Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray has already taken the hit for sexist remarks levelled at official Sian Massey during the Liverpool-Wolverhampton match over the weekend, and colleague Richard Keys may be next in line. Keys is smelling a conspiracy, however, and although he apologised for his behaviour in an interview this morning he also moved to defend his 'ironic banter' and made the claim that 'dark forces' were somehow conspiring against him. He might be right about the conspiracy angle of things, considering reports from the Guardian which indicate that the due were not exactly well-liked by their staff, one of whom anonymously said:
Richard Keys Blames Conspiracy For Sian Massey Controversy
“There are many stories of their shocking behaviour. [Gray and Keys] are hated by the crews. It’s a climate of fear pervading. But as long as everyone is laughing and it’s a joke it’s all right isn’t it? I believe sexism is systemic and not openly challenged but goes underground or disguised as jokes or ‘just banter’.”
New footage has come to light which only paints Keys in a worse light - being caught referring to women as ‘it’ isn’t going to do him any favours at all - and to be honest there wouldn’t be much of a shock if the studio crew had decided that enough was enough regarding this sort of behaviour. Certainly, the leaked footage came from inside Sky, which rather lends credence to an internal conspiracy forcing Keys and Gray out.
Keys, who ‘could not believe the frenzy that has blown up,’ is talking about quitting of his own accord, and he might as well fall on his own sword before Sky gives the baffled man the axe. It comes as no surprise to anybody that Keys isn’t aware that perpetrating a culture of bullying, sexism, and demeaning lad humour in a workplace is something that might be considered wrong in any way - he’s busy apologising for individual comments (he had some good banter with Sian Massey later, he claimed, which makes it all better I suppose) and not the whole being a loud mysogynist bit. In other words, he doesn’t get it.
So, if a group of nasty little insiders are the ones who’re fixing this... good conspirating, conspirators. Well done.
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