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Justice Clarence Thomas' book tour--covered yesterday by ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg (subscription required)--had already returned workplace sexual harassment to the news agenda even before a jury returned an $11m verdict against Madison Square Garden in the harassment case against Isiah Thomas, the coach of its NBA Knickerbocker franchise.
Justice Thomas called his 1991 sexual harassment accuser Anita Hill a "most traitrous adversary" in his book My Grandfather's Son. Professor Hill (no link) appeared on ABC's Good Morning America to respond: his approach "is really so typical of people who are accused of wrongdoing--they trash their accusers." When Hill claimed that the workplace climate for women has improved since the Thomas hearings, ABC's Betsy Stark concurred: "After her testimony women who believed they were victims of sexual harassment were emboldened to speak out" while employers have become "more enlightened and more fearful of being sued."
Hoopster Thomas denied the sexual harassment of fired marketing manager Anucha Browne Sanders--"I am very innocent and I did not do the things she accused me in this courtroom of doing"--even as a jury voted to believe her. ABC's Jim Avila (no link) cornily called the harassment Thomas' "biggest personal foul ever" and the verdict a "slam dunk." NBC's Savannah Guthrie noted that "it definitely could have been worse" for Thomas since the damages were assessed only against Browne Sanders' employer for retaliation against her complaints--not against the former athlete for the insult itself.
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