Sports Reporter Julie Stewart-Binks is delivering an empowering message to her fans about being laid off by regional sports network SNY weeks after undergoing skin cancer treatment.
“Your job and your workplace is not your identity and don’t you ever forget that,” Stewart-Binks, 39, insisted via a Tuesday, November 10, Instagram Reel. “Don’t give them the power over who you are.”
The Canadian reporter — who hosted Honda SportsNite for SNY — was reportedly one of several staffers impacted when executives cancelled Baseball Night in New York and SportsNite, in addition to revamping the company’s website to focus less on original content.
“This particular layoff happened Friday at SNY,” Stewart-Binks confirmed. “This is a place I’ve been a contributor as a host, reporter, and opinionist for the last seven years. While it affects me, hundreds of other people have been affected more — I see you all and I empathize deeply with having your livelihood ripped away from you. ”
She continued, “I’ve been through this song and dance in many different ways. Rather than pretending I’m amazing, that nothing is wrong with me, and that life is always perfect (one of the big reasons this app sucks) I know my journey here is about being honest, vulnerable, and saying the quiet part out loud (trying to make your time on here make you feel less like crap).”
Stewart-Binks recalled feeling a range of emotions after finding out she’d lost her job via a New York Times article about the layoffs.
“In all honesty, it really sucks for a lot of people,” she acknowledged. “In sports broadcasting, we spend most of our time talking about this, athletes being cut, waived, released. ‘It’s just part of the business.’ But it turns out, part of the business is wondering how many American holidays you have to work to be invited to the holiday party until you get a message from your former agent that says FYI and it’s a link to a New York Times article where it says you don’t have a job anymore.”
The journalist likened the sports media landscape to a game of “musical chairs [where] someone keeps taking the chairs away mid-song.”
Despite her personal career setback, Stewart-Binks pointed out that being laid off is “more common than we think.”
“There’s no one right way to navigate what comes next,” she noted. “If you’re in this chapter too, I see you.”
Us has reached out to SNY for comment.
When the job cuts were announced earlier this week, a SNY spokesperson told the New York Times that the network is undergoing structural and programming changes.
“As part of our regular review of our business, operations and programming, SNY has decided to cease broadcasting Baseball Night in New York and SportsNite,” a SNY statement read. “We are grateful to those team members that helped bring these programs to fans for many years. Ongoing coverage of the Mets and New York sports are at the heart of SNY’s business, and we remain focused on continuing to deliver high-quality content to our passionate fans.”
Meanwhile, Stewart-Binks explained a recent onair absence in October by sharing that she’d undergone “a Mohs surgery to remove squamous cell carcinoma from my nose.” The procedure removes thin layers of skin in hopes of eliminating cancerous cells without disrupting healthy skin around it, per the Mayo Clinic.
“I thought it was a pimple that wouldn’t go away, turns out it was cancer,” she tweeted on October 7. “I share this so that hopefully it inspires others to get checked if something feels/looks off.”
The TV host disclosed that her surgeon “grafted part of my ear” onto her nose as part of the Mohs operation.
“I’ve played hockey my entire life, but never felt more like a hockey player than I do now. Sew me up and put me in coach,” she joked.
Aside from her work with SNY, Stewart-Binks covered the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in February, in addition to reporting for Barstool, TNT, ESPN and Fox Sports.
