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

I haven't seen the video clip of the ESPNews anchor saying it, but to me, something like that is much more easily explained as an honest mistake than the headline.

And YF, I believe he made the same "chink in the armor" slip, though like I said, I haven't seen the clip.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/sports/basketball/espn-apologizes-for-slur-used-in-headline-on-lin.html?ref=basketball

Richard Sandomir twists himself into a pretzel trying to explain why ESPN apologized without mentioning the actual slur.

 

So, why not name the editor and anchor?

If this is news, shouldn't they include who, what, what, where, when?

 

So is there ANY chance folks might now stop embarrassing themselves and the rest of the media world with idiotic puns and unclever phraseology, and just let the kid play basketball?

 

Editor fired, Max Breto suspended 30 days.

http://deadspin.com/5886322

 

Didn't see this one get much play ... ESPN Deportes chimes in:

 

Are we absolutely certain that the anchor and the headline writer even thought about the word as a slur? I'd hate to have my career ended accidentally. I'm more inclined to believe that the anchor used it accidentally than the headline writer - clearly, ESPN agrees, looking at the punishments.

We used to have a guy who would vigilantly get rid of "shines" or "shine" from any headline with a black player pictured. The younger guys on staff, including me, had never heard it used as a slur before he alerted us.

 

But on the Internet time of day and how long something is posted is irrelevant. At a site like ESPN, a story can get hundreds of views in 60 seconds. My paper's stories often show up in a Google search within a minute of being published. All it takes is for one person to get a screen grab and something like this goes viral.

 

Bretos' wife is Asian: https://www.facebook.com/people/Max-Bretos/695591397

 

If I had an anchor or headline writer who was that unaware of the world and the meaning of context, that'd be grounds for dismissal on account of I'd never want them within 10 feet of copy anyway.

There is a Grand Canyon-sized gulf of difference between "shine" and "chink."

 

We call that here, the "LongTimeListener Defense".

(Just kidding LTL!)