Ben Koo · @bkoo
30th Nov 2014 from TwitLonger
Statement Regarding Bloguin/Awful Announcing Termination Of Steve Lepore
Effective earlier today, Bloguin and Awful Announcing has opted to sever its relationship with Steve Lepore in light of recent reports of improper and inappropriate conduct with social media acquaintances. The newly documented behavior and overall discourse fell well short of our standards, as well what should be a common standard of respect and conduct towards women and people of all genders and ethnic groups.
This is personally and professionally painful to me on many levels, the largest one being that Steve's conduct left many feeling uncomfortable and disenfranchised by an all too common theme these days of insensitive, harassing, or oblivious poor treatment of women by men. I want to personally apologize for this behavior as well as applaud those who have had courage to share their personal experiences. I'm sorry, you deserve better, and I hope continued discussion will be a catalyst for change going forward.
Bloguin and myself personally will be looking to make charitable donations for this cause in the coming weeks in an effort to make a substantive contribution on this front. I hope going forward those in the sports content eco-system and beyond will be more mindful and cognizant of the repercussions of how they interact with others and hopefully 2015 signals significant and lasting progress on how we conduct ourselves as we become more and more connected and accessible online. I am optimistic that Steve will be a part of this change and hope he learns from this experience and grows accordingly.
As always, I am accessible through email or Twitter should you have any concerns on this matter or any other questions. My apologies again to those affected and those who find themselves in similar situations.