Sarah Spain and Julie Stewart-Binks got in a Twitter spat Wednesday over their respective Rob Gronkowski stories.
Spain, an ESPN Radio reporter and espnW writer, spent the weekend covering the Gronk Cruise and detailed her experience for espnW. When espnW tweeted the link Wednesday, Stewart-Binks, a FOX reporter, responded.
3 weeks ago you publicly ridicule me- now, you glorify your Gronk-boating. Wanna talk double standards? Let's go. https://t.co/4p8pJeJW7b
— Julie Stewart-Binks (@JSB_FOX) February 25, 2016
Stewart-Binks is the FOX TV personality to whom Gronk gave a lap dance on TV (watch it here). She thought Spain ridiculed her over the lap dance and found Spain to be hypocritical. However, a closer look at what Spain said about Stewart-Binks shows she did not deserve that kind of response from the FOX reporter.
On her podcast two weeks ago, Spain shared her thoughts on Stewart-Binks getting the lap dance from Gronk.
ICYMI: The REAL story about my 2007 Super Bowl E-Bay adventure, plus my thoughts on Julie Stewart-Binks & Gronk – https://t.co/miytlHeuEO
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) February 10, 2016
“I was really uncomfortable watching it,” Spain said. “I thought it was extremely awkward and unprofessional. I can’t imagine being on a set and working and having an athlete grind on me or give me a lap dance.
Spain also stated that the reaction was that Stewart-Binks set women back with that act. Spain didn’t like the way people link the behavior of one woman with that of others and said so. She said she felt badly that everyone would now identify Stewart-Binks as the woman who got a lap dance from Gronk.
“I hope for Julie Stewart-Binks that what I consider to be a bad decision and a poor choice doesn’t result in having to deal with this kind of crap for the rest of her career because I think she has a lot to offer,” Spain said in support of Stewart-Binks.
Spain’s commentary was intelligent and insightful, and in no way did it shame Stewart-Binks. In fact, it struck out against all those who shamed Stewart-Binks and viewed the one incident as an indictment of all women in broadcasting.
Spain responded to Stewart-Binks with the following tweets:
Wait wait wait. First, I never ridiculed. I said I didn't think dance was a good idea as part of a larger discussion https://t.co/a0CNk8s4Oh
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) February 25, 2016
2nd, did you read the post or listen to any radio about how Gronk Boat was harmless fun? The 2 things are unrelated. https://t.co/a0CNk8s4Oh
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) February 25, 2016
I'm not sure where this is coming from, but I don't do fabricated Twitter fights to "go viral." Have a good night. https://t.co/a0CNk8s4Oh
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) February 25, 2016
Stewart-Binks has not responded.
