Curt Schilling

As I am looking at what does and does not qualify as freedom of speech from an ethical perspective, I feel that it's best to go back a bit. There was a really good example a couple years ago when Curt Schilling was fired from ESPN for a controversial post he shared on Facebook.



The bottom line on this issue is that ESPN specifically cited the post on Facebook for the reason of termination. Schilling did not connect this post in any way to ESPN and was clearly not acting on their behalf. This means that he was fired for what he posted away from the job. An employer should not control the lives of their employees when they are away from the job. Since there were no indications that his actions harmed ESPN and he did not tie his remarks in any way to ESPN, his termination was a terrific example of unethical behavior regarding freedom of speech.

There is a secondary concern to Curt Schilling losing his job. ESPN effectively established that they take responsibility for the actions of their employees away from the job.This means that anyone under their employment should be subject to the same scrutiny. It would be hypocritical for ESPN to maintain employment of anyone who makes controversial comments, even away from the job, once they terminated Schilling. If ESPN allows controversial comments from liberal extremists, then they establish that their network is pushing an agenda unrelated to sports, and ESPN presents itself as a sports network. This would also be unethical.