Several prominent sports journalists went at it on social media Monday, over a job posting which specifically requested female applicants.
The Twitter donnybrook erupted after a June 18 tweet by Sports Illustrated’s Charlotte Wilder who posted about a job specifically seeking “a woman trying to get into sports,” Awful Announcing reported.
Wilder’s tweet — though she likely thought it was quite innocent — did not sit well with former ESPN NFL Reporter Ed Werder who replied to the job posting tweet with a pointed question: “So men need not apply? Any others ineligible?”
Uh, oh. Fur is about to fly…
Wilder quickly jumped back to her account with a sarcastic reply about the low number of women working in sports media:
But Werder wasn’t to be deterred from his gender-blind ideals:
Not to be out done, Wilder was just as adamant over her feminist-minded attack on the sports media’s glass ceiling:
Then Werder got a bit more personal:
And the descent into personal sniping continued with Wilder essentially calling Werder stupid:
At this point, ESPN’s Mina Kimes tried to femme-splain things to Werder:
But Kimes’ attempt to set Werder straight didn’t work out so well. Werder insisted he read Wilder’s post and saw clearly that she was trying to give an SI job away only to a female applicant.
Later, fellow former ESPN reporter Britt McHenry took Werder’s back:
The fact that this whole tweet war has still not been deleted may be just as amazing as the fact that it flamed up in the first place. But what ever else was going on, it looks like Ed Werder just gained an object lesson in quota-seeking, left-wing, grievance groups and their total disregard for merit hiring.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.