Mothership lets a racial slur slip in a headline on its mobile browser

[biggy0125]

Apparently "Linsanity" preoccupies ESPN to the point that they don't give thought to headlines any more. After Lin and the Knicks lost last night in New Orleans, ESPN's mobile browser ran the following headline:

"Chink In The Armor"

Wow.

https://twitter.com/#!/michaelgbenner/status/170775247736406016/photo/1 <----- Screen Cap that I don't know how to hyperlink.

 

[Azrael]

jimromenesko.com/2012/02/18/really-espn/

 

[Drip]

Apparently "Linsanity" preoccupies ESPN to the point that they don't give thought to headlines any more. After Lin and the Knicks lost last night in New Orleans, ESPN's mobile browser ran the following headline:

"Chink In The Armor"

Wow.

https://twitter.com/#!/michaelgbenner/status/170775247736406016/photo/1 <----- Screen Cap that I don't know how to hyperlink.

It was bound to happen. Heads should roll.

 

[Azrael]

The apology:

www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2012/02/18/statement-on-new-york-knicks-jeremy-lin-headline/

 

[User 4332]

The apology:

www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2012/02/18/statement-on-new-york-knicks-jeremy-lin-headline/

I'm glad they apologized, but why isn't there a link on the espn.com front page? I guess it is the WWL.

 

[txsportsscribe]

haven't they done this before?

 

[Azrael]

The apology:

www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2012/02/18/statement-on-new-york-knicks-jeremy-lin-headline/

I'm glad they apologized, but why isn't there a link on the espn.com front page? I guess it is the WWL.

Front page 'Corrections' tab.

espn.go.com/espn/corrections

 

[Gonna Buy me a Dog]

After Lin and the Knicks lost last night in New Orleans ...

The game was in New York.

 

[blog415]

yes they did it before too when USA basketball was in china in 2008 for Olympics. The screen capture of that headline is here as well as the Lin screen capture AND the ePN anchor saying chink on air

http://dwizzlesworld.blogspot.com/2012/02/espns-racial-slur-on-jeremy-lin.html

 

[30]

inexcusible. Blatent racism.

 

[MileHigh]

This is pretty bad, obviously.

But only one page? I guess I'll say it's a Saturday, but something this bad by the Mothership in the past has drawn a ton more responses. Hell, Bruce Feldman drew, what, double-digit pages? We're not even at double-digit replies here.

But, as Jim Healy would say about this situation, heads will roll.

 

[playthrough]

Inexcusable. If this had happened at a competitor, ESPN would have pounded the hell out of them. I can already hear the opening bars to "Outside the Lines: Media racism and Jeremy Lin", Mike & Mike on their morning soapbox, Skip Bayless ranting (oh wait, that's just his regular tone), you name it.

Instead it's on the espn.com corrections page, which I didn't even know existed. Puhleeze.

(As an aside, I was impressed to see on that page that they corrected a point spread that turned a Hammerin' Hank tie into a loss. Bwahaha.)

 

[Bubbler]

What a disgrace.

 

[Crash]

Vitale spoke briefly on this during the Murray State-St. Mary's game tonight. Said he was embarrassed, ashamed, and disappointed, and that it shouldn't have ever happened. His points were quite obvious, but good to hearone of the network's biggest personalities speaking out about it.

 

[WriteThinking]

I hesitate to suggest this, but could somebody -- whomever wrote the headline -- have thought this was some kind of appropos play on words?

This would be a horrible one, obviously, but I'm also beginning to think that there is getting to be so much more that is permissible in multi-media circles these days that that could possibly have been the case.

Or, maybe somebody really did think nothing of it. I doubt this, but someone who is not racist could actually have done that. A bad word or reference doesn't always necessarily occur to someone like that.

 

[imjustagirl]

Or, maybe somebody really did think nothing of it. I doubt this, but someone who is not racist could actually have done that. A bad word or reference doesn't always necessarily occur to someone like that.

I don't want to revisit the "uppity" debate. Please?

 

[BTExpress]

I hesitate to suggest this, but could somebody -- whomever wrote the headline -- have thought this was some kind of appropos play on words?

Or, maybe somebody really did think nothing of it. I doubt this, but someone who is not racist could actually have done that. A bad word or reference doesn't always necessarily occur to someone like that.

I was going to post the same thing. Simply because this was one of those heads in which with any other player it would have been acceptable. Thus, there was nothing wrong with the words per se.

Tim Tebow has a couple of terrible games? Chink in the armor. How many of us have used that phrase --- orally or in print --- for a wide range of things? Like the "Daughter hopes Dad gets head job" headline . . . you don't always see what's there.

 

[Crash]

I hesitate to suggest this, but could somebody -- whomever wrote the headline -- have thought this was some kind of appropos play on words?

Or, maybe somebody really did think nothing of it. I doubt this, but someone who is not racist could actually have done that. A bad word or reference doesn't always necessarily occur to someone like that.

I was going to post the same thing. Simply because this was one of those heads in which with any other player it would have been acceptable. Thus, there was nothing wrong with the words per se.

Tim Tebow has a couple of terrible games? Chink in the armor. How many of us have used that phrase --- orally or in print --- for a wide range of things? Like the "Daughter hopes Dad gets head job" headline . . . you don't always see what's there.

This crossed my mind too...but isn't that what an editorial structure is for? How many people saw it before it published, and how many ESPN employees saw it when it published before the responses began flowing in? It very well could have been an honest mistake, but someone should have caught it.

 

[Azrael]

There's really no excusing it.

'Chink in the Armor,' after all, refers to a very specific weakness or vulnerability. It's meant in almost exactly the same way as 'Achille's Heel.' It's not meant as a generic reference to defeat. So it was misapplied even in that regard.

To work anywhere as an editor and not recognize the slur is absurd.

 

[Kid Presentable]

Lin-excusable