Ed Werder doesn't like women helping women

[Reddy235]

So, yeah, Charlotte Wilder faced a lot of sexist discrimination in her rise to SI in, what, four years in the business?

 

[JimmyHoward33]

Wilder's Tweet reads like she has some control in the hiring which is just insane for someone of her position at SI. Its not mmqb and shes not Peter King. She's trying to do a nice thing and encourage womens applicant but she should really just let HR do their thing.

Werder said what a lot of people were thinking but its Twitter so. Good luck to him

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Ed Werder might just stay a restricted free agent after that little Twitter dust-up. Foolish, foolish stuff.

Not knowing who Charlotte Wilder really was, I found that her promotion to senior writer at SI has been nothing short of meteoric.

A Q&A with Charlotte Wilder of SB Nation on her climb up the journalism ladder and writing about the "fringes of sports."

The landscape has changed so much that I don't know if this career bushwhacking approach would work today, but six years ago (2011) it did — based on my blog and freelance work, America's Test Kitchen hired me as a web editor for its TV show and its two magazines, Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country. I was there for about two years, then Boston.com hired me as a general reporter in 2014. USA TODAY Sports became aware of me and hired me away from Boston.com in March 2016 (when I officially became a sportswriter, I guess), and then SB Nation hired me away from USA TODAY after seven months. I've been at SB Nation since November 2016.

From later in the piece:

Well, until I worked at For The Win, I wasn't a sportswriter. They kind of took a chance on me — Nate Scott, who's a fantastic editor, was there at the time, and he vouched for me, even though I don't think I even knew who James Harden was at that point. My background is in culture writing and general reporting; I wasn't really a huge sports fan before I entered this world. I liked sports, and I understood sports, and I played sports, but I wasn't immersed in the news cycle. I didn't really pay attention or watch that many games, to be honest. It was kind of a leap of faith to make the jump into this field. Learning the characters, the narratives, the storylines of this insane industry was like drinking from a fire hose those first six months; it kind of felt like getting a master's degree in sports. I'm up to speed now, but at the beginning I was like… who the heck is D'Angelo Russell and why is Nick Young mad at him and what does this have to do with basketball? My editors at FTW were very patient with me as I Googled every single person in the news hits I had to write. And I'm sure I still sounded like a total moron early and often in the beginning.

She must be an awfully talented, right-out-of-the-box gifted writer to pull that off. I'll have to start reading her work more.

I remember she did a long-form piece in the first person a couple of years ago on her experience watching Wrestlemania for the first time that got a lot of run and seemed to boost her profile significantly. From there it was MLB All-Star games, doing the Super Bowl experience with some pro players. SBNation pushed the heck out of her.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

So, yeah, Charlotte Wilder faced a lot of sexist discrimination in her rise to SI in, what, four years in the business?

Probably four years worth, plus however many years she'd been alive before.

 

[Alma]

I remember she did a long-form piece in the first person a couple of years ago on her experience watching Wrestlemania for the first time that got a lot of run and seemed to boost her profile significantly. From there it was MLB All-Star games, doing the Super Bowl experience with some pro players. SBNation pushed the heck out of her.

If she's written a lot of first person that's perhaps why I avoided it a little bit. Not a huge fan of first person observation in most cases. I find it to be a way of writing around what you don't have, which is part of why Bill Simmons is pretty irrelevant to me.

But I'll read some. I'm sure it's good writing.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

If she's written a lot of first person that's perhaps why I avoided it a little bit. Not a huge fan of first person observation in most cases. I find it to be a way of writing around what you don't have, which is part of why Bill Simmons is pretty irrelevant to me.

But I'll read some. I'm sure it's good writing.

I haven't read much of her stuff. I read that one in particular. But I think she did a lot of first person at SBNation along with video spots and podcasts, etc. She definitely became one of the significant faces of their brand. The Simmons comparison seems pretty interesting too given that she's a New Englander and a die-hard Boston sports fans. I can't read Simmons at all, but I could read her because she's just a better writer.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Wilder's Tweet reads like she has some control in the hiring which is just insane for someone of her position at SI. Its not mmqb and shes not Peter King. She's trying to do a nice thing and encourage womens applicant but she should really just let HR do their thing.

Werder said what a lot of people were thinking but its Twitter so. Good luck to him

100 percent this. I didn't think she came off well with her Tweet, and as a white male whose position was eliminated, then resurrected in time to hire a young female, I have shared thoughts the same he expressed many times.

But to say that? And on a public forum? fork no. Be smarter.

 

[Ice9]

I don't get the fascination with Charlotte Wilder. Her columns are lazy and put me to sleep, and her Twitter is out of control. Not in a good way. Like, for someone who thinks she's the coolest/funniest/wittiest kid in the room, she overreacts to stupid inane tweets A LOT. Incredibly sensitive for someone who really ought to be above this stuff.

Does anybody over the age of 30 work at SI anymore?

Oh, and Jemele, this did not age well...

 

[Cosmo]

Yes, Werder should have been smarter.

Yes, the Twitter backlash is completely over the top.

Both statements can be true.

 

[Big Circus]

Oh, and Jemele, this did not age well...

How is that?

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I don't get the fascination with Charlotte Wilder. Her columns are lazy and put me to sleep, and her Twitter is out of control. Not in a good way. Like, for someone who thinks she's the coolest/funniest/wittiest kid in the room, she overreacts to stupid inane tweets A LOT. Incredibly sensitive for someone who really ought to be above this stuff.

Does anybody over the age of 30 work at SI anymore?

Oh, and Jemele, this did not age well...

That Tweet is from last week. Not sure that qualifies as "aged."
And I am not seeing how it's ... ... whatever it is you think it is ... Can you explain? Not trying to be a trite or anything, just curious.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I think Werder woke up on the wrong side of Twitter this morning. He comes off as a guy still bitter about his job status. Can't say I blame him. But, that doesn't make him right.
At least Wilder ended things after a few tweets.