Stephen A's Take: Stephen A. and Reporter Tori Cooper discuss Skip Bayless and the harassment suit.

The first order of business I'm going to get into. I'm going to make sure that I don't get into it alone. Before I bring up the subject, let me introduce all of you to a friend of mine, a dear friend of mine, who's contributing to the show. This her second day contributing to the show. She is the wonderful, the incomparable, Tory Cooper. She is there sitting in my seat in my studio. How are you, Tory, how's everything going? How is your weekend?

It's an honor to be here, you know, I spent it here in New York.

I enjoyed it, Steven.

It was great to get a call back from you to talk with you on your show again.

That's right, and that's what we have to do.

And I'll get back to you in just the second Tory, because I definitely want to get your take on a couple of matters, because I think it's apropos that I have you here with me. I have to get started with this subject because we all know that anytime you mentioned Skip Bayless, anybody wants to Most folks want to hear what I have to say.

And that's where we're going to get started.

Because it's sports media news, which makes it apropos, and it involves a recent law suit filed against Fox, Fox Sports and several people, including my buddy, Skip Bayless, my former colleague at ESPN. The suit, filed by a woman named Nashine Faraji, a former hairstylist for the company, cites several instances of workplace misconduct.

Okay, The forty.

Two page that's right, forty two page suit names several defendants, including Fox Sports executive vice president Charlie Dixon and even host Joy Taylor. Faraji alleges Dixon grabbed her buttocks at a birthday party, and when she relayed the encounter to Taylor, the Fox host allegedly told her to quote.

Get over it. End quote.

As for Skip Bayless, Faraji says he touched her inappropriately and propositioned her for sex, offering her one point five million dollars end quote. I'll get to Tory and her thoughts on him for a second this things. First, let me tell you why I had to cover this.

Number one. It is news. Number two. I was just on the air a few weeks ago and took some heat for.

The fact that I pointed out that I've been friends with jay Z for twenty five years, and I know nothing about what happened, no intimate details. Certainly can't be irresponsible and not try to interfere with a legal matter of lawsuit. But in the same breath, I didn't think it was a crime to point out that the person that I've known for twenty five years, that I've never seen somebody that would be capable of that, with that meaning that person that I was around for twenty five years.

I haven't been there.

I haven't been in that building, and over twenty years, I don't know any details or anything like that, and I'm not here to cast a gate ms Varaji or anybody else. I don't know Charlie Dixon that well, even though he used to play, used to work I'm sorry

But again, I don't know, but we all know that when you see Stephen A.

Smith with a subject like this and the name involves Skip Baylor's, that's what you want to know about.

And here's what I would tell you. I don't know what happened.

But just like I said, I've known jay Z for twenty five years, I can't imagine that I've known Skip for just as long.

I can't imagine it.

I can't imagine it, especially when they brought up the one and a half million dollars. The Skip Baylor's I know, has a hard time giving away fifteen dollars. He's one of the cheapest people I know.

That's just me.

But that doesn't mean that I have any inside knowledge about any of this.

Don't. I don't, and I'm not going to get involved.

I think it's incredibly dicey and irresponsible for people who don't know to act like they do know. But in the same breath, I also feel it's important that if you know people or you think you know people and you've had a long standing relationship with those people that it's.

Not a crime for you to say.

The person that I know, the person that I've been around, the person that I worked with in his case, you know, for four straight years from twenty twelve to twenty sixteen doing First Take every weekday morning at ten am to twelve noon. The person that I knew since our days at Fox Sports when we would appear on Jim Rome's show Okay the Last Word and stuff like that, and we were in the same Fox building off of Pico Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars.

The person that I've seen that.

Really really trust almost no one and doesn't explo himself to anybody, you know, eating the same breakfast and lunch every day. His vice is a diet mountain dew, and he doesn't.

Socialize with people. That's the guy I know.

So imagining him being in this kind of position is shocking to say the least. All I could tell you is that it's not the Skip Bayliss I know. But obviously this is a legal matter he's going to have to deal with, because this situation doesn't appear to be going away a lawsuit has been filed.

This person, who's a hair stylist.

The people that I've spoken to in the last twenty four hours that have some knowledge about her says that she's the kind of person that she's meticulous with her details, and she's going to chronicle things and that's how she operates. I don't know her, I don't know them. I know Skip, and I'm very very hard broken that he finds himself

That's the same thing that I.

Would tell you about Skip Bayles's That's all I can say. I have nothing else to add because I don't.

Know what happened. I don't know what was said.

I don't know whether something was misconstrued or anything like that. That's where I'm coming from with it. Tori, I know you had thoughts and opinions about this. I'm really interested in hearing what you have to say. You are a lady in this industry. You've been a journalist for years. You know what level of professional integrity is supposed to come with the business. You know the tenets that come associated with it. And obviously I am not a woman.

My initial reactions were disappointment as well, because Skip Bayless has an incredible legacy in the sports commentary world. You worked alongside him. Everybody knows Skip Bayless, and it was disappointing to know that his name was going to be when you google his name today. This is the lawsuit that's going to pop up, and this may pop up for several weeks now, So you can't get away from something like this once it's in writing.

Now.

This is a civil matter, and anytime you're reading a forty page document like this, when I read through it, you know, initially you know you have to be unbiased when you're listening to these allegations, but you have to remember that this is simply that allegations, and this is going to be an issue that's going.

To be talked about for several weeks.

But initially I was disappointed to see Skip's name in this as well as miss Faragi. You know, as a woman, I can tell you that whenever you hear about your colleagues or.

Anyone going through this, you're hurt for them, you know.

And based off her allegations in this civil lawsuit, she says that she spoke to several people about trying to talk about some of the things that she was allegedly exposed to, and she was told to be quiet and that if you want to keep your job as a single mother, you need to let this go. And seems like she was there for a number of years, seven to ten years that she was there, and she talks about a number of different allegations in different instances when

Is that world.

But it's not just in sports, it's in news too. So yeah, I.

Got a couple of questions to throw you away because I'm very interested and intrigued by something. A couple of things that you said. Number One, you talked about the partying from the sports from the sports industry for a while, because you know, the way folks approached you. It's one thing for folks, and I'm not saying thing it's appropriate, please don't get me wrong, but it's one thing for somebody to flirt with you or to not take you

That I would definitely not consider it harassment at all. I just was advancements that I was not interested in being around at all, especially when I'm at work. I'm trying to focus on work, and I come here to respect you, and I would expect the exact same in return.

Respect as a professional.

That was the environment I was in, and for me, that's not the level of respect I wanted to be exposed to on a daily basis.

And I saw that this was.

Going to be a mountain climb with men potentially just being disrespectful doesn't now, as you asked me about the difference between disrespect essentially and harassment.

No one touched me.

I didn't have to push advances away, and that's in the sports arena. But I did have to push advances away in the news arena. So you know, someone unfortunately you know, ended up getting fired, uh for the way that I was handled inappropriately, And won't you know, go into.

Specific details about that.

But I was at work mining my business and someone made some advances that were inappropriate and they were eventually fired. And as it relates to speaking up about that, I can tell you personally, I was scared to speak up about it.

I was genuinely scared. This is one of my first jobs in TV.

I just landed a sports reporting and anchor job and the last thing I wanted to do was attract any attention to myself in any way. And I wanted to make sure that the focus will remain on my talent, Toys and not a problem. Tory comes in as a professional does her job, and I'm not ending up in HR with complaints and having to go back and forth and prove that this happened when there's no cameras around and so. But by the grace of God, I had

So I did.

So, what are your thoughts about the you know, the allegations that Joy Taylor, another woman you know who's in this industry, who's recognized as being very attractive but also very capable, very professional. What are your thoughts with the allegations that she told Ms Varaji get over it? I mean, first of all, is that something that you deem plausible possible that women may say to each other in this industry?

Do you find that to be far fetched?

What do you make of that we were not in the room, so we'll never know? These are allegations, right, I want to make sure that's clear. Whenever we talk about topics like this, we have to make sure that these are of course really well understood.

These are allegations. We are not in the room. Now.

On the other side of that, I will say that luckily I was in a room where someone was telling me to come forward, but I am not shocked that other women would.

Essentially say, look, it's not.

You're dealing with Fox, this is a huge corporation. Keep your hairstylist job. Don't speak up.

Just try to let it go.

And you know, I would not be shocked by that at all. Yeah, it would not be shocked by that.

I know it shocked me. It definitely shocked me because when I see a lot of women with their podcasts, the television shows, etc. And very very big on women empowerment, you know, big, you know, uplifting ladies in this industry and what have you, it's hard to imagine that something like that would be said because obviously that stays with you forever. But you know, the I think the tough part for Joy Taylor is that these two were considered.

Friends for a very long time.

If there's anybody that you can find in in terms of your thoughts, it would be somebody you perceive as a friend. So in that regard, I don't know what to make of it. I just have to acknowledge that. Having said that, when we look at the situation right now with Skip, my problem is this, and I said this Tory, and I took heat for this, but I

That's not who the hell he is. He wouldn't at least say that. That's how I feel as.

A woman in this industry, as a woman period, in the world that we're living in, where such heightened awareness has been pushed towards acknowledging what women have had to go through and what you've had to be silent about for so long, How do you feel about people who take such a position like the one that I just described.

The it's a character witness.

I mean, you have twenty five years of a relationship with someone, and as you said, I would hope that friends of mine in the industry would know that if someone was making allegations against me that they felt were out of character to go alongside the Tory Cooper name.