Mean Tweets Video Incites More Mean Tweets

With the passion and rage associated with some sports fans everywhere, it’s often a no-win situation to play the role of a sports journalist. Somebody is going to hate you no matter what you write or say.

Entering that world as a female has proven to be far more challenging and frightening, as many found out through a viral video produced by Just Not Sports and released Tuesday.

Two Chicago-based female sports reporters, Sarah Spain of ESPN and Julie DiCaro of 670 The Score, participated in the #MoreThanMean video that featured men reading, to their faces, some of the comments Spain and DiCaro have received on Twitter over the years. The men weren’t guilty of making any of the deplorable tweets, but showed raw emotion - and often hesitation - when faced with reading them aloud.

The video has been shared thousands of times and has been discussed by national media. DiCaro, Spain and some of the men involved in the video will be on ESPN's Outside the Lines show on Wednesday for a discussion.

Be advised that the comments read in this video are deeply disturbing.

Spain and DiCaro both knew what was going to be read to them ahead of time. After all, the lines came directly from Twitter mentions directed right at them so surely they had seen them before. The men did not know what was on the cards in front of them, thinking they were participating in a Jimmy Kimmel-like segment where they would read slightly not-so-positive and humorous comments with the public figures mentioned.

The men cringed, and often apologized, for having to read some of these out loud.

“One of the players should beat you to death with a hockey stick like the w****e you are,” was one directed at DiCaro.

“Sarah Spain is a self-important, know it all c****.”

“Hopefully this s**** Julie DiCaro is Bill Cosby’s next victim.”

It should be noted that DiCaro, in addition to a sports journalist and former Attorney, is a rape victim herself and has opened up about it.

“I hope you get raped again,” was another comment featured in the video.

The video ended with the phrases: “Some women are harassed online. Just for doing their jobs. We wouldn’t say it to their faces. So let’s not type it.”

While thousands have shared the video as a powerful statement about the culture against women who are a part of the sports landscape, sadly, the Mean Tweets video brought out even more hatred.

The video was described by some as “false outrage” and others piled on the two reporters involved.

DiCaro, a frequent Twitter user who describes her page as “sports with a dash of sass,” has never been shy to put the trolls on full blast. Every day she is blasted with mean comments, sometimes retweeting them and including a sharp reply.

But on Tuesday, it became overwhelming though to deal with all the hate.

“I was putting the #MoreThanMean trolls on blast, but now it’s like 35% of my mentions, so…” she tweeted Tuesday afternoon, several hours after the video first hit the viral stage.

The comments on the YouTube video site were degrading as well, with some laughing and others telling the women to just accept the comments and move on.

Countless people pointed out male reporters receive hate comments and personal attacks too, to which DiCaro always replies with something to the effect of she would welcome a video on that as well.

While DiCaro has been strong in response to the blatant sexism and awful comments, she shouldn't have to. No female, whether in sports or any other line of work, should be subjected to the tweets featured in the video and the hundreds of others that go unnoticed every day.

Yes, it's the Internet. But this is also humanity. And behind every anonymous tweet like the ones in the video is a human. Let's stop it. Really, just one is too many.

But if we don't know the problem exists, there is no way to fix it. And before Tuesday, a lot of people probably did not know the problem exists.

By telling their story, DiCaro and Spain have done their part in opening the discussion and what is hopefully the first steps in ridding the world of this awful problem.