Stephen A. Smith Defends Journalist Accused of ‘Bullying’ Naomi Osaka: ‘I Thought the Reporter Was Incredibly Fair’
In her first press conference since withdrawing from the French Open over mental health concerns, Naomi Osaka broke down in tears and needed to step away from the podium.
After the tennis star returned to finish the presser, her agent Stuart Duguid blasted Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Paul Daugherty as a “bully” and blamed his line of questioning for triggering Osaka. Tuesday morning on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith applauded Osaka for acknowledging the mental challenges that she’s facing and defended Daugherty for what he believed was a fair line of questioning.
“My issue is with the agent,” Smith said. “He is so off-base with what he said, I can’t say it enough. I don’t know the reporter at the Cincinnati Enquirer…maybe he came there with a reputation that precedes him and they knew about it. Maybe that’s what it was. We don’t know.”
Listen to the full interaction between Daugherty and Osaka before the Western & Southern Open below, courtesy of ESPN.
Daugherty asked Osaka about not wanting to deal with the media despite her outside interests that are better served through a media platform. During Osaka’s break from tennis after withdrawing from the French Open, she was criticized by Megyn Kelly, Clay Travis, Piers Morgan and others for her ability to be featured in Sports Illustrated and Time Magazine, but cited anxiety when speaking to the media during press conferences.
“Based off of that press conference, I thought the reporter was incredibly fair and incredibly delicate with how he asked the question. Then, the moderator said, ‘would you like to move on?’ And Naomi Osaka said no,” Smith explained. “I’m trying to figure out what the reporter did wrong. I didn’t see that. And for the agent to come out with a statement basically accusing the journalist of bullying her, I’m like ‘what? What are you talking about?’”
“If you are a journalist and that is what we classify as bullying, then as a journalist you get to go up there and the only thing you can say is, ‘what would you like to talk about?’ to anybody,” Smith continued.
After the criticism from Osaka’s agent, Daugherty tweeted that he “never bullied anyone my entire life.” His Tuesday article for the Cincinnati Enquirer was headlined Naomi Osaka is honest, thoughtful and could help many other athletes.”
Watch above via ESPN
