BRISTOL, Conn. — ESPN says it fired an employee responsible for an offensive headline about Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin.
The headline Friday on ESPN’s mobile website was used for a story about a New York loss in which Lin had nine turnovers. The headline was an idiom that contains a word that also can be used as a slur against Chinese.
Lin is the NBA’s first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He has captivated fans by leading the Knicks to seven straight wins before Friday’s loss.
In a statement Sunday, ESPN apologizes for that headline and says it is aware of two other “offensive and inappropriate” comments. An ESPNEWS anchor who used the same phrase has been suspended for 30 days. And ESPN says a similar reference was made on ESPN Radio New York, but the commentator is not an ESPNemployee.
ESPN making sports not so much fun to follow…trying to always be too Hollywoodish
What do you expect? Its owned by the Disney Corporation.
So what was the headline?
Evidently our delicate sensibilities would be bruised by reading the unnameable. What word was it? The “pick a letter” word? Please excuse me while I retire to my fainting couch and watch some George Carlin or Louis C.K. to try and get this heresy off my eyes.
Im betting it might rhyme with stink, link, or sink.
The word in question rhymes with ink
“chink in the armor” has been a saying longer than “chink” has been used as a slur, he didn’t even see it, someone took this way over board, if they suspend an anchor that reads what he’s given why didn’t they suspend the camera man, the sound guy and the prompter….hell shut the whole network down just because someone turned something simple into a racist remark….
I read the comment as he has found a weakness in other playes and nothing more. Hence the “chink in the armor”
Noun: a crack, cleft, or fissure: a chink in a wall.
I know the word chink is used as a racial slur but I didn’t read it as one.
These television programs have editors and producers too.
THAT was my question.Whether or not the headline was written to be “funny” some editor somewhere should’ve seen it.ESPN has a LONG history of poor behavior although they’ve at least made some progress.
But in this day and age you’d have to be a dolt to not know that people would take you to task for using that phrase in this case.
ESPN should be shut down……….because they suck. It’s overproduced, full of pretty air heads and has no substance. It’s closer to MTV than Wide World of Sports.
You can’t be serious. I’m not sure that anyone needed to lose their job over it, but you just can’t say things like that in 2012 and get away with it. It IS a slur-CLEARLY.
The NBA has always been a race war of an organization. Especially during the summer lockout when David Stern was referred to as a “Plantation Owner”. The bottom line is all of these guys are getting paid WAY TOO MUCH to play Basketball and shouldn’t be complaining. Heck, I’ll take the league minimum to warm the bench.
As Mainers we know what those same folks did to the word SQUAW. Sad but that’s life in these PC states…
ESPN=Egg Shells Placement Near…it’s getting to the point where someone is going to use the word “it”, and get fired over…….
If a President doesn’t know what the meaning of the word “is” is how are we to know the meaning of the word “it” ? :-)
I wonder what they may refer to us as, in their country by their countrymen ? Was it said to be racist ? I think not and as such, it should not become a big deal. I wonder who it was that really complained ?
Some one not involved, is my bet. Everyone slips up once in awhile without, intent and that is the key.
Need to say I’m sorry, I was not thinking and move on.
Years ago my father told me that when he was in the Korean War his unit was bivouac ‘ed in Japan. There was large sign posted facing the tents near the main gate in and out. It said simply in English ‘Over here you’re the chink’.
Ohhh, I see… You “wonder what they may refer to us as, in their country?” BRILLIANT question.
Jeremy Lin was born in Los Angeles… THIS is his country, you tool!
This is as stupid as the furor created when an educated person used the word “niggardly” in a meeting in Washington, D.C. years ago. Since when do we set out to punish people for imagined slights in language usage? Political Correctness is a scourge.
Sadly today, if the word “niggardly” were used today, it would still cause an uproar.
Yeah don’t get me started about the time I told my buddy to stop sniggering at a sports bar and some moron I’d never seen before in my life made a big scene about it, called me a racist and tried to get me thrown out. Positive thing about smart phones, it was easy enough to look it up online, as a member of his party did. I never did get an apology though…..
It gets worse. Feed the birds? I’ll bet you’ve bought thistle seed. For centuries, that was called “Niger seed”. It comes from the highlands of Ethiopia. Stupid people, who cannot spell, see the name and see it as N-word seed. Big trouble and lots of disgruntlement! So… now you buy it as Nyger seed. Let’s everybody tiptoe around and whisper, lest we upset some fool. There’s people all over just waiting to be shocked, SHOCKED at such abuses of language. Are they productive members of society? don’t get me started…
…Word of the day, sensitive…
Which end?
Way too many ‘sissies’ out there. Whatever happened to the old saying: Sticks and Stones will break my bones; but words will never hurt me?
If you don’t like what you are; change it…we used to have a ‘gay’ old time; now we have a happy time because we aren’t gay? what is wrong with this ‘world’ picture?
Sensitive? Just certain; one;s; are for sure!
I can be called a ‘cracker’ or ‘dumb Frenchmen’ but if I was to say ‘dumb Nigeria’ I would be in jail…way too’ Sensitive’ society out there just waiting for a chance to sue!
All I can say is: if you don’t like it/me, lump it!
I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t go to jail. Nice thoughts though. I always liked a little salt on my cracker.
You are correct……
If this was an offensive comment perhaps SNL has taken it to far also ! See the episode from this past Saturday !
It’s just another stupid ball game.
I wondered over why a White Jewish liberal(?) would have been so hypersensitive as to pluck out ‘chink’ in a common metaphor and turn it into a racist attack on a popular basketball player of Asian ancestry?
As S.N.L. spoofed this weekend, it’s usually Black athletes who slur Asian athletes; all the while being hyper sensitive to perceived racial slights from Whites.
So what does this White commentator have to gain? publicity? Power to make ESPN fire the White commentator—I watched the video twice and didn’t see a bit of a facial gesture or vocal change on the word ‘chink’.
All it does is keep racism and political correct speech alive, and further differentiates racial and cultural differences.
PC gone amok give me a break his wife is asian for crying out loud !!
I suppose if the same employee had made some remark about a few white players and the term “cracker jack” was used used, as in; “There’s no cracker-jack prize for 2nd place”, or maybe if the term “gone crackers” was used, that he still would have been fired right? WRONG! Society has accepted that whites are either incapable of being discriminated against, or should simply ignore it when it happens. But use a common idiom when describing a weakness that has nothing to do with race…. and you’re gone. This isn’t nearly as bad as Howard Cosell’s “little monkey” comment during a Monday night football game, and that comment wasn’t even really bad at all. This is ludicrous.
Oh right, whites are soooooo victimized.
It’s not who is victimized more, it is the principal behind deciding who is and who is not, and to what degree each race should consider in determining this. By perpetuating the myth that minorities are constantly and incessantly beset by discrimination at every turn in their lives, the liberals have managed to instill a sense of entitlement amongst many minorities(particularly African-Americans) leaving them to think that voting for democrats is their only avenue for seeking out the compensation that they “deserve”. This is what makes liberals / democrats racist (far more than the assumed level of conservatives); liberals take advantage of stereotype and fear. Indeed, many minorities discriminate against each other more than non-minorities for this very reason (an issue never reported on). This whole media issue with Lin and what happened at ESPN is just a result of that societal issue which has been created / enabled by the entitlists, reparation-seekers, and their all too willing democrat friends. It’s stuff like this that leads to having a Martin Luther King jr day, which is ok until you stop and think about the fact that MLK was in fact a plagiarizing, adulterous, communist-sympathizer (all on record), and also all the far more important and relevant national heroes who do not have their own day. They should just call it civil rights day, not MLK day. If Elizabeth Cady-Stanton were assassinated would she have a holiday… I don’t think so, she was white, but probably more important than MLK. …Let that sink in, I know it’s unfathomable for some.
You’re rant is irrelevant. You have the right to say whatever you want, even derogatory things about the minorities you clearly hate and who have been systematically oppressed. Do that all you want. But guess what, expect consequences.
You want to talk about entitlement? What a joke. You yourself think you’re entitled to make bigoted statements without consequences. Go ahead, but again, deal with the consequences.
Love how the same people who get in a tizzy over “happy holidays” (calling it a “war on Christmas”) are the same ones that screech about over-sensitivity and things being too “politically correct.” Ironic, isn’t it?
But guess what, ESPN is a business and they rely on consumers. So if people are upset that a writer throws up a racially insensitive headline, ESPN had better take it down and deal with its author, otherwise consumers are just going to go elsewhere for their sports related updates. Or, feel to make all the bigoted statements you want, but be prepared for the consequences. Your call.
Thin skinned tyrants. This reminds me of Squaw Mountain in Maine which had no negative problem until the PC people came in and declared war on the first amendment.
Wasn’t there a movement afoot (as a result of this) to rename the mountain “Politically Correct Mountain”? I heard that went over like a lead balloon. One thing these PC morons do NOT have is any form of a sense of humor.
They are commies
This is a poor reaction by ESPN and by anyone offended by this. The intent of the word was not to use it as a slur. Are you no longer aloud to use the word black, yellow, red, slant, lazy, stupid, etc in a story that might include a minority for which that word might be offensive?