NESN Doesn't Renew Naoko Funayama's Contract Because She's Not Hot Enough For NESN
Vs.
Boston.com - NESN announced in a press release at 8:02 p.m. Thursday night that Naoko Funayama, the respected sideline reporter, will not have her contract renewed when it expires this summer. Funayama worked at NESN since 2007. In the release, NESN said it had “elected to go in a different direction” and the search for her replacement is underway. “I want to thank everyone at NESN for five fantastic years and to also thank all the wonderful people I met along the way.” she said, according to the release. Funayama was widely respected by players and media alike for her good nature, work ethic, and professionalism, and news of her departure was greeted with remarkable backlash on Twitter.
I wonder why Chad Finn didn’t include my tweet about this in his article?
Bottomline is @NESN got rid of @NaokoFunayama because she’s not hot enough for them. Any other reason is bull. Not man enough to admit it
— David Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 28, 2013
I’m the only one who actually said why her contract wasn’t renewed. It had nothing to do with her work ethic or her knowledge of hockey. Naoko Funayama didn’t have her contract renewed because she’s not hot enough for NESN. That’s it. End of story. Period. Facts are sex sells and NESN knows it. It sucks for Naoko but it is what it is. I mean how much do we talk about Jenny Dell? How much did we talk about Heidi Watney? How much do we talk about Naoko Funayama? Boom. Case closed. If you’re a chick doing sports you better be a dick wrecker plain and simple. It’s part of the job requirement nowadays no different than being a leading lady in Hollywood.
My problem is that she got let go because of this but rather that NESN refuses to admit this is the reason. They refuse to acknowledge that they hire sex symbols for sideline reporter jobs. The bigwigs at NESN go out of their way to say they don’t want their reporters to be viewed as eye candy. It’s fucking insulting. You want to act like the moral police and be all high and mighty well then Naoko Funayama should still have a job. You can’t have your cake and eat it to.