Sister networks Fox Sports Sun and Fox Sports Florida booted sideline reporter for the Orlando Magic and the Tampa Bay Rays, Emily Austen, for stereotyping various ethnic groups on the Barstool Sports ‘Rundown’ show.
While sitting on a couch with three other sports commentators on a live Facebook broadcast, Austen spewed several stereotype characterizations of Mexicans, Jews, and Asians and called Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love a ‘bitch.’
Austen said about Love, who sat out Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Cavs and the Warriors due to a concussion he incurred during Sunday’s game, “I think Kevin Love is a little bitch. … I’m just saying, in general, he’s a little bitch because even when he doesn’t have a concussion. I’m not saying he’s a little bitch because he didn’t play because he had a concussion. Because he can’t play. I’m just not a fan, and he’s such a diva.”
After being asked by the show’s host David Portnoy what she thought about a recent high school valedictorian, who admitted on social media that she was an illegal immigrant from Mexico and was receiving a full scholarship to Yale, Austen uttered: “I didn’t even know Mexicans were that smart. …That’s f—– up. I didn’t mean it like that.’
Austen dug her stereotype hole a little deeper when she tried to clarify the remark, saying that you would expect an Asian to be the valedictorian. “You guys know that the Chinese guy is always the smartest guy in math class,” she said.
The attractive, 27-year-old host for “Inside the Rays” and graduate of Florida Atlantic University said about her days as a server at a restaurant in Boca Raton that Jewish customers were not good tippers: “The way I used to talk to the Jews in Boca… I just didn’t care. They would complain and bitch about everything. I gave a guy, delivered his beer, and he was complaining to me that there was too much head. I knew that he was a stingy a—hole, and he wasn’t going to give me a tip.” Austen told the customer: “Sir, you are the first person who ever complained to me about too much head.”
Barstool’s co-host Dan Katz quipped toward the end of the broadcast, “We might have to hire you because you’re gonna get fired.”
Fox Sports Florida released the following statement on Austen:
“We were made aware that Emily Austen appeared in a social media video unaffiliated with FOX Sports in which she made insensitive and derogatory comments. She was not speaking on behalf of FOX Sports, nor do we condone any of the statements she made in the video. Emily has been advised that her comments were unacceptable, and she is not scheduled to appear on any upcoming FOX Sports Florida or FOX Sports Sun broadcasts.”
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