Cornwell, Lisa. Troublemaker: A Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation, and the Fight They Didn’t See Coming. New York: Triumph Books, 2023. Pp. 256. $30 paperback and e-book.
Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski
In the first sentence of the foreword to Troublemaker, Hillary Clinton informs the reader that this is not a book about golf and it can be appreciated by anyone. Although Lisa Cornwell’s Troublemaker is indeed a book about toxic workplace culture, it may still be worth the read for sports scholars, as it allows one to see in full detail how much is going on behind the scenes to broadcast sports to fans on a nightly basis. I am not referring to the technology, sponsors, or preparations, but, rather, the tensions within a single network––the human element in the media machine.
Sport still functions as a primarily masculine space, and this assumption extends to sports coverage as well. Female presenters and reporters often are expected to serve as eye-candy for the male gaze, while the men in the studio or reporting from the scene are given the role of experts. This is the issue Cornwell is addressing, and this is the battle that she is willing to fight. And the fact that she sees it as something worth fighting for is commendable, as she writes from the position of privilege; she is related to Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods is her childhood friend, and John Daly is her friend. Still, she decided to speak out when female pro golfer Xiyu Lin was forced to pay for her clubs. She tweeted about it and basically lost her dream job for doing so, although that dream already was being tainted by brushes with reality.
I am not in the position to fully understand how providing somebody with proper tools is not a sign of privilege––for example, nobody buys academics computers, the one I am writing this on included––but maybe it comes with the territory. Then again, tweeting about it––openly stating facts––should not be penalized either. If the company did not provide the clubs, people have every right to know. However, the grievance that her employer had with Cornwell––that she did not contact the company about the incident before tweeting––seems somewhat legitimate. Cornwell’s answer––”It’s just a fact”––is disappointing (pg. 14). As a reporter, she must know how important it is to have the full picture before forming (and stating) an opinion. Yes, reporters are not role models––because we as a society prefer to impose that expectation on young people, whose sole task is excelling at sports––but there are certain characteristics a reporter simply must possess, such as being unbiased and aware. This is the exact thing for which she criticized a fellow reporter. When said reporter tweets negatively about John Daly using a cart during a majors golfing tournament, she chastises him––publicly, on Twitter––for not having the full picture.
Returning to the story Cornwell opened her book with, after she hung up on her superior and refused to answer his calls, she reacted with surprise when he pulled her from covering the tournament she then was covering . Her reaction is reserved only for the selected few, who have the financial security, connections and possibilities that allow them to act that way. Whether things should be like that is a totally different story, but this simply is not the reality of the “common person,” even if she presents her circumstance as a populist one.
Cornwell, a TV analyst and reporter for six years at Golf Channel, has suffered from nepotism and sexism at her workplace, which makes the way she skims over how Bill Clinton treated his intern, Monica Lewinsky, surprising. Lewinsky is mentioned in the book just once:
It took place just over a year after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Understandably, I hadn’t heard much from Bill during the media turmoil and impeachment trial. I was worried about him but knew he had a lot to deal with publicly and privately. When the dust finally settled, I reached out to Bill and Hillary’s most trusted personal assistant about coming up to stay for a weekend (p. 28).
The way she unflinchingly transitions from a story that is a blatant example of sexism on the biggest stage possible to an entertaining story about spending time at the White House, just reeks of nepotism (and privilege). The fact that the author does not see that is probably the most disappointing aspect of this book. So while Cornwell’s account of the inner-workings of a sports news network is honest and illuminating, it is overshadowed by how she simultaneously provides too much information about some things and reads too much into others.
Łukasz Muniowski recieved his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Warsaw. He is the author of Three-Pointer! A 40-Year NBA History (McFarland, 2020), Narrating the NBA: Representations of Leading Players after the Michael Jordan Era (Lexington, 2021),and The Sixth Man: A History of the NBA Off the Bench (McFarland, 2021).
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