and
Speaker 2: then I show up in your locker room to have
Speaker 2: a conversation with you, and I'm even filming this myself
Speaker 2: and editing my editing this myself at times, how come
Speaker 2: you can't give me the same.
Speaker 3: Respect as a professional.
Speaker 2: That was the environment I was in, and for me,
Speaker 2: that's not the level of respect I wanted to be
Speaker 2: exposed to on a daily basis.
Speaker 3: And I saw that this was.
Speaker 2: Going to be a mountain climb with men potentially just
Speaker 2: being disrespectful doesn't now, as you asked me about the
Speaker 2: difference between disrespect essentially and harassment.
Speaker 3: No one touched me.
Speaker 2: I didn't have to push advances away, and that's in
Speaker 2: the sports arena. But I did have to push advances
Speaker 2: away in the news arena. So you know, someone unfortunately
Speaker 2: you know, ended up getting fired, uh for the way
Speaker 2: that I was handled inappropriately, And won't you know, go into.
Speaker 3: Specific details about that.
Speaker 2: But I was at work mining my business and someone
Speaker 2: made some advances that were inappropriate and they were eventually fired.
Speaker 2: And as it relates to speaking up about that, I
Speaker 2: can tell you personally, I was scared to speak up
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: I was genuinely scared. This is one of my first
Speaker 3: jobs in TV.
Speaker 2: I just landed a sports reporting and anchor job and
Speaker 2: the last thing I wanted to do was attract any
Speaker 2: attention to myself in any way. And I wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure that the focus will remain on my talent,
Speaker 2: Toys and not a problem. Tory comes in as a
Speaker 2: professional does her job, and I'm not ending up in
Speaker 2: HR with complaints and having to go back and forth
Speaker 2: and prove that this happened when there's no cameras around
Speaker 2: and so. But by the grace of God, I had
Speaker 2: women around me who said, Toy absolutely not. This has
Speaker 2: been an issue with not just you, this is an
Speaker 2: issue that we have all been dealing with and now
Speaker 2: this he just took it too far and it just
Speaker 2: happened to be with you, and you owe it to
Speaker 2: not only yourself to respect yourself, but also all of
Speaker 2: us who have been going through this too, to speak
Speaker 2: up about it.
Speaker 3: So I did.
Speaker 1: So, what are your thoughts about the you know, the
Speaker 1: allegations that Joy Taylor, another woman you know who's in
Speaker 1: this industry, who's recognized as being very attractive but also
Speaker 1: very capable, very professional. What are your thoughts with the
Speaker 1: allegations that she told Ms Varaji get over it? I mean,
Speaker 1: first of all, is that something that you deem plausible
Speaker 1: possible that women may say to each other in this industry?
Speaker 4: Do you find that to be far fetched?
Speaker 2: What do you make of that we were not in
Speaker 2: the room, so we'll never know? These are allegations, right,
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that's clear. Whenever we talk
Speaker 2: about topics like this, we have to make sure that
Speaker 2: these are of course really well understood.
Speaker 3: These are allegations. We are not in the room. Now.
Speaker 2: On the other side of that, I will say that
Speaker 2: luckily I was in a room where someone was telling
Speaker 2: me to come forward, but I am not shocked that
Speaker 2: other women would.
Speaker 3: Essentially say, look, it's not.
Speaker 2: You're dealing with Fox, this is a huge corporation. Keep
Speaker 2: your hairstylist job. Don't speak up.
Speaker 3: Just try to let it go.
Speaker 2: And you know, I would not be shocked by that
Speaker 2: at all. Yeah, it would not be shocked by that.
Speaker 1: I know it shocked me. It definitely shocked me because
Speaker 1: when I see a lot of women with their podcasts,
Speaker 1: the television shows, etc. And very very big on women empowerment,
Speaker 1: you know, big, you know, uplifting ladies in this industry
Speaker 1: and what have you, it's hard to imagine that something
Speaker 1: like that would be said because obviously that stays with
Speaker 1: you forever. But you know, the I think the tough
Speaker 1: part for Joy Taylor is that these two were considered.
Speaker 4: Friends for a very long time.
Speaker 1: If there's anybody that you can find in in terms
Speaker 1: of your thoughts, it would be somebody you perceive as
Speaker 1: a friend. So in that regard, I don't know what
Speaker 1: to make of it. I just have to acknowledge that.
Speaker 1: Having said that, when we look at the situation right
Speaker 1: now with Skip, my problem is this, and I said
Speaker 1: this Tory, and I took heat for this, but I
Speaker 1: didn't care. It's one thing if you come over the airwaves,
Speaker 1: and you're proclaiming somebody's in this and you weren't there
Speaker 1: then that you couldn't provide an eyewitness account, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera. I think that's beyond the pale. I don't
Speaker 1: think any of us could do that. I can't do
Speaker 1: that for Skip today. I couldn't do that for jay
Speaker 1: Z a few weeks ago. I couldn't do that for anybody.
Speaker 1: But it's another thing entirely where you've known somebody for
Speaker 1: twenty five years and it's a crime for you to say,
Speaker 1: that's not what I saw. I've never seen anything that
Speaker 1: would give me that kind of indication. I would hope
Speaker 1: that if somebody had made an accusation something like that
Speaker 1: against me, that people would look at me and be like, Nah,
Speaker 1: Stephen ain't doing that.
Speaker 4: That's not who the hell he is. He wouldn't at
Speaker 4: least say that. That's how I feel as.
Speaker 1: A woman in this industry, as a woman period, in
Speaker 1: the world that we're living in, where such heightened awareness
Speaker 1: has been pushed towards acknowledging what women have had to
Speaker 1: go through and what you've had to be silent about
Speaker 1: for so long, How do you feel about people who
Speaker 1: take such a position like the one that I just described.
Speaker 3: The it's a character witness.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have twenty five years of a relationship
Speaker 2: with someone, and as you said, I would hope that
Speaker 2: friends of mine in the industry would know that if
Speaker 2: someone was making allegations against me that they felt were
Speaker 2: out of character to go alongside the Tory Cooper name.
Speaker 2: I would hope that a friend like you in the
Speaker 2: industry who's had personal experiences with someone would speak up,
Speaker 2: you know, but at the end of the day, be
Speaker 2: cognizant of the fact that, look, at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, this is the person I knew, and I
Speaker 2: was not in that room.