AP Reports on Only One of Two 'Chink in the Armor' Jeremy Lin References at ESPN
Late Saturday morning, a brief, unbylined Associated Press item ("ESPN sorry for offensive headline on Lin story") reported that "ESPN has apologized for using a racial slur in a headline for a story on Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin."
The racial slur in question involves using "Chink in the Armor" to headline a story posted on the network's mobile website after the Knicks lost Friday night to the lowly New Orleans Hornets, ending a seven-game winning streak. The text of ESPN's apology and discussion of the AP's protective oversights follow the jump:
Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am ET. The headline was removed at 3:05 am ET. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.Story Continues Below Ad ↓
That's nice, says Greg Neal at Forbes, but he points out that the apology is way too passive, and avoids noting that this wasn't even the first time in the past 24 hours that the "chink in the armor" slur was (perhaps inadvertently) used (bolds are mine):
ESPN Uses "Chink in the Armor" Line Twice-- Did Linsanity Just Go Racist?
Linsanity just jumped the shark with the ESPN mobile website using the headline a “Chink in the Armor” to refer to the Knick’s loss to the Hornets. This came on the heels of an ESPN commentator making the same comment on-air Friday night.
McNeal's item has an 8-second video from an ESPN segment broadcast sometime before Friday night's game wherein the unidentified announcer (perhaps readers know who he is) directly references Lin's abilities in stating, and then asking: "He's handled everything very well as you said, unflappable. But if there's a chink in the armor where can Lin improve?"
What I sense is that the phrase became a "cute" and intensely insensitive widespread phenomenon inside the network. As a result (emphasizing that this is plausible but still speculative), because of frequent internal conversational use, an inadvertent slur went on the air and a possibly intentional one went briefly into a mobile website headline.
I'm suggesting that the mobile website headline might have been intentional because at the time it went up the game had ended at least three hours earlier. In other words, someone had to proactively decide to change whatever headline had been there to the offensive one in question. That seems like an insensitive attempt -- again, plausibly fed by frequent internal use -- to be "cute" while being ignorant of the fact that the word "is considered a racist term by Asian people."
McNeal at Forbes, as noted earlier, is unimpressed with the apology:
Note the avoidance in the language used by ESPN— ESPN.com’s “mobile web site” apparently did the posting, not a writer or editor. There is also no admission of wrong-doing or acknowledgement that this may have been an intentionally offensive posting, just some regret and an apology for “this mistake.” How about a statement that this was insensitive or could be perceived as insensitive? How about some acknowledgement that this is not consistent with the values of the company?
Maybe there's no acknowledgment because, at least in terms of the values seen on a daily basis in the company's internal culture, what we saw and heard really isn't inconsistent.
The AP's report predictably let ESPN off the hook, both in failing to mention the existence of the inadvertent on-air use of the slur, and in missing the significance of the revised headline's timing.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
⇒ Racist SOBs
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 12:20pm.
Let's just scroll back through the ESPN commentary and see how many times this phrase has been used in a non-tourettes association.
Imagine if George bush had used that phrase in his reasoning not to sell tanks to China.
ESPN just can't seem to do anything about it, can they?
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 12:45pm.
First that disgusting, racist piece of trash Jason Whitlock tweets a crude insult about Lin and then tries desperately to walk it back, citing it's just his own twisted humor and he apologized--but only for being caught. I can't tell you how many times I have heard that excuse coming from patients trying to hide their sociopathy. Jason even blamed his sense of humor on his family, throwing them under the bus because he is too much of a coward to admit his own bigotry and racism. He is the stereotype big that he accuses others of being.
Then we have the multiple Lin eruptions at ESPN, and they just keep coming. What makes the ESPN situation even more disgusting is the cosmic level of hypocrisy on their part. Sports writers and talking heads are overwhelmingly liberal, even to the point of popped veins on their foreheads. They are constantly screaming about racism, discrimination, bigotry, etc. etc. etc. on the part of Republicans and conservatives, but as it is now there for all to see, it is nothing but a cover for their own bigotry, racism, discrimination and stupidity. The hypocrisy is bad enough, but the bungled attempts to cover it up and the lame excuses throwing everyone else under the bus for their inept handling of the matter makes it all worse.
I admire Lin because he has talent. I don't care what his ethnic identity is, but apparently the African-American liberals who are incensed that a player not of their desired demographic is succeeding in what they consider their exclusive area do, and it is bringing out the worst of their racism, bigotry and discriminatory natures.
⇒ Got that right, Doc
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 12:55pm.
And if life really was fair, physical genetic differences would not occur. I would worry about the harmful effects of the sun's rays only as much as my black brothers do, and sickle-cell would be no less of a bother to them than it is to me.
But that's not the real world. I don't think it an affront when a black man dominates Golf, nor do I feel cheated that Football and Basketball are dominated by blacks.
My disagreement is with an artificially "leveled" playing field designed to retard the progress of those who can to match those who won't. Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, when compared to the academic scores of Asian Americans are more "won't" than "can't"
Imagine if Rush Limbaugh had
Submitted by Van Halen on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 7:00pm.
Imagine if Rush Limbaugh had said something like this - oh, he didn't, but what he said was far less and got him fired. Strange... I wonder if anyone at ESPN gets the axe for this obvious racist headline.
Plagarism
Submitted by GregE on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 12:27pm.
They stole Sharpton's headline idea.
Soooo, it's OK
Submitted by falcon on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 12:40pm.
....for liberals (including sports reporters) to use racial slurs and attack gays (see Babieu), but when conservatives say anything they might consider derogatory it's "insensitive" and "racist?"
We're living in Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, although it's not so wonderful. I do feel as though I've fallen down a rabbit hole.
“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership, that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose.” – Ronald Reagan, July 17, 1980.
A Macaca Moment
Submitted by Blonde on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 12:59pm.
Right?
Same amount of media attention. Right?
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Jeremy Lin
Submitted by djm159 on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 1:12pm.
Amazing that ESPN fired Hank Williams, Jr., for words that ESPN took completely out of context and made Hank look like a total racist. They fired Rush Limbaugh because he questioned the authenticity of Donovan McNabb's stats or if he was simply being promoted because he was black. Turns out Rush was right. If you dare question McNabb's stats you were a racist. However, when real racism is announced at ESPN, all of a sudden they don't know how it happened or who was to blame. Newsflash, hold the presses - it wasn't Rush or Hank, Jr. My bet would be it was an Obama water carrier that made the obnoxious, disgusting racial slur so it's okay.
"Look at that little monkey run!..."
Submitted by bigdaddy on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 2:11pm.
Somewhere Howard Cosell and Jimmy "Da Greek" are laughing their a$$e$ off.
No Horning In
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 1:15pm.
You just can't take the limelight away from the predominant race in the NBA. No fair. They will go after you every time.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
Does this also reflect on ABC that own ESPN?
Submitted by Tomorama on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 1:33pm.
The one who put up the headline was canned.
The one on air "talent" was suspended for 30 days only.
Of course Whitlock ALSO is on ESPN a lot as a "Sports reporter" and throws the card around like a vegas dealer, then HE SHOWS HIS REAL HAND.
B I G O T.
Charlotte Hornets???????
Submitted by griv on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 1:37pm.
Don't you mean the Charlotte Bobcats? The Charlotte Hornets have been gone, and good riddance, for several years. We even waited and built the stadium they cried for AFTER those criminals, that also played at basketball, were booted out.
Fixed ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 1:47pm.
... I knew it was the Hornets; I didn't know that the team moved and was replaced.
The Knicks lost to the New Orleans Hornets, 89-85.
They have actually been in
Submitted by Shreve on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 2:01pm.
They have actually been in New Orleans for a while now. For a time, after Katrina, they were OKC/NO Hornets.
I'm not too strong on the ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 2:11pm.
... lower-tier NBA teams.
I'd say I enjoy....
Submitted by BBallleaper on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 3:06pm.
seeing racist lib media morons exposed with their pants down,.......if it wasn't just so ugly to imagine!
This was crazy, and not the
Submitted by balboa on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 3:53pm.
This was crazy, and not the only example out there. Talk about stupid.
BTW, Saturday Night Live did an awesome satire of this in their cold open sketch last night. You should check it out.
ESPN has nothing to be worried about.
Submitted by daddysyk on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 5:11pm.
Unlike African-Americans and Hispanics, Asians do not have a standing army of commentators and the like who are ready at the drop of a hat to express their outrage at even the slightest perceived racial slight. And guilty white liberals do not seem to think that Asians need their help so their outrage is saved for the groups they feel the sorriest for - which is a true example of racism. Asians do not wallow in the muck of shared victim hood that so dominates large portions of the Af-Am and Hispanic communities. Fortunately for them, many Asians have learned that hard work and education in this country will almost always lead to success in some form. Personally I could care less what race you are as long as you are a productive member of society. I would bet that J. Lin laughed this off the second he saw it.
⇒ ESPN fires Headline Writers
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 5:18pm.
Then suspends the anchor who repeated the offensive joke.
No time for popcorn anymore.
All races aren't equal ...
Submitted by Newsbubba on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 5:25pm.
... when it comes to being insulted, or supposedly so.
ESPN says "chink in the armor" when discussing a kid who is Asian. Poor taste, blatant racism, just ignorant bastards? Who the hell knows, and I'll bet Lin cares less about the crack (can I say that?!?) than all of the people who are offended for him.
So here's the "aren't equal" part. If an Asian is called a chink, it is reported as a racial slur by REPEATING it over and over! Same is true if a Jew is called Heimie, or a kike; an Irishman a mick; an American Indian a woowoo; an Asian Indian a dot; a Southerner a redneck, etc, etc, etc.
OK, I'll take back the redneck, because that is apparently fair game, and quite frankly, we don't give a Shiite if you call us that as long as you're smiling. Otherwise you may get your ass kicked.
Back to "aren't equal." If, IF anyone ever says the word "nigger" when referring to anyone, reporters and commentators won't even REPEAT the word when reporting it. It suddenly becomes the (take my breath away with indignance) N-word!! Someone says "chink," they report "chink," but let someone say "nigger" and it is soooooo awful that it can't even be reported.
Why would that be, unless all slurs ain't created equal? Well, that is, uless your name is Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia with a big fat (D) after your name.
For the record, they still sell Spic 'n' Span in the Cuban groceries down here, and I have yet to see anyone offended.
Looks like their own medicine is going down bitterly!
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 5:31pm.
Max Bretos tweeted "My wife is Asian, would never intentionally say anything to disrespect her and that community."
Well ain't that just grand! He's married to an Asian, so somehow that is supposed to absolve him of his own stupidity and/or incaution?
Welcome to the world of political correctness, Max Bretos. Now you know what conservatives have to endure each and every moment of the day at the hands of your fellow media personalities. Doesn't feel so great, does it? So you have to take your own medicine--we have no sympathy.
⇒ But Doc!
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 5:37pm.
My best friend in Basic Training was black! That's got to count for something, doesn't it?
Sure proves how tolerant and inclusive I am.
sarcasm intended.
my boyfriend's asian
Submitted by lillianfrances88 on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 8:41pm.
He hates all those names but gets them a lot from random strangers or customers or coworkers. (ping pong jackie chan )I used to joke with him but then he told me it wasn't a joke to him. So a lesson to all of us-we can all be racially insensitive and hurtful of others even if we love and respect them...........we live surrounded by mexicans so we sing "taco taco burrito" and "la cucaracha." we are still racially insensitive we are all hypocrites to some degree.
I'm Latino, but not Mexican or Central American.
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 11:18pm.
Racial epithets cut across all other types of insults, comments and criticisms. Even my children get racial epithets hurled at them, and they get even more offended by them than I do, particularly when other Latinos use them as nicknames.
Sorry, but I do not find "Spic-psych" to be a very complimentary term to describe me as a Latino psychiatrist.
Kenny Mayne, ESPN Employee
Submitted by djwolf12 on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 8:37pm.
Kenny Mayne, an ESPN reporter, once tweeted that he intentionally wanted to ram a car with his on the road because the driver of that vehicle had a McCain/Palin sticker on it. He later said that he decided against it because a child may be in the car. So in other words, hating a political party so much that you would intentionally injure someone in a vehicle that isn't your own is acceptable at ESPN. This whole damn network is an absolute disgrace.
Oddly enough
Submitted by Dave the mailman on Sun, 02/19/2012 - 11:03pm.
A lot of blacks feel like they can't be racists, since they are the oppressed ones. Only the ones with the power can be racists.....
Side note-
Arrogant a-hole boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr recently made some derogatory and racial comments about Lin, just like he has about other non-black boxers, and doesn't catch much flak. Typical double standards....
Ho hum....
Submitted by Jimi Streets on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 3:23am.
Another stupid slip in judgement and the whole liberal universe pounces. Then we conservatives are quick to point out the obvious double standard in the media when the offender is a lib as opposed to a conservative.
Hasn't that horse been dead for a long time? I think the media bias issue was settled in the 80's. Doesn't it get tiring when we react to each incident of media bias with such consternation? I know it does for me.
Nothing liberals do is ever truly surprising since they operate from the same worn-out playbook. That book is an simple read, written at a 4th grade level in order to sway and hold onto millions of 4th grade level thinking voters. Aren't you constantly being amazed that anybody could actually believe the stuff liberals say? How many times have you said, "What?! My 4 year old kid knows better!"?
Seems to me that we conservatives have to learn better ways to deal with liberal culture. We shouldn't expend so much energy pointing out things we all know already. We can't stay down in the muck fighting fruitless battles with people who never give up and will never change there minds.
Whatever we do, we have to do it with smiles on our faces. We have to stay above the fray when dealing with libs, most of all for our own well being but also to show the world what a healthy, well-informed, stable, reasoned, courteous human being is like... They'll hate you anyway, but it won't bother as much...
Another thing...
Submitted by Jimi Streets on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 3:37am.
Wouldn't it be a breath of fresh air if, just once, the offended, Lin in this case, just completely laughed it off and actually played along with it? Maybe made a joke about his own heritage?
It makes no sense to me that so many are so quick to be "offended." I personally have never, or will ever be offended by anything that anybody had to say about Mexicans, which I am. Now, if someone were to get right in my face and call me a "stupid wetback" or something similar, that's different. But how the heck can Al Sharpton possibly be harmed or hurt by something someone said to another black person? How am I offended if someone comes out and says,"Cesar Chavez was an ignorant beaner."?
"Vicarious Offense" is another contribution to society by the twisted liberal mind.
Commissar McNeal tries to out bully the PC Police
Submitted by Jer on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 5:33am.
...declares ESPN guilty of insufficient self-flagellation in its apologia for using the word...
"offensive" (Dictionary.com: "repugnant to the moral sense, good taste, or the like; insulting: an offensive remark; an offensive joke")...
which apparently fails to convey the depth of utter corporate depravity as would the term...
"insensitive" (Dictionary.com: "deficient in human sensibility, acuteness of feeling, or consideration; unfeeling; callous")
which was considered but rejected.
Personally, I am unimpressed with McNeal's analysis of ESPN's apology.
Jer
Yeah, your analysis upon finding Obama and ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 9:27am.
Curious George in the same sentence on an NB thread was much more impressive.
MD
Aside from your mangled recollection,
Submitted by Jer on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 9:57am.
the stupidity of that comment is only exceeded by its utter irrelevancy.
Jer
The more I see of Obama's machinations, Jer---
Submitted by matthewdean on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 6:40pm.
the more I enjoy tweaking his advocates.
Nothing at all mangled about my recollection of you jumping at an opportunity to portray a non-supporter of Obama as either skirting close to, or outright engaging in, racism.
You are saddled with the typical lefty memory - regardless of the way of things, remember what you want, when you want, as you want.
Link something, Jer; or better yet, remind me again about my lack of credibility in your leftist eyes because I choose not to perform the act of linking - that will make it all better for you.
For it to be all better for me, I just have to peruse my tag line (compliments of Jer) and I get a good laugh.
You funny guy.
MD
My typical lefty memory recalls exactly what occurred,
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 02/22/2012 - 2:39am.
and I accused no one of either skirting close to or engaging outright in racism. There is a difference in racial insensitivity and racism. On the other hand, your memory sucks, as does your repeated reference to the subject of a dispute between another poster and me which was amicably settled and put behind us long ago.
Why you once again have attempted to stir it up is mystifying.
Jer
Not bad, Jer, for ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Wed, 02/22/2012 - 4:09am.
bullshit.
You remember what you choose to remember, period.
My memory works just fine, and if you don't like me bringing up the past, then don't do your defense of Clinton dance, as Clinton's tenure was in the past.
As far as the excruciatingly lame attempt at schooling me about racial inequity with your "There is a difference in racial sensitivity and racism", spare me.
As a conservative consumer of the news in these times, I am likely far more aware of that distinction than you are - you appeared to deliberately fade that line of distinction with the hissy fit you threw over the Curious George and Obama episode.
I was involved in that dispute, Jer, and the fact that the dIspute was settled between you and another poster doesn't require me to accede to your revisionist history crap.
MD
Your memory has more holes in it than a slab of Swiss cheese,
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 02/22/2012 - 5:40am.
Matthew.
And if attempting to rekindle a flare-up from an ancient thread no longer even archived--with the vigorous exchange in question having been cordially resolved by the principal antagonists many, many months ago--is your idea of a masterful rejoinder to my occasional defense of Clinton's policies or my correction of a misstatement or factual error regarding his presidency--then knock yourself out. I suppose such is the staggering foolishness to which one is relegated when the customary protocol for appropriate rebuttal is too burdensome. So, by all means, keep slinging your rancid garbage. Here's a hint: I am intimidated by well-crafted arguments buttressed by sourced evidence and driven home by the force of logic--practices which you continue to studiously avoid. On the other hand, bullying drivel dressed in frilly rhetoric is a crashing bore.
Do you really believe you were granted a special "make an ass of yourself" entitlement because you were involved in that particular dispute? That's...simply...hilarious. The only disputes into which you haven't inserted yourself have been on those very rare occasions when one slipped past your constantly prowling and officious eye.
Jer
I would much prefer holes in my memory to ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Wed, 02/22/2012 - 6:51am.
having to deal with a faulty one that survives on revisionism rather than accuracy.
I'm not trying to rekindle anything; I just make posts as I choose to, not as you would prefer that I do.
Don't like the past being brought up? Then don't get involved in being part of it.
Today you are "intimidated by well-crafted arguments buttressed by sourced evidence"; for your high standards defining sources on alternate days, though, see my tag line.
Only staggering foolishness in evidence on this occasion is another whine-fest by a lefty on a conservative site getting reminded that not every one here will kiss his liberal ass.
"--bullying drivel dressed in frilly rhetoric"--- bullying? Via using a computer keyboard?
Man, you really do have a persecution complex.
You are all over these threads, yet accuse me of "constantly prowling".
You funny guy.
MD
SNL skit
Submitted by balboa on Mon, 02/20/2012 - 12:25pm.
Here's a link the SNL skit I was talking about.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/331272/saturday-night-live-cold-opening-linsan...
Disappointed in you Newsbusters!
Submitted by Mattheus on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:36am.
Now I think you are just jumping on the opportunity to hit at ESPN, rather than discerning whether or not the "racism" claim is true. In other words, you're acting like liberals.
While the headline, "Chink in the Armor" was most troubling, with the picture of Lin above it, the subtext below it showed the what chink in the armor was referring to: Lin's 9 turnovers which cost them the game. After the winning streak that made it seem that the Knicks were unstoppable -- the "chink in the armor", Lin's 9 turnovers.-- Yes, you could still make the claim that "chink in the armor" was deliberately used as a pun, but there is no evidence to support that.
Likewise, the commentator that used "chink in the armor", wasn't talking about Lin either. He was talking about a chink in Lin's armor.
This illustrates my problem with conservatives: they are often just a step behind liberals.
Yeah, that illustrates my problem with people, too, ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:03am.
nobody's perfect.
MD