On Friday Politico published a report on a topic I guarantee just about every reporter covering the U.S. Senate race in Connecticut has looked into over the past few months – the complicated early 1990s case of Tom Cole, a ring boy for Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment who accused three company executives of sexual harassment.
Linda McMahon, who, with husband Vince, built WWE into an international entertainment mega-giant, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Christopher Dodd. She won the Republican nomination in late May and will face two opponents – former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons and celebrity economist Peter Schiff – in their party’s August 10 primary.
As is the case with many of the seedier stories related to WWE McMahon’s critics have been circulating to raise questions about her character, the Cole case is not some heretofore unrevealed secret. But it is something that people unfamiliar with the company’s history and who are just now paying attention to the McMahons likely never paid attention to when the story first broke.
Politico’s reporters took a valiant stab at trying to detail the case and Linda’s involvement to voters and explain why they should at least be aware of the details before heading to the polls.
And it was interesting Friday to see the McMahon campaign spin the article.
Politico’s reporters concluded that the ring boy scandal “suggests at least two possible interpretations of the would-be senator: that she was a compassionate and effective leader, who put a decisive end to a scandal while rescuring its real victim; or, that she was a calculating executive who knew how to take care of troublesome public relations problems in a boundaries-free industry.”
On Friday evening the campaign, rather than waiting for Democrats to promote the story’s negatives, issued its own press release touting the report as proof of McMahon’s working to change the culture of professional wrestling during her tenure at WWE. The campaign highlighted a quote from Cole you’ll find at the end of the story that had been provided Politico through the McMahons’ long-time attorney, Jerry McDevitt. While Politico noted Cole, who declined to be interviewed, in the past had been critical of Linda McMahon’s handling of his allegations, Cole has apparently done a total about-face and even plans on donating to her campaign.
We broached the Cole case during our recent sit-down interview with Vince McMahon, although the topic did not make it into the final product. We were particularly interested in the current status of Pat Patterson, a close friend of the McMahons and the most senior of the three executives Cole named.
While the other two execs were fired, Patterson resigned, only to be, as Politico noted, re-hired a few months later.
We asked Vince if Patterson still works for WWE all these years later and he said yes.
“I wouldn’t have anyone working with us who wasn’t in good standing, both legally and the other way,” McMahon said. “If people were treated unfairly, accused in the media of something they had nothing to do with, I have a tendency to stick by my folks and be very, very loyal. I may be stupid sometimes but at least I’m loyal.”
McDevitt, who was on speakerphone at the time of our interview with Vince, elaborated that Cole at the time “had a very sort of almost reluctant suggestion maybe Pat had done something improper … We investigated his claims. We determined (the other two executives) should be let go for their conduct. They were … Tom Cole himself told me that he’d been pushed to make a claim against Pat Patterson and Pat really never did anything wrong because they wanted to get the claims closer to Vince.”
