Philadelphia Flyers 'completely embarrassed' about hot mic incident ripping reporter
Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere says the organization is "completely embarrassed" about a hot mic incident in which a reporter was belittled during a Zoom news conference.
The incident occurred Tuesday as the Flyers held a news conference introducing Garnet Hathaway, the free agent forward who signed a two-year, $4.75 million deal. Philadelphia Inquirer beat writer Giana Han asked Hathaway a question about why he joined the rebuilding team.
A hot mic caught someone saying, "How many times is she going to ask this (expletive) question?” The words, "The Flyers suck" were also heard in the background as Hathaway answered.
The Flyers identified the voices as "members of our social media team" while issuing an apology statement from president Keith Jones on Tuesday night.
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“The Flyers organization, we’re completely embarrassed by that, and it’s completely unacceptable what was said there," Briere said Wednesday during an appearance on WIP radio. "It’s not what we think of the reporters, especially Giana, who has worked extremely hard to get to where she is.
I’ve reached out to Giana myself to express my regret with what happened, and I hope she’s doing better today. But the thing is we want to continue to create an environment where there’s respect between our staff and the media."