Lisa Salters

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Alisia (Lisa) Salters is a journalist and former collegiate women's basketball player. She has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC since 2000. Previously, she covered the O.J. Simpson murder case for ABC and worked at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland.

Salters has reported worldwide for ESPN, including a series of reports from the Middle East prior to the Iraq War. In addition, she has hosted ESPN's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics from Turin, Italy, and ESPN's coverage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Currently, she is the primary sideline reporter for ABC's coverage of the NBA, as well as the network's Saturday night college football slate.

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[edit] Broadcasting career

Salters joined ESPN as a general assignment reporter in March 2000. She currently serves as sideline reporter for ESPN College Football Saturday Primetime and courtside reporter for ESPN’s coverage of the NBA on ABC.

In addition, Salters is one of the featured correspondents on ESPN’s new news magazine show, E:60, which debuted October 2007. In 2008, she was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award for the story "Ray Of Hope".

At ESPN, Salters’ reports have been regularly featured on the award-winning “Outside the Lines” series. She led the network’s comprehensive coverage of the murder trial of Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth in December 2000 through January 2001. Additionally, Salters was ESPN’s reporter at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where she broke the news on the U.S. National Team’s starting lineup a day before its first match in against Portugal. Salters reported from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece and hosted ESPN’s coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.

During the build-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom through the commencement of the war, Salters covered sports-related stories in and around U.S. Central Command in Qatar for “Outside the Lines,” SportsCenter and ESPNEWS. She went back into the war zone in 2004 when ESPN took SportsCenter on the road and broadcast live from Camp Arifjan, a U.S. Army base in Kuwait.

Prior to joining ESPN, Salters served as a Los Angeles-based correspondent for ABC News from 1995 to 2000 and provided news coverage for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and other ABC News broadcasts. At ABC News, she covered the Oklahoma City bombing trials, the Matthew Shepard murder, the crash of TWA Flight 800, and both the civil and criminal O.J. Simpson trials.

[edit] Parkour Controversy

Salters received criticism for racially insensitive remarks made during the November 6, 2007 broadcast of E:60, in which, as a member of the roundtable discussing the legitimacy of the French sport of Parkour, Salters stated:

“ [This] sounds like the silliest non-sport I have ever heard [of]. … It's not a sport—this is something white people do!" How many black people parkour? None! … There are some things that are intrinsically not interesting to us as a people. This is one of them. „

Salter's comments were hailed by some as inappropriate, and even ironic, considering one of the founders of Parkour is Sebastien Foucan, who is black. ESPN edited portions of Salters comments out of rebroadcasts and online versions of the show.[1][2]

[edit] Personal

A native of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania Salters graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. She played guard for the Lady Lions basketball team from 1986-87, where she holds the dictinction of being the shortest player in school history at 5'2".[1]

Salters is a graduate of Upper Merion Area High School in King of Prussia, where she is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Smith, Michael David (2007-11-10). ESPN Would Prefer You Not See Lisa Salters' Views on Race and Parkour. AOL fanhouse.
  2. ^ ESPN reporter doesn’t like white kids’ sport Parkour; ESPN covers up. The Hook and Lateral (2007-11-07).
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