The New York Mets fired General Manager Jared Porter following reports that he sent unsolicited and explicit photos to a female journalist years ago.
"We have terminated Jared Porter this morning. In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it. There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior," team owner Steve Cohen said on Twitter, Tuesday morning.
Porter, who was hired by the team in December, sent dozens of text messages to the foreign correspondent in 2016 during his time with the Chicago Cubs organization, ESPN first reported.
The two met in an elevator at Yankee Stadium on June 26, 2016, and over the next couple of months, Porter peppered her with compliments and invitations to meet up. At one point, he sent her 60 messages in a row, including 17 photos. Of those photos, one showed his groin with a bulge in his pants, and another was a naked, erect penis.
The woman, after ignoring the messages, responded, "This is extremely inappropriate, very offensive, and getting out of line. Could you please stop sending offensive photos or msg," and Porter later apologized.
The reporter who received the messages spoke out recently after Porter got the general manager position in New York, she said.
"My number one motivation is I want to prevent this from happening to someone else," she told ESPN through an interpreter. "Obviously, he's in a much greater position of power. I want to prevent that from happening again. The other thing is, I never really got the notion that he was truly sorry."
"I know in the U.S., there is a women's empowerment movement. But in [my home country], it's still far behind," the woman said. "Women get dragged through the mud if your name is associated with any type of sexual scandal. Women are the ones who get fingers pointed at them. I don't want to go through the victimization process again. I don't want other people to blame me."
The female journalist left the profession in the aftermath of the harassment.
