Update Sunday, 8:30AMPT: ESPN has fired and suspended people responsible for headline, comments.
Update Saturday, 8:20AMPT: ESPN has apologized for the headline.
ESPN has been the biggest champion of New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin's rise during the team's seven-game winning streak. But they have potentially undone it all with a horribly racist headline that appeared on tablets, iphones, Androids and other mobile devices following the Knicks' loss to the Hornets. It may have appeared online as well, but Outsports was only able to see it on ESPN's mobile sites late Friday night.
Lin had nine turnovers in the game and inspired the headline, "Chink in the Armor" (screen capture after the jump). The term is akin to any other racist epithet you can imagine. Gay athlete Rod Silvestre, who is of Filipino descent and plays in the New York Gay Football League, was understandably outraged by the headline. He posted on Facebook:
Update Sunday, 8:30AMPT: ESPN has fired and suspended people responsible for headline, comments.
Update Saturday, 8:20AMPT: ESPN has apologized for the headline.
ESPN has been the biggest champion of New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin’s rise during the team’s seven-game winning streak. But they have potentially undone it all with a horribly racist headline that appeared on tablets, iphones, Androids and other mobile devices following the Knicks’ loss to the Hornets. It may have appeared online as well, but Outsports was only able to see it on ESPN’s mobile sites late Friday night.
Lin had nine turnovers in the game and inspired the headline, “Chink in the Armor” (screen capture after the jump). The term is akin to any other racist epithet you can imagine. Gay athlete Rod Silvestre, who is of Filipino descent and plays in the New York Gay Football League, was understandably outraged by the headline. He posted on Facebook:
Is ESPN serious with their lead story on their web page?
How do you go from celebrating one of the best underdog stories, to now talking about Jeremy Lin for all the wrong reasons. ESPN should be embarrassed.
We want to give ESPN the benefit of the doubt here, but it’s impossible to believe the person who wrote that headline didn’t know exactly what they were writing. Especially since ESPN previously came under fire for using the same headline…to describe a USA basketball game in China.
Update, Feb. 18, 12:10AMPT: ESPN has changed the headline to “All good things….” We have reached out to them for comment.
