Well just as the media are criticising the governments drive on the 2010 Equality Act, it looks as if many media organisations could well do with an Equality Impact Assessment themselves. I find it amazing how quickly the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and others managed to pull their “Government accused of wasting millions on bizarre equality drives” headlines and replace them with “Andy Gray and Richard Keys suspended by Sky Sports over sexist comments”.
I applaud Sky for suspending Andy Gray and Richard Keys from their commentating duties tonight, covering the Bolton v Chelsea premiership football match. What they said was not a career ending offence but shows just how deep rooted sexism and other forms of discrimination are in the media.
It should encourage Sky and the rest of the media to think long and hard about how they address equality and diversity training. Maybe they will think twice before labelling every equality and diversity drive as “a complete waste of everyone’s time and money.” They should be putting their own house in order first.
As for Andy Gray and Richard Keys, there needs to be some humble pie eating and a change in their own attitude towards all football officials – be they male or female.
By Jon Davies | Righttrack’s Interim International Business Development and Marketing Manager
Sky Sports have sacked Andy Gray – I’m puzzled, why would they do that? Not a lot of what they’re coming out with really rings true, not to me anyway – what does everyone else here think?